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of the man, handle on the right, held in place by a long cloth belt
a symbolic act occasionally seen at a wedding involves the husband to be piercing a small plaque, placed amid offerings, with his kris; this is arranged to cause red brem, rice wine, to spill out
tho Balinese never say kris a phallic symbol, many comments in literature on the kris that it is ((Sukuh lingam))
in authors barong group, a dozen or more people go into trance at every performance and stab themselves with kris
the barong dance attendants, the sekan barong, also were kris in their belts
the kris used in trances are plan, usually with a thick blade with a reinforcing rib down its length
the trance dancers, called babuten, try at first to defend the Barong by attacking Rangda; when this fails because Rangda is so powerful and remains unscathed, they turn the kris on themselves; go back in the temple and spend a half hour or so in a frenzy of self-stabbing
usually no wounds, but if there is one, attributed to a violation by the babuten of one of the various taboos he should observe wounds treated by the pemangku (?) with holy water, sandlewood power, etc. and said to heal completely in a couple of days

for visitors interested in buying a kris, Eiseman recommends I Wayan Rutig (see my field notes, 1988, for an interview), who lives in Banjar Jeleka in the village of Batuan
His card states that he is a "Tukang Sarung Kris Pusaka, Special Kris Antik"
Eiseman says he is a good kris dealer ((!))

from Chap. 3 on Caste and Clan (pp. 25-37):
Bali has four castes...partly overlapping these is the clan system
caste in India (varna = warna in Indon. = color) dates from Vedic times (2nd millennium BC) and is thus pre-Hindu
1st mentioned in Rig-Veda
four varna not at 1st ranked
came to be ranked in Hindu period
Brahmanas did not win out over Krishna in Mahabharata (appr. 200 BC) when he reveals himself as Vishnu
by coming of British to India in 1690, were hundreds of endogamous sub-castes, including smiths
'caste' actually a Portugese word
Balinese word for clan (from Sanskr.) is warga
largest and most imp. is Warga Pasek, to which about 60% of people belong
"How vital in the life of an average Balinese is his membership in one or another of the dozens of Pasek groups? Not very...
The cohesion of the much smaller Pande clan seems to be considerably greater. They too have a central organization: Maha Semaya Warge Pande. Since earliest of times there has been in the popular mind something magical about metal and those who are skilled in


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