In duplicating a design, the Malecite apparently used a pattern, or stencil, which was preserved to allow duplication over a long period of time. The stencil was usually cut from birch bark, apparently an old practice, although whether it was done in prehistoric times cannot be determined. The long contact of the Malecites with Europeans is a factor to be considered in such matters. This is sometimes shown in picture-writing on a canoe; one, for instance, showed a white man fishing with rod and line from a canoe with an Indian guide. On the opposite side was the representation of an Indian camp beside two trees, a kettle over the fire and the brave sitting cross-legged smoking his pipe, indicating, of course, "comfort and contentment." Asking old Indians to identify or give the names of decorations, Adney recorded statements which indicate their thought in regard to such matters. There were used, for example, two forms of the half-moon or crescent; one was quite open at the points which plainly indicated a half-moon, but the other was more nearly closed: [Illustration] Mrs. Billy Ellis, widow of Frank Francis, a Malecite, said of them, "Old Indian earrings, that is only what I can call them. Also in nose. Wild Indian made them of silver or moose-bone, I guess he thought he looked nice; it looked like the devil." Joe Ellis, an old canoe builder, also called this form "earrings" and when asked why an Indian would put these on a canoe, replied "He will think what he will put on here. He might have seen his wife at bow of canoe, and put it on [there]." Shown the right-triangle-in-series design, Mrs. Ellis said "I fergit it but I will remember; what you lift with your hand, we call it that--camp door" (referring to the cloth or hide hung over a camp door, and raised at one corner to enter, so that the opening is then divided diagonally).