{
 "schema": 1,
 "id": "au",
 "type": "tool",
 "names": {
  "name": "Au",
  "local": "'au",
  "local_lang": "Samoan",
  "aliases": [
   "au sogi'aso",
   "sausau"
  ],
  "said": "A comb of bone or turtle shell, and the mallet that strikes it"
 },
 "region": [
  "oceania"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "family": "tap"
 },
 "instrument": {
  "material": [
   "bone",
   "turtle shell",
   "wood"
  ],
  "points": "a row of teeth, from a few to several dozen, in a set of combs of different widths",
  "worked": "tapped",
  "hands": 3,
  "held_by": "the tufuga holds the comb and the sausau; two assistants stretch the skin"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "A set of combs — wide ones for filling, narrow ones for line — each hafted at a right angle and struck with a light mallet.",
  "story": "The set is the point. A *tufuga* carries combs of several widths, the way a printer carries type sizes, and the *pe'a*'s solid bands come from the wide ones. The mallet is called the *sausau*. Two assistants, the *'au toso*, stretch the skin and wipe.\n\nThe tools were made of bone, turtle shell and wood; the titles that go with them are hereditary in two families."
 },
 "text_th": {
  "what": "ชุดหวีเข็ม หวีกว้างไว้ถม หวีแคบไว้ตีเส้น ติดตั้งฉากกับด้ามแล้วตอกด้วยค้อนเบา"
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "tatau",
   "as": "What it makes.",
   "rel": "tradition"
  },
  {
   "to": "tap",
   "as": "The method.",
   "rel": "method"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-pe-a"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "cited",
   "source": "s:wp-pe-a"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text_th": {
    "tier": "inference",
    "note": "written in Thai by this project, not machine-translated"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "high",
 "updated": "2026-09-19",
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "tatau",
   "type": "tradition",
   "name": "Tatau",
   "as": "The comb."
  }
 ]
}