End Decorations, Passamacjuoddy Canoe built by Tomali Joseph. 



rectangular. A common form was one representing 

 the profile of a canoe. Being of winter bark, it was 

 red or brown, with the part where the design was 

 scraped showing white or yellow. The center panel 

 was also of winter bark, and the design on it showed 

 a similar contrast in color. Even when the bark cover 

 was not pieced out, the panel was formed by scraping 

 all the cover except a panel amidships on each side. 

 Old models indicate that the early Malecite canoes 

 may have used decoration all over above the water- 

 line (see p. 81) far more frequently than has been the 

 recent custom. The decorations were a fiddlehead 



design in a complicated sequence so that it bore a 

 faint resemblance to the hyanthus in a formal scroll, 

 but the design apparently had no ceremonial signifi- 

 cance; it was used for the same reason given Adney 

 for so many forms of bark decoration, "it looked nice." 

 The drawings and plans on pages 71 to 87 will 

 .serve better than words to show these characteristic 

 designs and decorations. It is doubtful that color, 

 paint or pigment, was used in decorating the Malecite 

 bark canoes before the coming of Europeans, but it 

 was employed occasionally in the last half of the 19th 

 century. The beauty of the Malecite canoe designs 



Passamaquoddy Decorated Canoe built by Tomah Joseph. 



87 



