Valaška
The valaška is the small axe of the Carpathian shepherds, a light iron head set on a long wooden haft that reaches the waist, serving at once as walking staff, digging tool and weapon. Slovak bača shepherds and hikers of the High Tatras carry the valaška through the mountains, and its handle is often ornamented with engraved patterns or metal mountings that mark the maker and the owner. Folk legend places the valaška in the hand of Juraj Jánošík, the eighteenth-century outlaw of the Tatra country who is said to have robbed the nobles and shared the booty with the poor, and the axe became an at