Paddle One's Own Canoe
     The settlers of the New World borrowed many  new  words  from  the
 Indians. Some words sounded as soft as the Spanish moss that grows  in
 the south land, Shenadoah, Missouri, Apus and Swash. Other words  were
 as open and rich as the fertile plains of Midwest, Wankegan, Menominee
 and Mackinaw. These old Indian words are  still  part  of  English  in
 America. But there is another word, and an expression that  grew  from
 it has spread to  other  countries.   The  word  is  canoe,   and  the
 expression is paddle one's own canoe.
     There is something about a canoe that suggests  speed  and  skill.
 Father Hennepin, the Catholic priest who came to America with La Salle
, the French explorer, wrote this about the canoe in the year 1683: "Le
 Sieur de La Salle has trained his men so well to manage canoes in  the
 most frightening waters, that they are now the most skillful canoe-men
. many Indians manage their canoes, the early settlers did though. Many
 times during the darks of night, Indian warriors moved silently across
 the waters to attack settler  villages.   These  early  settlers  soon
 learned the skill of making canoes, and of managing them,   too.   The
 bark of the birch tree, knife, needle and some glue were all that  was
 needed to cover a frame of willow branches. The pointed edges  of  the
 canoes were sewn together with animal gut. Such a  feather- like  boat
 could be easily carried by one man to and from his village.
     In fact, La Salle and his men  often  put  their  goods  in  their
 canoes and carried both over land as they searched for the  next  body
 of water to explore. This carrying of canoe and goods  over  the  land
 was described by the word "portage",   a  word  borrowed  from  Middle
 English. One does nt see birch bark canoes any more. Most are made  of
 plastic aluminum. But they are still speedy, and great  skills  needed
 to move them on the water without turning over.  Perhaps  it  is  this
 skill that gave birth to the expression paddle  one's  own  canoe.   A
 person who is said to do this is one who succeeds in life without  any
 help from others. He is a self-made man. Much has been  written  about
 the canoe. Songs have been sung about it. There is one song written in
 the 1800's that makes one think of long ago, a lonely Indian  paddling
 his canoe silently along Sunlake, looking perhaps for fish, or  for  a
 place to stay in the night, "My wants are small. I care not at all  if
 my debts are paid when due. I have no strength in my way of  life.   I
 paddle my own canoe."		    

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