History, Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the Neighbouring States.

N’mítzi, _I eat_. N’gáuwi, _I drink_. N’wachpácheli, _I awake_. N’ménne, _I drink_. N’papommíssi, _I walk_. N’gagelícksi, _I laugh_. N’mamentschi, _I rejoice_. N’dáschwil, _I sw...

The Lenni Lenape (according to the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago, in a very distant country in the western part of the Americ...

If lions had painters! This proverbial saying applies with equal force to the American Indians. They have no historians among them, no books, no newspapers, no convenient means...

The reader of the following pages, having already seen what has induced me to come forward with an historical account of the Indians, after so many have written on the same subj...

Those who believe that no faith is to be placed in the friendship of an Indian are egregiously mistaken, and know very little of the true character of those men of nature. They...

There was a time when the preachers and prophets of the Indians, by properly exerting the unbounded influence which the popular superstitions gave them, might have excited among...

Nothing is so common as the indiscriminate charge laid upon travellers of relating strange and wonderful things for the mere purpose of exciting admiration and raising themselve...

After the murder of the Conestogo Indians, the Lenni Lenape thought proper, for their safety, to withdraw altogether from the interior of the white settlements, into the wilds o...

There are many persons who believe, from the labour that they see the Indian women perform, that they are in a manner treated as slaves. These labours, indeed, are hard, compare...

I believe that no sufficiently detailed account has yet been given of the manner in which the North American Indians conduct the funerals of their dead. Captain Carver tells us...

The principal food of the Indians consists of the game which they take or kill in the woods, the fish out of the waters, and the maize, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes, cucu...

In all the North American territories bounded to the north and east by the Atlantic ocean, and to the south and west by the river Mississippi, and the possessions of the English...

The Indian considers himself as a being created by an all-powerful, wise, and benevolent Mannitto;[114] all that he possesses, all that he enjoys, he looks upon as given to him...

I call these men _Doctors_, because it is the name given them by their countrymen who have borrowed it from our language,[196] and they are themselves very fond of this pompous...

The Indians consider the earth as their universal mother. They believe that they were created within its bosom, where for a long time they had their abode, before they came to l...

In treating of this subject, I cannot resist the impression of a melancholy feeling, arising from the comparison which forces itself upon my mind of what the Indians were before...

I hope I shall be excused for bringing here together into one view a few observations and anecdotes which either could not well find their places under any of the preceding divi...

DEAR SIR.--I have read with the greatest pleasure your two interesting letters of the 12th and 15th. I need not tell you how pleased the Historical Committee are with your corre...

The dances of the Indians vary according to the purposes for which they are intended. We have seen, in the second chapter of this work, that when the Dutch first landed on New Y...

The Indians believe that the Whites were made by the same Great Spirit who created them, and that he assigned to each different race of men a particular employment in this world...

In ancient times, the dress of the Indians was made of the skins of animals and feathers. This clothing, they say, was not only warmer, but lasted much longer than any woollen g...

There is no nation in the world who pay greater respect to old age than the American Indians. From their infancy they are taught to be kind and attentive to aged persons, and ne...

DEAR SIR.--I thank you for your two favours of the 26th and 27th inst. I am very much pleased to find from the valuable extract of Mr. Dencke’s letter, which you have had the go...

Although the Indians have no code of laws for their government, their chiefs find little or no difficulty in governing them. They are supported by able experienced counsellors;...

DEAR SIR.--I have received with the greatest pleasure your two favours of the 24th and 26th inst.; the last, particularly, has opened to me a very wide field for reflection. I a...

Scalping is a practice which the Indians say has obtained with their nations for ages. I need not describe the manner in which the operation is performed, it has been sufficient...

DEAR SIR.--Your favour of the 27th ult. has done me the greatest pleasure. I am very thankful for the goodness you have had to answer the questions which I took the liberty of p...

It may justly be a subject of wonder, how a nation without a written code of laws or system of jurisprudence, without any form or constitution of government, and without even a...

The name of TAMANEND is held in the highest veneration among the Indians. Of all the chiefs and great men which the Lenape nation ever had, he stands foremost on the list. But a...

Great and powerful as the Indian conceives himself to be, firm and undaunted as he really is, braving all seasons and weathers, careless of dangers, patient of hunger, thirst an...

Long and dismal are the complaints which the Indians make of European ingratitude and injustice. They love to repeat them, and always do it with the eloquence of nature, aided b...

The Indians are proud but not vain; they consider vanity as degrading and unworthy the character of a man. The hunter never boasts of his skill or strength, nor the warrior of h...

It is a striking fact, that the Indians, in their uncivilised state, should so behave towards each other as though they were a civilised people! I have in numerous instances wit...

The Lenni Lenape claim the honour of having received and welcomed the Europeans on their first arrival in the country, situated between New England and Virginia. It is probable,...

The eloquence of the Indians is natural and simple; they speak what their feelings dictate without art and without rule; their speeches are forcible and impressive, their argume...

It has been asserted by many persons that the languages of the Indians are deficient in words, and that, in order to make themselves understood, they are obliged to resort to mo...

Courage, art, and circumspection are the essential and indispensable qualifications of an Indian warrior. When war is once begun, each one strives to excel in displaying them, b...

DEAR SIR.--I have duly received your two letters of the 31st of July and 3d of August last. I am much pleased with your metaphysical disquisitions, as you call them, and I beg y...

The most intelligent and credible Indians of the Lenape stock, including the Mohicans, have ever asserted, that in the whole country bounded on the north by the river St. Lawren...

