Post #616015 by Babalu on Fri, Dec 2, 2011 1:07 PM

Hey Swank,

I have more info on this back at the shop...will post more later on

I know that the hornbills are symbolic of head hunting: If I remember correctly...the native peoples in NG believed that humans were begat from trees. When they witnessed the hornbills eating the fruit off of the trees, they assumed....

The mask, or face is symbolic of an actual person. Drums and shields were/are very sacred. The spirit of a deceased loved one possesses the drum or the shield. It is said, that at times, a warrior would lay down his weapons and surrender to his opponent (knowing of the certain death outcome of such an act) just because he felt out numbered, or scared of the spirit that possessed a shield.

The swirl patterns also mean something...I'll have to look at my notes later for that one...the zig-jag patterns mean something too.

The drum skins are usually made from lizard skin. They use human blood mixed with ? (can't remember) as a binder to attach the skin to the wooden drum before binding.

All of this was major candy for me in moving forward to make those drum mugs a while back.