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xvi.]
Canoes.
295
feet long by six feet wide, and the stem and stern turned up to the height of fifteen feet[1]. These canoes are all constructed of planks adzed out so as to leave cleats by which they are lashed to curved rib-pieces of mangrove wood, which give the necessary stiffness to the vessel; the edges of the planks being sewn together with sinnet, and the seam
Spear-rest in Florida Canoe.
covered with cement. In a war canoe a rest for spears and other weapons is set up amidships[2], and various tindalo
- ↑ Every kind of canoe has its own name; as in Florida, where the general name is tiola, the peko is the war canoe, with stem and stern running up to high flat ends, and long in proportion to its breadth; mbinambina, with stern turned up as in a peko, but with the head straight, with a guard of planks against the wash of the waves, and broader than a peko in proportion to its length; tola, with both ends turned up not very high; roko, with ends not turned up at all.
- ↑ In Mr. Brenchley's 'Cruise of the Curaçoa' is reproduced a native picture of a canoe from Ugi, now at Maidstone, in which the spears are seen in their rest; upon them is a bent bow set up upon its back, which is described as a bowl for propitiatory libations. Though the explanation is incorrect in this particular, sacrifices are commonly offered in canoes. The woodcut above shows
