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Malecite 2!.2-Fathom River Canoe, igxH Century. Old form with raking 

 ends and much sheer. 



P'roni the early English and French accounts, it is 

 evident that none of the maritime Indians used very 

 large or long war canoes, capable of holding many 

 men. The old war canoes of the Malecite appear to 

 have been either of the coastal or river types as the 

 circumstances of their place of building and use 

 dictated. The slight information available in these 

 accounts suggests that the war canoe did not differ in 

 appearance from the other types of Malecite canoes, 

 and that they were not of greater size. The Malecite 

 appear to have followed the same practices as the 

 Micmac, using for war purposes canoes of standard 

 size and appearance but narrower and built for speed, 

 since a war party sought to travel rapidly to and 

 from its objective in order to surprise the enemy and 

 escape before organized pursuit could be formed. 

 The Malecite placed four warriors in each canoe, 

 two to paddle and two to watch and use weapons 

 while afloat. However, only on rare occasions were 

 bows and arrows used from canoes afloat; most 

 fighting was done on land. Each canoe carried the 

 personal mark of each of the four warriors, apparently 

 one mark on each flap, or wulegessis, under the gun- 



wales near the ends. When a war leader was carried 

 however, only his mark was on his canoe. After a 

 successful raid, the Malecite used to race for the last 

 mile or so of the return journey, and the winning 

 canoe was given, as a distinction, some mark or 

 picture, often something humorous such as a carica- 

 ture of an animal. This practice, however, was not 

 confined to war canoes; in rather recent times it has 

 been noted that such pictures were placed on any 

 canoe that had shown outstanding qualities in racing 

 competition or in exhibitions of skill. 



When making long canoe trips, the Malecite 

 followed the widespread Indian practice of using the 

 canoe as a shelter at night. When a camping place 

 was reached, the canoe was unloaded, carried ashore, 

 and turned upside down so that the tops of the ends 

 and one gunwale rested on the ground. If the ends 

 were high enough, as in the old Malecite type, one 

 gunwale was raised ofT the ground far enough to 

 permit a man to crawl under. If, as in the Micmac 

 canoes, the ends were too low to allow this, they 

 were raised off the ground by short forked sticks, 

 with the forks resting against the end thwarts and 



71 



