| a close-up
of my personal Nine Point Rake. First of all, there are five
tines parallel to the handle and four tines perpendicular to the
handle. Second, as you can hardly fail to notice, the five tines
are not simple tines nor even identical. I am informed that the
central tine is supposed to be the pear or gourd of necromancy,
the inner pair of tines are supposed to represent boar's tusks
and the outer pair of tines are supposed to represent pigs'
tails. I would think these more suitable as a prop used by the
Beijing Opera as opposed to a practical farming implement.
Third, would
any readers know the name of the small (3.5 inches in diameter)
cymbal like device pointed to by the yellow arrow on the image? |
