CHAPTER III

THE LENAPE OR DELAWARES.

Derivation of the Name Lenape.--The Three Sub-Tribes the Minsi or Wolf, the Unami or Turtle, and the Unalachtgo or Turkey Tribes--Their Totems--The New Jersey Tribes the Wapings, Sanhicans and Mantas--Political Constitution of the Lenape--Vegetable Food Resources--Domestic Architecture--Manufactures.--Paints and Dyes.-- Dogs--Interments--Computation of Time--Picture Writing--Record Sticks-- Moral and Mental Character--Religious Belief.--Doctrine of the Soul.-- The Native Priests.--Religious Ceremonies.

_Derivation of Lenni Lenape_.

The proper name of the Delaware Indians was and is _Lenapé_, (a as in father, é as a in mate). Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull[48] is quite wide of the mark both in calling this a "misnomer," and in attributing its introduction to Mr. Heckewelder.

Long before that worthy missionary was born, the name was in use in the official documents of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the synonym in the native tongue for the Delaware Indians,[49] and it is still retained by their remnant in Kansas as the proper term to designate their collective nation, embracing its sub-tribes.[50]

The derivation of _Lenape_ has been discussed with no little learning, as well as the adjective _lenni_, which often precedes it (Lenni Lenape). Mr. Heckewelder stated that _lenni_ means "original, pure," and that _Lenape_ signifies "people."[51] Dr. Trumbull, in the course of a long examination of the words for "man" in the Algonkin dialects, reaches the conclusion that "Len-âpé" denotes "a common adult male," _i. e._, an Indian man; _lenno lenâpé_, an Indian of _our_ tribe or nation, and, consequently, _vir_, "a man of men."[52] He derives these two words from the roots _len_ (= _nen_), a pronominal possessive, and _ape_, an inseparable generic particle, "denoting an adult male."

I differ, with hesitation, from such an eminent authority; but this explanation does not, to my mind, give the precise meaning of the term. No doubt, both _lenno_, which in Delaware means _man_, and _len_, in Lenape, are from the pronominal radicle of the first person _né_, I, we, mine, our. As the native considered his tribe the oldest, as well as the most important of created beings, "ours" with him came to be synonymous with what was esteemed ancient, indigenous, primeval, as well as human, man-like, _par excellence_. "We" and "men" were to him the same. The initial _l_ is but a slight modification of the _n_ sound, and is given by Campanius as an _r_, "_rhenus_, homo."

_Lenape_, therefore, does not mean "a common adult male," but rather "a male of our kind," or "our men."[53]

The termination _apé_ is said by Heckewelder to convey the idea of "walking or being in an erect posture." A comparison of the various Algonkin dialects indicates that it was originally a locative, signifying staying in a place, abiding or sitting. Thus, in Cree, _apú_, he is there; in Chipeway, _abi_, he is at home; in Delaware, _n'dappin_, I am here. The transfer of this idea to the male sex is seen in the Cree, _ap_, to sit upon, to place oneself on top, _apa_, to cover (animate and active); Chipeway, _nabe_, the male of quadrupeds. Baraga says that for a Chipeway woman to call her husband _nin nabem_ (lit. my coverer, comp. French, _femme couverte_), is coarse.

_The Lenape Sub-Tribes._

The Lenape were divided into three sub-tribes:--

1. The Minsi, Monseys, Montheys, Munsees, or Minisinks.

2. The Unami, or Wonameys.

3. The Unalachtigo.

No explanation of these designations will be found in Heckewelder or the older writers. From investigations among living Delawares, carried out at my request by Mr. Horatio Hale, it is evident that they are wholly geographical, and refer to the locations of these sub-tribes on the Delaware river.

_Minsi_, properly _Minsiu_, and formerly _Minassiniu_, means "people of the stony country," or briefly, "mountaineers." It is a synthesis of _minthiu_, to be scattered, and _achsin_, stone, according to the best living native authorities.[54]

_Unami_, or _W'nãmiu_, means "people down the river," from _naheu_, down-stream.

_Unalachtigo_, properly _W'nalãchtko_, means "people who live near the ocean," from _wunalawat_, to go towards, and _t'kow_ or _t'kou_, wave.

Historically, such were the positions of these sub-tribes when they first came to the knowledge of Europeans.

The Minsi lived in the mountainous region at the head waters of the Delaware, above the Forks, or junction of the Lehigh river. One of their principal fires was on the Minisink plains, above the Water Gap, and another on the East Branch of the Delaware, which they called _Namaes Sipu_, Fish River. Their hunting grounds embraced lands now in the three colonies of Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey. The last mentioned extinguished their title in 1758, by the payment of one thousand pounds.

That, at any time, as Heckewelder asserts, their territory extended up the Hudson as far as tide-water, and westward "far beyond the Susquehannah," is surely incorrect. Only after the beginning of the eighteenth century, when they had been long subject to the Iroquois, have we any historic evidence that they had a settlement on the last named river.

The Unamis' territory on the right bank of the Delaware river extended from the Lehigh valley southward. It was with them and their southern neighbors, the Unalachtigos, that Penn dealt for the land ceded him in the Indian Deed of 1682. The Minsis did not take part in the transaction, and it was not until 1737 that the Colonial authorities treated directly with the latter for the cession of their territory.[55]

The Unalachtigo or Turkey totem had its principal seat on the affluents of the Delaware near where Wilmington now stands. About this point, Captain John Smith, on his map (1609,) locates the _Chikahokin_. In later writers this name is spelled _Chihohockies_, _Chiholacki_ and _Chikolacki_, and is stated by the historians Proud and Smith to be synonymous with Delawares.[56] The correct form is _Chikelaki_, from _chik'eno_, turkey, the modern form as given by Whipple,[57] and _aki_ land. The _n_, _l_ and _r_ were alternating letters in this dialect.

The population was, however, very sparse, owing to the predatory incursions of the Susquehannocks, whose trails, leading up the Octorara and Conestoga, and down the Christina and Brandywine Creeks, were followed by war parties annually, and desolated the west shores of the Bay and lower river. When, in 1634, Captain Thomas Young explored the river, the few natives he found on the west side told him (through the medium of his Algonkin Virginian interpreter) that the "Minquaos" had killed their people, burnt their villages, and destroyed their crops, so that "the Indians had wholly left that side of the river which was next their enemies, and had retired themselves on the other side farre up into the woods."[58]

North of the Chikelaki, Smith's map locates the _Macovks_. This name does not appear in later authors, but near that site were the _Okahoki_ band, who occupied the shores of Ridley and Crum creeks and the land between them. There they remained until 1703, when they were removed to a small reservation of 500 acres in what is now Willistown township, Chester county.[59]

_The Totemic Animals._

These three sub-tribes had each its totemic animal, from which it claimed a mystical descent. The Minsi had the Wolf, the Unami the Turtle, and the Unalachtigo the Turkey. The Unamis claimed and were conceded the precedence of the others, because their ancestor, the Turtle, was not the common animal, so-called, but the great original tortoise which bears the world on its back, and was the first of living beings, as I shall explain on a later page.

In referring to the totemic animals the common names were not used, but metaphorical expressions. Thus the Wolf was referred to as _Ptuksit_, Round Foot (_ptuk_, round, _sit_, foot, from the shape of its paws;) the turtle was _Pakoango_, the Crawler; and the turkey was _Pullaeu_, he does not chew,[60] referring to the bird's manner of swallowing food.

