Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 11, 2025
At first the voyagers paddled over the glassy sea in almost total silence. Nigel was occupied with his own busy thoughts; speculating on the probable end and object of their voyage, and on the character, the mysterious life, and unknown history of the man who sat in front of him wielding so powerfully the great double-bladed paddle.
By his side lay a long hunting spear, and a double-bladed paddle, fully fifteen feet long; which latter belonged to a kayak, or Esquimau canoe, that lay on the sand close to the water's edge. Sitting there, motionless as the rocks around him, the giant looked like a colossal statue of an Esquimau.
No waves can dash into, although they can sweep over it; and if by chance it should upset, the Eskimo can turn it and himself up into the proper position by one dexterous sweep of his long, double-bladed paddle. The paddle, which varies from ten to fifteen feet, is simply a pole with a blade at each end.
"Well, some of 'em were tortured in bamboo cages, he told me, and he said, too, that they made awful faces in their agony," Weeks continued, his face looking as if he enjoyed the reminiscence; "while the others, twenty in number, were all put up in a row kneeling on the ground, with their pigtails tied up over their heads so as to leave their necks bare, and the executioner who had a double-bladed sword like a butcher's cleaver, sliced off their heads as if they were so many carrots.
At first the voyagers paddled over the glassy sea in almost total silence. Nigel was occupied with his own busy thoughts; speculating on the probable end and object of their voyage, and on the character, the mysterious life, and unknown history of the man who sat in front of him wielding so powerfully the great double-bladed paddle.
All these things were fitted into their respective places with so keen an eye to economy of space that the arrangement cannot be better described than by the familiar phrase multum in parvo. "We don't use the sails much; we depend chiefly on this," said the hermit, as he seated himself in the front hole and laid the long, heavy, double-bladed paddle on the saddle in front of him.
But he was mistaken; we went a long way, after encountering many serious obstacles, as will be seen by-and-by. The chain being pulled in, the boat glided off like the willow-leaf to which I have already compared it. I sat on my piece of sliding board about the middle, and Hugh sat on his piece of wood which was the top of the locker in the stern. We both used long double-bladed paddles.
The Schliemann museum possesses numerous battle-axes of bronze, some double-bladed daggers with crooked ends, lances similar to those discovered at Koban, and thousands of spits, some with spherically shaped heads, others of spiral form. Some of these spits are made of copper, as are some large nails weighing thirty ounces, so that this metal was evidently still often used in a pure state.
Here, you observe, is a pair o' pants that won't let in water. At the feet you'll notice two flaps which expand when driven backward, and collapse when moved forward. These are propellers human web-feet to enable me to walk ahead, d'ye see? and here are two small paddles with a joint which I can fix together so and thus make one double-bladed paddle of 'em, about four feet long.
The South Sea islanders also use a canoe which they propel with a double-bladed paddle similar to that of the Eskimos. They are wonderfully expert and fearless in the management of this canoe, as may be seen from the annexed woodcut.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking