Men sometimes said a refrain as they knapped; women were not recorded as ever doing so. They said it to promote clean, sharp edged fractures. It was not a namonk ritual spell (Sillitoe 2002b) thought to be supernaturally efficacious, more an expression of what they wished. One such refrain is as follows:
This refrain was followed by a whistle made by drawing in breath, called uwt kay in Wola. The two rivers mentioned, the Uwt and Nemb, were good raw material sources.
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Last updated: Wed Oct 8 2003