The signs of these animals were employed in their picture writing, painted on their houses or inscribed on rocks, to designate the respective sub-tribes. But only in the case of the Unamis was the whole animal represented. The Turkey tribe painted only one foot of their totemic bird, and the Minsi the extended foot of the wolf, though they sometimes added an outline of the rest of the animal.[61]

These three divisions of the Lenape were neither "gentes" nor "phratries," though Mr. Morgan has endeavored to force them into his system by stating that they were "of the nature of phratries."[62] Each was divided into twelve families bearing female names, and hence probably referring to some unexplained matriarchal system. They were, as I have called them, sub-tribes. In their own orations they referred to each other as "playmates." (Heckewelder.)

_The New Jersey Lenape._

The native name of New Jersey is given as Shã'akbee (English orthography: ã as in fate); or as the German missionaries wrote it, _Sche'jachbi_. It is a compound of _bi_, water, _aki_, land, and the adjective prefix _schey_, which means something long and narrow (_scheyek_, a string of wampum; _schajelinquall_, the edge of the eyes, the eyelids, etc.) This would be equivalent to "long-land water," and, according to the rules of Delaware grammar, which place the noun used in the genitive sense before the noun which governs it, the term would be more suitable to some body of water, Delaware bay or the ocean, than to the main land.

The Lenape distinctly claimed the whole of the present area of New Jersey. Their great chief, Tedyuscung, stated at the Conference at Easton (1757), that their lands reached eastward to the shore of the sea. The New Jersey tribes fully recognized their unity. As early as 1694, at an interview with Governor Markham at Philadelphia, when the famous Tamany and other Lenape chieftains were present, Mohocksey, a chief of the Jersey Indians, said: "Though we live on the other side of the water (_i.e._, the Delaware river), yet we reckon ourselves all one, because," he added, giving a characteristically native reason, "because we drink one water."[63]

The names, number and position of the Jersey tribes have not been very clearly made out. A pamphlet published in London, in 1648, states that there were twenty-three Indian kinglets in its area, with about 2000 warriors in all. Of these, Master Robert Evelin, a surveyor, who spent several years in the Province about 1635, names nine on the left bank of the Delaware, between Cape May and the Falls. The names are extremely corrupt, but it may be worth while giving them.[64]

1. Kechemeches, 500 men, five miles above Cape May.

2. Manteses, 100 bowmen, twelve leagues above the former.

3. Sikonesses.

4. Asomoches, 100 men.

5. Eriwoneck, 40 men.

6. Ramcock, 100 men.

7. Axion, 200 men.

8. Calcefar, 150 men.

9. Mosilian, 200 men, at the Falls.

Of these, the Mantes lived on Salem creek; _Ramcock_ is Rancocas creek; the _Eriwoneck_ are evidently the _Ermomex_ of Van der Donck's map of 1656; _Axion_ may be for Assiscunk creek, above Burlington, from Del. _assiscu_, mud; _assiscunk_, a muddy place. Lindstrom and Van der Donck name the most Southern tribe in New Jersey _Naraticons_. They were on and near Raccoon creek, which on Lindstrom's map is _Narraticon Sipu_, the Naraticon river. Probably the English name is simply a translation of the Del. _nachenum_, raccoon.

In 1675 the number of sachems in Jersey of sufficient importance for the then Governor Andros to treat with were four. It is noted that when he had made them the presents customary on such occasions, "They return thanks and fall a kintacoying, singing _kenon, kenon_."[65] This was the Delaware _genan_ (_genama_, thank ye him. Zeis).

The total number in New Jersey a few years before this (1671) were estimated by the authorities at "about a thousand persons, besides women and children."[66]

The "_Wakings, Opings_ or _Pomptons_," as they are named in the old records, were the tribe which dwelt on the west shore of New York harbor and southwardly, or, more exactly, "from Roeloff Jansen's Kill to the sea."[67] They were of the Minsi totem, and were the earliest of the Lenape who saw white men, when, in 1524, the keel of Verrazano was the first to plough the waters of New York harbor.

The name Waping or Oping is derived from _Wapan_, east, and was applied to them as the easternmost of the Lenape nation.[68] Their other name, Pompton, Mr Heckewelder identifies with _pihm-tom_, crooked-mouthed, though its applicability is not obvious.[69]

In the middle of the eighteenth century the remains of the Pompton Indians resided on the Raritan river. The boundaries of their territory were defined in 1756, at the Treaty of Crosswicks.

The _Sanhicans_ occupied the Delaware shore at the Falls, near where Trenton now stands, and extended eastward along the upper Indian path quite to New York bay. Heckewelder says that this name, _Sankhicani_, means a gun lock, and was applied by the Lenape to the Mohawks who were first furnished with muskets by the Europeans. This has led some writers to locate a band of Mohawks at the Falls.

The Sanhicans were, however, undoubtedly Lenape. Campanius, who quotes the name of the place in 1642, classes them as such. In Van der Donck's map, of 1656, they are marked as possessing the land at the Falls and Manhattan Bay; and De Laet gives the numerals and a number of words from their dialect, which are all pure Delaware, as:--

_Sanhican._ _Delaware._ Deer, atto, achtu. Bear, machquoyuo, machquak. Wolf, metumnu, metemmeu. Turkey, sickenum, tschickenum.

Their name has lost its first syllable. It should be _assanhican_. This means not merely and not originally a gun-flint, but any stone implement, from _achsin_, or, in the New Jersey dialect, _assun_, a stone, and _hican_, an instrument. They were distinctively "the stone-implement people."

This is plainly with reference to their manufactures near Trenton. The great deposit of post-glacial gravels at this point abound with quartzite fragments suitable for working into stone implements, and to what extent they were utilized by the natives is shown by the enormous collection, numbering over thirty thousand specimens, which Dr. Charles C. Abbott, of Trenton, has made in that immediate vicinity. A horde of over 125 beautifully chipped lance heads of quartz and jasper, and the remains of a workshop of remarkable magnitude, were evidences of the extensive manufacture that once prevailed there.

The left bank of the Delaware, from the vicinity of Burlington quite to and below Salem, was held by a warlike tribe known to the settlers as the _Mantas_, or _Mantos_, or _Mandes_, otherwise named the Frog Indians. They extended eastward along the main or southern Indian path, which led from the Delaware, below the mouth of Rancocas Creek, to the extensive Indian plantations or corn fields near Sandy Hook, mentioned by Campanius and Lindstrom.[70]

Mr. Henry has derived their name from _mangi_, great,[71] and others have suggested _menatey_, an island; but I do not think either of these is tenable. I have no doubt that _mante_ is simply a mis-spelling of _monthee_, which is the form given by the East Jersey and Stockbridge Indians to the name of the Minsi or Monsey sub-tribe of the Delawares.[72] This is further indicated by the fact that toward the beginning of the eighteenth century they incorporated themselves wholly with the two other Lenape sub-tribes.[73] We thus find that the Minsis were not confined to the North and Northwest, as Heckewelder and others wrote, but had pressed southward in New Jersey, quite to the shores of Delaware Bay.

