lela

Lela or lila is a type of Malay cannon, used widely in the Nusantara archipelago. They are similar to a lantaka but longer and had larger bore. Lela can be configured as swivel gun, fixed gun, or mounted in a gun carriage. It is the equivalent of European falcon and falconet. Etymology The cannon was named after a heroine of the Malay classic romance story called "Laila Majnun". It seems that the adoption of the word stems from the name given to some particular piece. The customs of naming special cannon was not uncommon in Europe in the early days and also in Nusantara to the recent times. On Malay literature the name is usually coupled with rentaka, as "lela rentaka". It is also called as lilla by the Dutch and lelo in several parts of the archipelago. Description Usually lela are about long and made from brass or bronze. They are firing round shot with a range of over . Alternatively they can also be loaded with scattershots (grapeshot or case shot). Malay cannon usually fired stone balls made from boulders of riverbanks, and to lesser extent were cast metal balls from iron or brass. They used lead and tin slugs (called "dadu-dadu") at close quarters, and the case shot were made of stones in a rattan basket. Lela has a bore (caliber) of between . Some big lela are double barreled and sometimes one or more miniature meriam kecil were cast on top of their barrel for use if the enemy charged before the gun could be reloaded. Lela rambang or jala rambang is a type of lela, made from brass, with blunderbuss (flared) muzzle which fired slugs or stones. They are also called lela mulut katak (frog-mouthed lela).