In the management of their national affairs, the Indians display as much skill and dexterity, perhaps, as any people upon earth. When a political message is sent to them from a...

DEAR SIR.--Your letter of the 21st inst. has done me the greatest pleasure. I see that you enter the spirit of our Indian languages, and that your mind is struck with the beauty...

While the American Indians remained in the free and undisturbed possession of the land which God gave to them, and even for a long time after the Europeans had settled themselve...

The Indians do not reckon as we do, by days, but by nights. They say: “It is so many nights’ travelling to such a place;” “I shall return home in so many nights,” &c. Sometimes...

Insanity is not common among the Indians; yet I have known several who were afflicted with mental derangement. Men in this situation are always considered as objects of pity. Ev...

DEAR SIR.--Various professional avocations have prevented me from answering sooner your kind letter of the 5th ult. I thank you for the Delaware translation of the Lord’s prayer...

The proper names of Indians are in general given to them after animals of various kinds, and even fishes and reptiles. Thus they are called the _Beaver_, _Otter_, _Sun-fish_, _B...

The Indians are in general a strong race of men. It is very common to see a hunter come in with a whole deer on his back, fastened with a _Happis_, a kind of band with which the...

The Indians are fond of metaphors. They are to their discourse what feathers and beads are to their persons, a gaudy but tasteless ornament. Yet we must not judge them too sever...

I do not know how to give a better name to a superstitious practice which is very common among the Indians, and, indeed, is universal among those nations that I have become acqu...

DEAR SIR.--I have received your kind letters of the 20th and 24th ult. It is impossible to be more clear, precise, and accurate, than you are in your answers to my various quest...

The _Materia Medica_ of the Indians consists of various roots and plants known to themselves, the properties of which they are not fond of disclosing to strangers. They make con...

3. The names of other animals, have in the same manner regular terminations, _ap_, or _ape_, for walking in an erect posture; hence _lenape_, man; _chum_, for four-legged animal...

DEAR SIR.--Your favors of the 10th and 13th inst. have been duly received. I shall now endeavour to answer the first. The second shall in a few days be attended to.

DEAR SIR.--I have received your favour of the 30th ult. I answer it first at the end, and begin with your etymology of the word _Canada_. In looking over some of Mr. Zeisberger’...

DEAR SIR.--I have now to answer your question on the subject of the Delaware verb, _n’dellauchsi_, which Zeisberger translates by “I live, or move about,” or “I so live that I m...

DEAR SIR.--I now return to my proper station of a scholar asking questions of his master. In your letter of the 24th ult., you have fully satisfied me that the Indians have a gr...

DEAR SIR.--I received at the same time your two letters of the 13th and 18th inst., the last by our friend Dr. Wistar. I think you are wrong to complain of the little importance...

DEAR SIR.--I was this morning favoured with a letter from my friend Dr. Wistar, inclosing some questions which you wish me to answer. I lose no time in complying with your desire.

By these names I mean to distinguish the good and honest practitioners who are in the habit of curing and healing diseases and wounds, by the simple application of natural remed...

It is a fixed principle with the Indians, that evil cannot come out of good, that no friend will injure a friend, and, therefore, that whoever wrongs or does harm to another, is...

MY DEAR SIR.--Last evening I was favoured with a letter from you, covering one from the corresponding secretary of the Historical Committee of the American Philosophical Society...

In early times, when Indian nations, after long and bloody wars, met together, for the purpose of adjusting their differences, or concluding a peace with each other, it was thei...

DEAR SIR.--I promised you in one of my former letters that I would write to a gentleman well acquainted with the Chippeway language, to ascertain whether it is true, as Professo...

DEAR SIR.--I have hesitated whether I should answer your favour of the 1st inst., being very soon to set out for Philadelphia, where I shall be able to explain to you verbally e...

MY DEAR SIR.--Inclosed is a letter from the corresponding secretary of the Historical Committee of our Society, which will inform you of our wishes to preserve from oblivion, an...

The following Correspondence between Mr. Heckewelder and Peter S. Du Ponceau, Esq., Corresponding Secretary of the Historical and Literary Committee of the American Philosophica...

MY DEAR FRIEND.--I am much obliged by your kind letters, which are very interesting, and will, I hope, obtain from[274] us some of the valuable information which has been left u...

DEAR SIR.--In your letter of the 27th of May you have said that you believed the Delaware nation were those whom the Baron La Hontan meant to designate by the name of _Algonkins...

DEAR SIR.--I take the liberty of submitting to you a few questions, which have occurred to me in perusing Mr. Zeisberger’s Grammar. I beg you will be so good as to answer them a...

SIR.--As corresponding secretary to the Historical Committee of the American Philosophical Society, it is my duty to solicit the aid of men of learning and information, by the h...

1. The double consonants are used in writing the words of the Delaware language, for the sole purpose of indicating that the vowel which immediately precedes them is short, as i...

MY DEAR FRIEND.--With Captain Mann, of your city, I send David Zeisberger’s Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape, (otherwise called the Delaware Indians.) As the book is...

(NOTE.--In annotating this work, the editor consulted, among other authorities, _The Life of John Heckewelder, by the Rev. Edward Rondthaler_, _Heckewelder’s Narrative of the Mi...

2. I find in Zeisberger’s Vocabulary, page 11, that _Gischuch_ means the _sun_. In the Grammar, I see that the Delawares divide their year by moons, and call them _anixi gischuc...