The New Jersey Indians disappeared rapidly. As early as 1721 an official document states that they were "but few, and very innocent and friendly."[74] When, in 1745, the missionary Brainerd visited their settlement at Crosweeksung, Burlington county, he found some "who had lived with the white people under gospel light, had learned to read, were civil, etc."[75] Those with whom he labored at this place subsequently removed to New Stockbridge, Mass., and united with the Mohegans and others there.[76]

The Swedish traveler, Peter Kalm, who spent about a year in New Jersey in 1749, observes that the disappearance of the native population was principally due to two agencies. Smallpox destroyed "incredible numbers", "but brandy has killed most of the Indians."[77]

The dialect of the New Jersey Indians was soft and vocalic, avoiding the gutturals of their northern relatives, and without the frequent unpleasant forcible expirations of the Nanticoke. A vocabulary of it, obtained for Mr. Thomas Jefferson, in 1792, at the village of Edgpiihik, West New Jersey, is in MS. in the library of the American Philosophical Society.

_Political Constitution_.

Each totem of the Lenape recognized a chieftain, called sachem, _sakima_, a word found in most Algonkin dialects, with slight variations (Chip. _ogima_, Cree, _okimaw_, Pequot, _sachimma_), and derived from a root _ôki_, signifying above in space, and by a transfer frequent in all languages, above in power. Thus, in Cree,[78] we have _sâkamow_, "il projecte, il montre la tête," and in Delaware, _w'ochgitschi_, the part above, the upper part (Zeisberger), etc.

It appears from Mr. Morgan's inquiries, that at present and of later years, "the office of sachem is hereditary in the gens, but elective among its members."[79] Loskiel, however, writing on the excellent authority of Zeisberger, states explicitly that the chief of each totem was selected and inaugurated by those of the remaining two.[80] By common and ancient consent, the chief selected from the Turtle totem was head chief of the whole Lenape nation.

These chieftains were the "peace chiefs." They could neither go to war themselves, nor send nor receive the war belt--the ominous string of dark wampum, which indicated that the tempest of strife was to be let loose. Their proper badge was the wampum belt, with a diamond-shaped figure in the centre, worked in white beads, which was the symbol of the peaceful council fire, and was called by that name.

War was declared by the people at the instigation of the "war captains," valorous braves of any birth or family who had distinguished themselves by personal prowess, and especially by good success in forays against the enemy.[81]

Nor did the authority of the chiefs extend to any infringement on the traditional rights of the gens, as, for instance, that of blood revenge. The ignorance of this limitation of the central power led to various misunderstandings at the time, on the part of the colonial authorities, and since then, by later historians. Thus, in 1728, "the Delaware Indians on Brandywine" were summoned by the Governor to answer about a murder. Their chief, Civility, answered that it was committed by the Minisinks, "over whom they had no authority."[82] This did not mean but that in some matters authority could be exerted, but not in a question relating to a feud of blood.

_Agriculture and Food Resources_.

The Lenape did not depend solely on the chase for subsistence. They were largely agricultural, and raised a variety of edible plants. Indian corn was, as usual, the staple; but in addition to that, they had extensive fields of squashes, beans and sweet potatoes.[83] The hardy variety of tobacco was also freely cultivated.

The value of Indian corn, the _Zea mais_, must have been known to the Algonkin tribes while they still formed one nation, as the same name is applied to it by tribes geographically the widest apart. Thus the Micmacs of Nova Scotia call it _pe-ãs'kumun-ul_ whose theme _ãs'ku-mun_ reappears in the _wuskannem_ (Elliott) and the _scannemeneash_ (Roger Williams) of New England, in the Delaware _jesquem_ (Campanius), and _chasquem_ (Zeis.), and even in the Piegan Blackfoot _esko-tope_.

The first radical _ask_, Chip. _ashk_, Del. _aski_, means "green." The application is to the green waving plant, so conspicuous in the fields during the summer months. The second _mün_ or _min_ is a generic suffix applied to all sorts of small edible fruits. In the Blackfoot its place is supplied by another, and in the Unami Delaware it is abbreviated to the letter _m_.

On the other hand, in the Chipeway word for corn, _mandamin_, Ottawa _mindamin_, Cree _mattamin_, the second radical is retained in full, while for the first is substituted an abbreviation of _manito_, divine ("it is divine, supernatural, or mysterious"); if we may accept the opinion of Mr. Schoolcraft, and I know of no more plausible etymology.

Tobacco was called by the Delawares _kscha-tey_, Zeis., _seka-ta_, Camp., or in the English orthography _shuate_ (Vocab. N. J. Inds.), and _koshãhtahe_ (Cummmings). I am inclined to think that these are but dialectic variations and different orthographies of the root _'ta_ or _'dam_ (_a_ nasal) found in the New England _wuttãm-anog_, Micmac _tùmawa_, Abnaki _wh'dãman_ (Rasle), Cree _tchistémaw_, Chip. _assema_ (= _asté-maw_), Blackfoot _pi-stã-kan_; a root which Dr. J. H. Trumbull has satisfactorily identified as meaning "to drink," the smoke being swallowed and likened to water. "To drink tobacco" was the usual old English expression for "to smoke."

If this etymology is correct, it leads to the inference that tobacco also was known to the ancient Algonkins before they split up into the many nations which we now know, and furthermore that they must have lived in a region where these two semi-tropical or wholly tropical plants, Indian corn and tobacco, had been already introduced and cultivated by some more ancient race. To conclude that they themselves brought them from a tropical land, would be too hazardous.

The pipes in which the tobacco was smoked were called _appooke_ (modern Delaware _o'pahokun'_, Cumings' Vocab.) They were of earthenware and of stone; sometimes, it is said, of copper. According to Kalm, the ceremonial pipes were of a red stone, possibly the western pipe stone, and were very highly prized.[84]

Of wild fruits and plants they consumed the esculent and nutritious tubers on the roots of the Wild Bean, _Apios tuberosa_, the large, oval, fleshy roots of the arrow-leaved _Sagittaria_, the former of which the Indians called _hobbenis_, and the latter _katniss_, names which they subsequently applied to the European turnip. They also roasted and ate the acrid cormus of the Indian turnip, _Arum triphyllum_, in Delaware _taw-ho_, _taw-hin_ or _tuck-ah_, and collected for food the seeds of the Golden Club, _Orontium aquaticum_, common in the pools along the creeks and rivers. Its native name was _taw-kee_.[85]

_House Building._

In their domestic architecture they differed noticeably from the Iroquois and even the Mohegans. Their houses were not communal, but each family had its separate residence, a wattled hut, with rounded top, thatched with mats woven of the long leaves of the Indian corn or the stalks of the sweet flag (_Acorus calamus_,) or of the bark of trees (_anacon_, a mat, Z.) These were built in groups and surrounded with a palisade to protect the inhabitants from sudden inroads.[86]

In the centre was sometimes erected a mound of earth, both as a place of observation and as a location to place the children and women. The remains of these circular ramparts enclosing a central mound were seen by the early settlers at the Falls of the Delaware and up the Lehigh valley.

_Manufactures_.

The art of the potter was known and extensively practiced, but did not indicate any unusual proficiency, either in the process of manufacture or in the methods of decoration, although the late Mr. F. Peale thought that, in the latter respect, the Delaware pottery had some claims to a high rank.[87] The representation of animal forms was quite unusual, only some few and inferior examples having been found.

Their skill in manufacturing bead work and feather mantles, and in dressing deer skins, excited the admiration of the early voyagers. Although their weapons and utensils were mostly of stone, there was a considerable supply of native copper among them, in use as ornaments, for arrow heads and pipes. Some specimens of it have been found by Dr. Abbott near Trenton, and by other collectors in Pennsylvania,[88] and its scarcity in modern collections is to be attributed to its being bought up and melted by the whites rather than to its limited employment.

Soap stone was hollowed out with considerable skill, to form bowls, and the wood of the sassafras tree was highly esteemed for the same purpose (Kalm).

The maize was broken up in wooden or stone mortars with a stone pestle, the native name of which was _pocohaac_, a word signifying also the virile member.

Their arms were the war club or tomahawk, _tomhickan_, the bow, _hattape_, and arrow, _alluns_, the spear, _tanganaoun_, and for defence Bishop Ettwein states they carried a round shield of thick, dried hide.

The spear was also used for spearing fish, which they, moreover, knew how to catch with "brush nets," and with fish hooks made of bone and the dried claws of birds (Kalm).[89]

_Paints and Dyes_.

The paints and dyes used by the Lenape and neighboring Indians were derived both from the vegetable and mineral realms. From the former they obtained red, white and blue clays, which were in such extensive demand that the vicinity of those streams in New Castle county, Delaware, which are now called White Clay Creek and Red Clay Creek, was widely known to the natives as _Walamink_, the Place of Paint.

The vegetable world supplied a variety of dyes in the colored juices of plants. These were mixed with the acid juice of the wild, sweet-scented crab apple (_Pyrus coronaria_; in Lenape, _tombic'anall_), to fix the dye.

A red was yielded by the root of the _Sanguinaria Canadensis_, still called "Indian paint root;" an orange by the root of _Phytolacca decandra_, the poke or pocoon; a yellow by the root of _Hydrastis Canadensis_; a black by a mixture of sumac and white walnut bark, etc.[90]

_Dogs_.

The only domestic animal they possessed was a small species of dogs with pointed ears. These were called _allum_, and were preserved less for protection or for use in hunting than for food, and especially for ceremonial purposes.[91]

_Interments_.

The custom of common ossuaries for each gens appears to have prevailed among the Lenape. Gabriel Thomas states that: "If a person of Note dies very far away from his place of residence, they will convey his Bones home some considerable Time after, to be buried there."[92] Bishop Ettwein speaks of mounds for common burial, though he appears to limit their use to times of war.[93]

One of these communal graveyards of the Minsis covers an area of six acres on the Neversink creek,[94] while, according to tradition, another of great antiquity and extent was located on the islands in the Delaware river, above the Water-Gap.[95]

_Computation of Time._

The accuracy with which the natives computed time becomes a subject of prime consideration in a study of their annals. It would appear that the Eastern Algonkins were not deficient in astronomical knowledge. Roger Williams remarks, "they much observe the Starres, and their very children can give names to many of them;"[96] and the same testimony is borne by Wassenaer. The latter, speaking of the tribes around New York Harbor, in 1630, says that their year began with the first moon after the February moon; and that the time for planting was calculated by the rising of the constellation Taurus in a certain quarter. They named this constellation the horned head of some great fictitious animal.[97]

Zeisberger observes that, in his day, the Lenape did not have a fixed beginning to their year, but reckoned from one seeding time to another, or from when the corn was ripe, etc.[98] Nevertheless, they had a word for year, _gachtin_, and counted their ages and the sequence of events by yearly periods. The Chipeways count by winters (_pipun-agak_, in which the first word means winter, and the second is a plural form similar to the Del. _gachtin_); but the Lenape did not apparently follow them in this. They recognized only twelve moons in the year and not thirteen, as did the New England nations; at least, the names of but twelve months have been preserved.[99] The day periods were reckoned usually by nights, but it was not improper to count by "suns" or days.

_Pictographic Signs_.

The picture writing of the Delawares has been quite fully described by Zeisberger, Loskiel and Heckewelder. It was scratched upon stone (Loskiel), or more frequently cut in or painted upon the bark of trees or pieces of wood. The colors were chiefly black and red. The system was highly conventionalized, so that it could readily be understood by all their tribes, and also by others with whom they came in contact, the Shawnees, Wyandots, Chipeways, etc.

The subjects had reference not merely to matters of present interest, but to the former history of their nation, and were directed "to the preservation of the memory of famous men, and to the recollection of events and actions of note." Therefore, their Agamemnons felt no anxiety for the absence of a Homer, but "confidently reckoned that their noble deeds would be held in memory long after their bodies had perished."[100]

The material on which the drawings were made was generally so perishable that few examples have been left to us. One, a stone about seven inches long, found in central New Jersey, has been described and figured by Dr. Abbott.[101] It represents an arrow crossing certain straight lines. Several "gorgets" (smooth stone tablets pierced with holes for suspension, and probably used for ceremonial purposes), stone knives and pebbles, showing inscribed marks and lines, and rude figures, are engraved in Dr. Abbott's book; others similar have been seen in Bucks and Berks counties, Pa.

There was a remarkable series of hieroglyphics, some eighty in number, on a rock at Safe Harbor, on the Susquehanna. They have been photographed and described by Prof. T. C. Porter, of Lancaster, but have yet to be carefully analyzed.[102] From its location, it was probably the work of the Susquehannocks, and did not belong to the general system of Algonkin pictography.

If the rude drawings appended to the early treatises as signatures of native sachems be taken as a guide, little or no uniformity prevailed in the personal signs. The same chieftain would, on various occasions, employ symbols differing so widely that they have no visible relation.[103]

An interesting incident is recorded by Friend John Richardson when on a visit to William Penn, at his manor of Pennsburg, in 1701. Penn asked the Indian interpreter to give him some idea of what the native notion of God was. The interpreter, at a loss for words, had recourse to picture writing, and describing a number of circles, one inside the other, he pointed to the centre of the innermost and smallest one, and there, "placed, as he said, by way of representation, the Great Man."[104] The explanation was striking and suggestive, and hints at the meaning of the not infrequent symbol of the concentric circles.

An alleged piece of Delaware pictography is copied by Schoolcraft[105] from the London _Archæologia_, Vol. IV. It purports to be an inscription found on the Muskingum river in 1780, and the interpretation is said to have been supplied by the celebrated Delaware chief, Captain White Eyes (Coquethagechton). As interpreted, it relates to massacres of the whites by the Delaware chief, Wingenund, in the border war of 1763.

There is a tissue of errors here. The pictograph, "drawn with charcoal and oil on a tree," must have been quite recent, and is not likely to have referred to events seventeen years antecedent. There is no evidence that Wingenund took part in Pontiac's conspiracy, and he was the consistent friend of the whites.[106] Several of the characters are not like Indian pictographs. And finally, White Eyes, the alleged interpreter in 1780, had died at Tuscarawas, two years before, Nov. 10th, 1778![107]

_Record Sticks_.

The Algonkin nations very generally preserved their myths, their chronicles, and the memory of events, speeches, etc., by means of marked sticks. As early as 1646, the Jesuit missionaries in Canada made use of these to teach their converts the prayers of the Church and their sermons.[108]

The name applied to these record or tally-sticks was, among the Crees and Chipeways, _massinahigan_, which is the common word now for book, but which originally meant "a piece of wood marked with fire," from the verb _masinákisan_, I imprint a mark upon it with fire, I burn a mark upon it,[109] thus indicating the rude beginning of a system of mnemonic aids. The Lenape words for book, _malackhickan_, Camp., _mamalekhican_ Zeis., were probably from the same root.

In later days, instead of burning the marks upon the sticks, they were painted, the colors as well as the figures having certain conventional meanings.[110]

These sticks are described as about six inches in length, slender, though varying in shape, and tied up in bundles.[111] Such bundles are mentioned by the interpreter Conrad Weiser, as in use in 1748 when he was on his embassy in the Indian country.[112] The expression, "we tied up in bundles," is translated by Mr. Heckewelder, _olumapisid_, and a head chief of the Lenape, usually called _Olomipees_, was thus named, apparently as preserver of such records.[113] I shall return on a later page to the precise meaning of this term.

The word signifying to paint was _walamén_, which does not appear in western dialects, but is found precisely the same in the Abnaki, where it is given by Rasles, _8ramann_[114], which, transliterated into Delaware (where the _l_ is substituted for the _r_), would be _w'lam'an_. From this word came _Wallamünk_, the name applied by the natives to a tract in New Castle county, Delaware, since at that locality they procured supplies of colored earth, which they employed in painting. It means "the place of paint."[115]

Roger Williams, describing the New England Indians, speaks of "_Wunnam_, their red painting, which they most delight in, and is both the Barke of the Fine, as also a red Earth."[116]

The word is derived from Narr. _wunne_, Del. _wulit_, Chip. _gwanatsch_ = beautiful, handsome, good, pretty, etc.

The Indian who had artistically bedaubed his skin with red, ochreous clay, was esteemed In full dress, and delightful to look upon. Hence the term _wulit_, fine, pretty, came to be applied to the paint itself.

The custom of using such sticks, painted or notched, was by no means peculiar to the Delawares. They were familiar to the Iroquois, and the early travelers found them in common employment among the southern tribes.[117]

As the art advanced, in place of simple sticks, painted or notched, wooden tablets came into use, on which the symbols were scratched or engraved with a sharp flint or knife. Such are those still in use among the Chipeway, described by Dr. James as "rude pictures carved on a flat piece of wood;"[118] by the native Copway, as "board plates;"[119] and more precisely by Mr. Schoolcraft, as "a tabular piece of wood, covered on both sides with a series of devices cut between parallel lines."[120]

The Chipeway terms applied to these devices or symbols are, according to Mr. Schoolcraft, _kekeewin_, for those in ordinary and common use, and _kekeenowin_, for those connected with the mysteries, the "meda worship" and the "great medicine." Both words are evidently from a radical signifying a mark or sign, appearing in the words given in Baraga's "Otchipwe Dictionary," _kikinawadjiton_, I mark it, I put a certain mark on it, and _kikinoamawa_, I teach, instruct him.

_Moral and Mental Character._

The character of the Delawares was estimated very differently, even by those who had the best opportunities of judging. The missionaries are severe upon them. Brainerd described them as "unspeakably indolent and slothful. They have little or no ambition or resolution; not one in a thousand of them that has the spirit of a man."[121] No more favorable was the opinion of Zeisberger. He speaks of their alleged bravery with the utmost contempt, and morally he puts them down as "the most ordinary and the vilest of savages."[122]

Perhaps these worthy missionaries measured them by the standard of the Christian ideal, by which, alas, we all fall wofully short.

Certainly, other competent observers report much more cheerfully. One of the first explorers of the Delaware, Captain Thomas Young (1634), describes them as "very well proportioned, well featured, gentle, tractable and docile."[123]

Of their domestic affections, Mr. Heckewelder writes: "I do not believe that there are any people on earth who are more attached to their relatives and offspring than these Indians are."[124]

Their action toward the Society of Friends in Pennsylvania indicates a sense of honor and a respect for pledges which we might not expect. They had learned and well understood that the Friends were non-combatants, and as such they never forgot to spare them, even in the bloody scenes of border warfare.

"Amidst all the devastating incursions of the Indians in North America, it is a remarkable fact that no Friend who stood faithful to his principles in the disuse of all weapons of war, the cause of which was generally well understood by the Indians, ever suffered personal molestation from them."[125]

The fact that for more than forty years after the founding of Penn's colony there was not a single murder committed on a settler by an Indian, itself speaks volumes for their self-control and moral character. So far from seeking quarrels with the whites they extended them friendly aid and comfort.[126]

Even after they had become embittered and corrupted by the gross knavery of the whites (for example, the notorious "long walk,") and the debasing influence of alcohol, such an authority as Gen. Wm. H. Harrison could write these words about the Delawares: "A long and intimate knowledge of them, in peace and war, as enemies and friends, has left upon my mind the most favorable impression of their character for bravery, generosity and fidelity to their engagements."[127] More than this, and from a higher source, could scarcely be asked.

That intellectually they were by no means deficient is acknowledged by Brainerd himself. "The children," he writes, "learn with surprising readiness; their master tells me he never had an English school that learned, in general, so fast."[128]

_Religious Beliefs_.

With the hints given us in various authors, it is not difficult to reconstruct the primitive religious notions of the Delawares. They resembled closely those of the other Algonkin nations, and were founded on those general mythical principles which, in my "Myths of the New World," I have shown existed widely throughout America. These are, the worship of Light, especially in its concrete manifestations of fire and the sun; of the Four Winds, as typical of the cardinal points, and as the rain bringers; and of the Totemic Animal.

As the embodiment of Light, some spoke of the sun as a deity,[129] while their fifth and greatest festival was held in honor of Fire, which they personified, and called the Grandfather of all Indian nations. They assigned to it twelve divine assistants, who were represented by so many actors in the ceremony, with evident reference to the twelve moons or months of the year, the fire being a type of the heavenly blaze, the sun.[130]

But both Sun and Fire were only material emblems of the mystery of Light. This was the "body or fountain of deity," which Brainerd said they described to him in terms that he could not clearly understand; something "all light;" a being "_in_ whom the earth, and all things in it, may be seen;" a "great man, clothed with the day, yea, with the brightest day, a day of many years, yea, a day of everlasting continuance." From him proceeded, in him were, to him returned, all things and the souls of all things.

Such was the extraordinary doctrine which a converted priest of the native religion informed Brainerd was the teaching of the medicine men.[131]

The familiar Algonkin myth of the "Great Hare," which I have elsewhere shown to be distinctively a myth of Light,[132] was also well known to the Delawares, and they applied to this animal, also, the appellation of the "Grandfather of the Indians."[133] Like the fire, the hare was considered their ancestor, and in both instances the Light was meant, fire being its symbol, and the word for hare being identical with that of brightness and light.

As in Mexico and elsewhere, this light or bright ancestor was the culture hero of their mythology, their pristine instructor in the arts, and figured in some of their legends as a white man, who, in some remote time, visited them from the east, and brought them their civilization.[134]

I desire to lay especial stress on these proofs of Light worship among the Delawares, for it has an immediate bearing on several points in the WALAM OLUM. There are no compounds more frequent in that document than those with the root signifying "light," "brightness," etc., and this is one of the evidences of its authenticity.

Next in order, or rather, parallel with and a part of the worship of Light, was that of the Four Cardinal Points, always identified with the Four Winds, the bringers of rain and sunshine, the rulers of the weather.

"After the strictest inquiry respecting their notions of the Deity," says David Brainerd, "I find that in ancient times, before the coming of the white people, some supposed there were four invisible powers, who presided over the four corners of the earth."[135]

The Montauk Indians of Long Island, a branch of the Mohegans, also worshiped these four deities, as we are informed by the Rev Sampson Occum;[136] and Captain Argoll found them again in 1616 among the accolents of the Potomac, close relatives of the Delawares. Their chief told him: "We have five gods in all, our chief god appears often unto us in the form of a mighty great hare, the other four have no visible shape, but are indeed the four winds, which keep the four corners of the earth."[137]

These are the fundamental doctrines, the universal _credo_, of not only all the Algonkin faiths, but of all or nearly all primitive American religions.

