Some Had Likewise A Striped Cloth, With Various Red Chequers,
Which Were The Marks Of The Divisions Under Different Commanders.
At
the head there was a tall pillar of carved-work, on the top of which
stood the figure of a man, or rather of an urchin, whose face was
commonly shaded by a board like a bonnet, and sometimes painted red
with ochre.
These pillars were generally covered with branches of
black feathers, and long streamers of feathers hung from them. The
gunwale of the canoes was commonly two or three feet above the water,
but not always formed in the same manner; for some had flat bottoms,
and sides nearly perpendicular upon them, whilst others were bow-
sided, with a sharp keel. A fighting stage was erected towards the
head of the boat, and rested on pillars from four to six feet high,
generally ornamented with carving. This stage extended beyond the
whole breadth of the double canoe, and was from twenty to twenty-four
feet long, and about eight or ten feet wide. The rowers sat in the
canoe, or under the fighting-stage on the platform, which consisted of
the transverse beams and longitudinal spars; so that wherever these
crossed, there was room for one man in the compartment. The warriors
were stationed on the fighting-stage to the number of fifteen or
twenty. Their dress was the most singular, and at the same time the
most shewy, in the whole fleet. They had three large and ample pieces
of cloth with a hole in the middle, put one above another.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 543 of 885
Words from 146742 to 147006
of 239428
