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Malecite Canoe Details, Gear, and Gunwale Decorations. 



wooden sheathing, outside the bottom, to protect the 

 baric from rocks and snags or floating ice that might 

 be met in rapids and small streams. The fitting was 

 used also by the Micmac and Ojibway; it is not known 

 whether this was an Indian or European invention. 

 The French canoemen called it hane (Tahordage and 

 the Malecite, P's-la' k'n; the English woodsmen 

 called the fitting "canoe shoes." 



The Malecite paddle was of various forms, as illus- 

 trated in figures 71 and 72, the predominant form 

 being very similar to the paddle now used with canvas 

 "Indian" canoes. The total length of the blade was 

 usually about 28 to 30 inches; at 10 or 11 inches from 

 the tip it was about 2}^ inches wide. The handle was 

 about 36 inches long. At just above the blade it 

 was \}i inches wide and 1 inch thick. The handle 

 was not parallel-sided. Near the top it widened grad- 

 ually to about 2}i inches at 2]{ inches from the top; 

 here the cross-grip was formed. The thickness of the 

 handle reduced gradually from that given for just 

 above the top of the blade to about }^ inch at about 

 5 inches below the cross-grip, and widened again to % 



inch at the point where the cross-grip was formed. 

 The blade was ridged down its center. The lower 

 end was rounded and the lower half of the blade was 

 approximately half an ellipse in shape. The Passa- 

 maquoddy blade had its wide point within 7 inches of 

 the lower tip, where it was about 6 inches wide. The 

 handle was about \)i inches in diameter just above 

 the blade, and then tapered in thickness until it first 

 became oval and then flat in cross section. The 

 width remained nearly constant to a point within 12 

 to 16 inches of the cross-grip, then gradually widened 

 to nearly 3 inches at the top. The blade was 33 to 

 36 inches long and the whole paddle somewhere 

 between 73 and 76 inches long. The cross-grips were 

 sometimes round, at other times they were merely 

 worked off" in an oval shape to fit the upper hand. 

 The usual width of the cross-grip was just under 3 

 inches. 



Formerly, the Malecite placed his personal mark, or 

 dupskodegun, on the flat of the top of his paddle near 

 the cross-grip. The mark was incised into the wood 

 and the incised line was filled with red or black pig- 