This is very far from the popular conception of Indian religion, with its "Good Spirit" and "Bad Spirit." Such ideas were not familiar to the native mind. Heckewelder, Brainerd and Loskiel all assure us in positive terms that the notion of a bad spirit, a "Devil," was wholly unknown to the aborigines, and entirely borrowed from the whites. Nor was the Divinity of Light looked upon as a beneficent father, or anything of that kind. The Indian did not appeal to him for assistance, as to his _totemic and personal gods_.

These were conceived to be in the form of animals, and various acts of propitiation to them were performed. Such acts were not a worship of the animals themselves. Brainerd explains this very correctly when he says: "They do not suppose a divine power essential to or inhering in these creatures, but that some invisible beings, not distinguished from each other by certain names, but only notionally, communicate to these animals a great power, and so make these creatures the immediate authors of good to certain persons. Hence such a creature becomes _sacred_ to the person to whom he is supposed to be the immediate author of good, and through him they must worship the invisible powers, though to others he is no more than another creature."[138]

They rarely attempted to set forth the divinity in image. The rude representation of a human head, cut in wood, small enough to be carried on the person, or life size on a post, was their only idol. This was called _wsinkhoalican_. They also drew and perhaps carved emblems of their totemic guardian. Mr. Beatty describes the head chief's home as a long building of wood: "Over the door a turtle is drawn, which is the ensign of this particular tribe. On each door post was cut the face of a grave old man."[139]

Occasionally, rude representations of the human head, chipped out of stone, are exhumed in those parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey once inhabited by the Lenape.[140] These are doubtless the _wsinkhoalican_ above mentioned.

_Doctrine of the Soul_.

There was a general belief in a soul, spirit or immaterial part of man. For this the native words were _tschipey_ and _tschitschank_ (in Brainerd, _chichuny_). The former is derived from a root signifying to be separate or apart, while the latter means "the shadow."[141]

Their doctrine was that after death the soul went _south_, where it would enjoy a happy life for a certain term, and then could return and be born again into the world. In moments of spiritual illumination it was deemed possible to recall past existences, and even to remember the happy epoch passed in the realm of bliss.[142]

The path to this abode of the blessed was by the Milky Way, wherein the opinion of the Delawares coincided with that of various other American nations, as the Eskimos, on the north, and the Guaranis of Paraguay, on the south.

The ordinary euphemism to inform a person that his death was at hand was: "You are about to visit your ancestors;"[143] but most observers agree that they were a timorous people, with none of that contempt of death sometimes assigned them.[144]

_The Native Priests._

An important class among the Lenape were those called by the whites doctors, conjurers, or medicine men, who were really the native priests. They appear to have been of two schools, the one devoting themselves mainly to divination, the other to healing.

According to Brainerd, the title of the former among the Delawares, as among the New England Indians, was _powwow_, a word meaning "a dreamer;" Chip., _bawadjagan_, a dream; _nind apawe_, I dream; Cree, _pawa-miwin_, a dream. They were the interpreters of the dreams of others, and themselves claimed the power of dreaming truthfully of the future and the absent.[145] In their visions their guardian spirit visited them; they became, in their own words, "all light," and they "could see through men, and knew the thoughts of their hearts."[146] At such times they were also instructed at what spot the hunters could successfully seek game.

The other school of the priestly class was called, as we are informed by Mr. Heckewelder, _medeu_.[147] This is the same term which we find in Chipeway as _mide_ (_medaween_, Schoolcraft), and in Cree as _mitew_, meaning a conjurer, a member of the Great Medicine Lodge.[148] I suspect the word is from _m'iteh_, heart (Chip. _k'ide_, thy heart), as this organ was considered the source and centre of life and the emotions, and is constantly spoken of in a figurative sense in Indian conversation and oratory.

Among the natives around New York Bay there was a body of conjurers who professed great austerity of life. They had no fixed homes, pretended to absolute continence, and both exorcised sickness and officiated at the funeral rites. Their name, as reported by the Dutch, was _kitzinacka_, which is evidently Great Snake (_gitschi_, _achkook_). The interesting fact is added, that at certain periodical festivals a sacrifice was prepared, which it was believed was carried off by a huge serpent.[149]

When the missionaries came among the Indians, the shrewd and able natives who had been accustomed to practice on the credulity of their fellows recognized that the new faith would destroy their power, and therefore they attacked it vigorously. Preachers arose among them, and claimed to have had communications from the Great Spirit about all the matters which the Christian teachers talked of. These native exhorters fabricated visions and revelations, and displayed symbolic drawings on deerskins, showing the journey of the soul after death, the path to heaven, the twelve emetics and purges which would clean a man of sin, etc.

Such were the famed prophets Papunhank and Wangomen, who set up as rivals in opposition to David Zeisberger; and such those who so constantly frustrated the efforts of the pious Brainerd. Often do both of these self-sacrificing apostles to the Indians complain of the evil influence which such false teachers exerted among the Delawares.[150]

The existence of this class of impostors is significant for the appreciation of such a document as the WALAM OLUM. They were partially acquainted with the Bible history of creation; some had learned to read and write in the mission schools; they were eager to imitate the wisdom of the whites, while at the same time they were intent on claiming authentic antiquity and originality for all their sayings.

_Religious Ceremonies._

The principal sacred ceremony was the dance and accompanying song. This was called _kanti kanti_, from a verbal found in most Algonkin dialects with the primary meaning to sing (Abnaki, _skan_, je danse et chante en même temps, Rasles; Cree, _nikam_; Chip., _nigam_, I sing). From this noisy rite, which seems to have formed a part of all the native celebrations, the settlers coined the word _cantico_, which has survived and become incorporated into the English tongue.

Zeisberger describes other festivals, some five in number. The most interesting is that called _Machtoga_, which he translates "to sweat." This was held in honor of "their Grandfather, the Fire." The number twelve appears in it frequently as regulating the actions and numbers of the performers. This had evident reference to the twelve months of the year, but his description is too vague to allow a satisfactory analysis of the rite.

FOOTNOTES:

[48] See his remarks in the Transactions of the _American Philological Association_, 1872, p. 157.

[49] For instance, in Governor Patrick Gordon's Letter to the Friends, 1728, where he speaks of "Our Lenappys or Delaware Indians," in _Penna. Archives_, Vol. I, p. 230. At the treaty of Easton, 1756, Tedyuscung, head chief of the Delawares, is stated to have represented the "Lenopi" Indians (_Minutes of the Council_, Phila., 1757), and in the "Conference of Eleven Nations living West of Allegheny," held at Philadelphia, 1759, the Delawares are included under the tribal name "Leonopy." See _Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penna._, Vol. VIII, p. 418.

[50] So Mr. Lewis H. Morgan says, and he obtained the facts on the spot. "Len-ã'-pe was their former name, and is still used." _Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity_, p. 289 (Washington, 1871).

[51] _History of the Indian Nations_, p. 401.

[52] _Transactions of the American Philological Association_, 1871, p. 144.

[53] Zeisberger's translation of Lenni Lenape as "people of the same nation," would be more literal if it were put "men of our nation."

President Stiles, in his _Itinerary_, makes the statement: "The Delaware tribe is called _Poh-he-gan_ or _Mo-hee-gan_ by themselves, and _Auquitsaukon_." I have not been able to reach a satisfactory solution of the first and third of these names.

That the Delawares did use the term Lenape as their own designation, is shown by the refrain of one of their chants, preserved by Heckewelder.

