KRIS or Karis. MALAY. A dagger or poniard, the ordinary weapon of all the civilised inhabit ants of the Archipelago. It is of a hundred different forms, short or long, with a straight or serpentine blade, and with every variety in the shape and ornament of the hilt and scabbard. Men of all ranks, from the peasant to the prince, wear this weapon, and those of rank, when full dressed, two or even four. In Java, even women of rank sometimes wear a small one. The word is probably Malay, but is now of general adoption through the Archipelago. The Javanese have three native names for it besides the Malay one. It is represented on several of the ancient temples of Java. This dagger is in use in all the Indian islands, though ill suited as a weapon of war. The Javanese ascribe its invention to Inakarto Pati, king of Janggolo, in the beginning of the 14th century of our era. Constant use of it gives
a facility in handling it. Those of the Eastern Archipelago get their names according to their form or uses ; thus, Kris panjang (long), Kris sepucal (straight), Kris chivankas, Kris tumbu Ladah, Kris bladohe, Kris badeh. The kris is used for all purposes, in Bali even to kill the wife who wishes to be burned with her husband. It is always a near relation who gives the first wound with the kris, but never father or sou. Sometimes dreadful spectacles occur. In one instance a woman had received eight kris stabs, and was yet quite sensible. At last she screamed out, driven by the dreadful pain, ' Cruel wretches, are you not able to give me a stab that will kill me ! ' A gusti who stood behind her, on this pierced her through and through with his kris.— Crawfurd's Diet. p. 202 ; Ind. Arch. i.