It was--"_Husca n'lenape-win_," Truly I--a Lenape--am.

Or: "I am a true man of our people." _Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc._, Vol. IV, N. Ser., p. 381.

[54] Mr. Eager, in his _History of Orange County_, quotes the old surveyor, Nicolas Scull (1730), in favor of translating _minisink_ "the water is gone," and Ruttenber, in his _History of the Native Tribes of the Hudson River_, supposes that it is derived from _menatey_, an island. Neither of these commends itself to modern Delawares.

[55] See _Penna. Archives_, Vol. I, pp. 540-1.

[56] Proud, _History of Penna_, Vol. II, p. 297, S Smith, _Hist of New Jersey_, p. 456; Henry, _Dict. of the Delaware Lang._, MS., p. 539.

[57] Delaware Vocabulary in Whipple, Ewbank & Turner's _Report_, 1855. The German form is _tsickenum_.

[58] _A Brief Relation of the Voyage of Captayne Thomas Yong_, in _Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls._, 4th series, Vol. IX, p. 119.

[59] See the original Warrant of Survey and Minutes relating thereto, in Dr. George Smith's _History of Delaware County, Pa._, pp. 209, 210 (Phila., 1862). The derivation is uncertain. Captain John Smith gives _mahcawq_ for pumpkin, and this appears to be the word in the native name of Chester Creek, _Macopanackhan_, which is also seen in _Marcus_ Hook. (See Smith's _Hist. Del. Co._, pp. 145, 381.) I am inclined to identify the _Macocks_ with the _M'okahoka_ as "the people of the pumpkin place," or where those vegetables were cultivated.

[60] The Shawnee word is the same, _pellewaa_, whence their name for the Ohio River, _Pellewaa seepee_, Turkey River. (Rev. David Jones, _Journal of Two Visits Made to Some Nations of Indians on the West Side of the River Ohio in 1772 and 1773_, p. 20.) From this is derived the shortened form _Plaen_, seen in _Playwickey_, or _Planwikit_, the town of those of the Turkey Tribe, in Berks county, Pa. (Heckewelder, _Indian Names_, p, 355.)

[61] Heckewelder, _Hist. Indian Nations_, pp. 253-4.

[62] Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_, pp. 171-2.

[63] _Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania_, July 6th, 1694.

[64] Master Evelin's Letter is printed in Smith's _History of New Jersey_, 2d ed. Some doubt has been cast on his letter, because of its connection with the mythical "New Albion," but his personality and presence on the river have been vindicated. See _The American Historical Magazine_, Vol. I, 2d series, pp. 75, 76.

[65] _New Jersey Archives_, Vol. I, p. 183.

[66] Ibid, Vol. I, p. 73.

[67] Ruttenber, _Hist. of the Indian Tribes of Hudson River_, s. v.

[68] Heckewelder, in his unpublished MSS, asserts that both these names mean "Opossum". It is true that the name of this animal in Lenape is _woapink_, in the New Jersey dialect _opiing_, and in the Nanticoke of Smith _oposon_, but all these are derived from the root _wab_, which originally meant "white," and was applied to the East as the place of the dawn and the light. The reference is to the light gray, or whitish, color of the animal's hair. Compare the Cree, _wapiskowes_, cendré, il a le poil blafard Lacombe, _Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris_ s v.

[69] _On Indian Names_, p. 375, in _Trans American Philosophical Society_, Vol. III, n. ser.

[70] Proud, _History of Pennsylvania_, Vol. I, 144, II, p. 295. Heckewelder, _Tran. Am. Philo. Soc._, Vol. IV, p. 376.

[71] Matthew G. Henry, _Delaware Indian Dictionary_, p. 709. (MS in the Library of the Am. Phil. Soc.)

[72] "The Monthees who we called Wemintheuw," etc. _Journal of Hendrick Aupaumut_, _Mems. Hist. Soc. Pa._, Vol. II, p. 77.

[73] Heckewelder, _ubi supra_.

[74] _New Jersey Archives_, Vol. V, p. 22.

[75] _The Rise and Progress of a Remarkable Work of Grace Among the Indians_. By David Brainerd, in _Works_, p. 304.

[76] E de Schweimtz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 660, note.

[77] _Travels into North America_, Vol. II, pp. 93-94 (London, 1771).

[78] Lacombe, _Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris_, p. 711. Dr. Trumbull, however, maintains that it is derived from _sohkau-au_, he prevails over (note to Roger Williams' _Key_, p. 162). If there is a genetic connection, the latter is the derivative. The word _sakima_ is not known among the Minsi. In place of it they say _K'htai_, the great one, from _kehtan_, great. From this comes the corrupted forms _tayach_ or _tallach_ of the Nanticokes, and the _tayac_ of the Pascatoways.

[79] Lewis H. Morgan, _Ancient Society_, p. 172.

[80] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, p. 168.

[81] For these particulars see Ettwein, _Traditions and Language of the Indians_, in _Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc._, Vol. I; Charles Beatty, _Journal of a Tour, etc._, p. 51.

[82] C. Thompson, _Inquiry into the Causes of the Alienation of the Delaware and Shawnee Indians_, p. 16.

[83] I assign them the sweet potato on the excellent authority of Dr. C. Thompson, _Essay on Indian Affairs_, in _Colls. of the Hist. Soc. of Penna._, Vol. I, p. 81.

[84] Peter Kalm, _Travels in North America_, Vol. II, p. 42.

[85] See Peter Kalm, _Travels in North America_, Vol. II, pp. 110-115; William Darlington, _Flora Cestrica_. (West Chester, Pa., 1837.)

[86] For these facts, see Bishop Ettwem's article on the Traditions and Languages of the Indians, _Bulletin of the Pa. Hist. Soc._, 1848, p. 32. Van der Donck (1656) describes these palisaded strongholds, and Campanius (1642-48) gives a picture of one. See also E. de Schweimtz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 83. The Mohegan houses were sometimes 180 feet long, by about 20 feet wide, and occupied by numerous families. Van der Donck, _Descrip. of the New Netherlands_, pp. 196-7. _Coll. N. Y. Hist. Soc._, Ser. II, Vol. I.

The native name of these wooden forts was _menachk_, derived from _manachen_, to cut wood (Cree, _manikka_, to cut with a hatchet). Roger Williams calls them _aumansk_, a form of the same word.

[87] See the communication on "Pottery on the Delaware," by him, in the Proceedings of the _Am. Phil. Soc._, 1868. The whole subject of the archæology of the Delaware valley and New Jersey has been treated in the most satisfactory manner by the distinguished antiquary, Dr. Charles C. Abbott, in his work, _Primitive Industry_ (Salem, Mass., 1881), and his _Stone Age in New Jersey_ (1877).

[88] Four specimens are reported from Berks Co., Pa., by Prof. D. P. Brunner, in his volume, _The Indians of Berks Co., Pa._, pp. 94, 95 (Reading, 1881). These were an axe, a chisel, a knife and a gouge. The metal was probably in part obtained in New Jersey, in part imported from the Lake Superior region. See further, Abbott, _Primitive Industry_, chap. xxviii. Peter Kalm, the Swedish naturalist, who visited New Jersey in 1748, says that when the copper mines "upon the second river between Elizabeth Town and New York" were discovered, old mining holes were found and tools which the Indians had made use of. _Travels in North America_, Vol. I, p. 384.

[89] Some antiquaries appear to have doubted whether the spear was in use as a weapon of war among the Pennsylvania Indians. (See Abbott, _Primitive Industry_, p. 248.) But the Susquehannocks are distinctly reported as employing as a weapon "a strong and light spear of locust wood." _Relatio Itineris in Marylandiam_, p. 85.

[90] For further information on this subject, an article may be consulted in the _Transactions of the American Philosophical Society_, 1st Ser., Vol. III, pp. 222, et seq., by Mr. Hugh Martin, entitled "An Account of the Principal Dies employed by the American Indians."

[91] The Delawares had three words for dog. One was _allum_, which recurs in many Algonkin dialects, and is derived by Mr. Trumbull from a root signifying "to lay hold of," or "to hold fast." The second was _lennochum_ or _lenchum_, which means "the quadruped belonging to man;" _lenno_, man; _chum_, a four-footed beast. The third was _moekaneu_, a name derived from a general Algonkin root, in Cree, _mokku_, meaning "to tear in pieces," from which the Delaware word for bear, _machque_, has its origin, and also, significantly enough, the verb "to eat" in some dialects.

[92] _History of West New Jersey_, p. 3 (London, 1698).

[93] _Bulletin Hist. Soc. of Penna._, 1848, p. 32.

[94] E. M. Ruttenber, _History of the Indian Tribes of Hudson River_, p. 96, note.

[95] Maximilian, Prince of Wied, _Travels in America_, p. 35.

[96] _A Key into the Language of America_, p. 105.

[97] _Documentary History of New York_, Vol. III, pp. 29, 32.

[98] _Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape_, pp 108-109.

[99] They are given, with translations, in Zeisberger's _Grammar_, p. 109.

[100] See Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, etc., pp. 32, 33; Heckewelder, _History of the Indian Nations_, chap. X.

[101] Dr. Charles C. Abbott, _Primitive Industry_, pp. 71, 207, 347, 379, 384, 390, 391. Dr. Abbott's suggestion that the bird's head seen on several specimens might represent the totem of the Turkey gens of the Lenape cannot be well founded, if Heckewelder is correct in saying that their totemic mark was only the foot of the fowl. _Ind. Nations_, p. 253.

[102] See _Proceedings Amer. Philos. Soc._, Vol. X.

[103] The subject is discussed, and comparative drawings of the native signatures reproduced, by Prof. D. B. Brunner, in his useful work, _The Indians of Berks County, Pa._, p. 68 (Reading, 1881).

[104] John Richardson's Diary, quoted in _An Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends toward the Indian Tribes_, pp. 61, 62 (London, 1844).

[105] _History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes_, Vol. I, plate 47, B, and pages 353, 354.

[106] "Amiable and benevolent," says Heckewelder, whose life he aided in saving on one occasion. _Indian Nations_, p. 285.

[107] E. de Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 469.

[108] _Relation des Jesuites_, 1646, p. 33.

[109] Baraga, _A Dictionary of the Otchipwe Language_, s. v.

[110] For an example, see de Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 342.

[111] _Documentary History of New York_, Vol. IV, p. 437.

[112] _Journal of Conrad Weiser_; in _Early History of Western Penna._, p. 16.

[113] _Tran. Am. Phil. Soc._, Vol. IV, p. 384.

[114] _A Dictionary of the Abnaki Language_, s. v. _Peinture_.

[115] See anté p. 53. Mr. Francis Vincent, in his _History of the State of Delaware_, p. 36 (Phila., 1870), says of the colored earth of that locality, that it is "a highly argillaceous loam, interspersed with large and frequent masses of yellow, ochrey clay, some of which are remarkable for fineness of texture, not unlike lithomarge, and consists of white, yellow, red and dark blue clay in detached spots."

The Shawnees applied the same word to Paint Creek, which falls into the Scioto, close to Chilicothe. They named it _Alamonee sepee_, of which Paint Creek is a literal rendering. Rev. David Jones, _A Journal of Two Visits to the West Side of the Ohio in 1772 and 1773_, p. 50.

[116] _Key into the Language of America_, p. 206.

[117] Lawson, in his _New Account of Carolina_, p. 180, says that the natives there bore in mind their traditions by means of a "Parcel of Reeds of different Lengths, with several distinct Marks, known to none but themselves." James Adair writes of the Southern Indians "They count certain very remarkable things by notched square sticks, which are distributed among the head warriors and other chieftains of different towns." _History of the Indians_, p. 75.

[118] Dr Edwin James, _Narrative of John Tanner_, p. 341.

[119] George Copway, _Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation_, pp 130, 131.

[120] Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, Vol. I, p. 339.

[121] Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, p. 410.

[122] E. de Schweinitz, _Life and Times of Zeisberger_, p. 92.

[123] _Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls_., 4th series, Vol. IX, where Captain Young's journal is printed.

[124] _Heckewelder MSS_. in Amer Phil. Soc. Lib.

[125] _An Account of the Conduct of the Society of Friends toward the Indian Tribes_, p. 72 (London, 1844).

[126] The records of my own family furnish an example of this. My ancestor, William Brinton, arrived in the fall of 1684, and, with his wife and children, immediately took possession of a grant in the unbroken wilderness, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. A severe winter set in; their food supply was exhausted, and they would probably have perished but for the assistance of some neighboring lodges of Lenape, who provided them with food and shelter. It is, therefore, a debt of gratitude which I owe to this nation to gather its legends, its language, and its memories, so that they,

"in books recorded. May, like hoarded Household words, no more depart!"

[127] _A Discourse on the Aborigines of the Valley of the Ohio_, p. 25 (Cinn., 1838). I add the further testimony of John Brickell, who was a captive among them from 1791 to 1796. He speaks of them as fairly virtuous and temperate, and adds: "Honesty, bravery and hospitality are cardinal virtues among them." _Narrative of Captivity among the Delaware Indians_, in the _American Pioneer_, Vol. I, p. 48 (Cincinnati, 1844).

[128] Life and Journal, p. 381.

[129] "Others imagined the Sun to be the only deity, and that all things were made by him." David Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, p. 395.

[130] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, p. 55.

[131] David Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 395, 399.

[132] D. G. Brinton, _The Myths of the New World_, chap. vi; _American Hero Myths_, chap ii.

[133] Loskiel, _Geschichte der Mission_, p. 53.

[134] He is thus spoken of in Campanius, _Account of New Sweden_, Book III, chap. xi. Compare my _Myths of the New World_, p. 190.

[135] Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, p. 395.

[136] His statements are in the _Calls of the Mass Hist Soc_, Vol. X (1st Series), p. 108.

[137] Wm Strachey, _Historie of Travaile into Virginia_, p. 98.

[138] Brainerd, _Life and Travels_, p. 394.

[139] Charles Beatty, _Journal_, p. 44.

[140] One, about five inches in height, of a tough, argillaceous stone, is figured and described by Dr. C. C. Abbott, in the _American Naturalist_, October, 1882. It was found in New Jersey.

[141] From the same root, _tschip_, are derived the Lenape _tschipilek_, something strange or wonderful; _tschepsit_, a stranger or foreigner; and _tschapiet_, the invocation of spirits. Among the rules agreed upon by Zeisberger's converted Indians was this: "We will use no _tschapiet_, or witchcraft, when hunting." (De Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 379.)

The root _tschitsch_ indicates repetition, and applied to the shadow or spint of man means as much as his double or counterpart.

A third word for soul was the verbal form _w'tellenapewoagan_, "man--his substance;" but this looks as if it had been manufactured by the missionaries.

[142] Compare Loskiel, _Geschichte_, pp. 48, 49; Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 314, 396, 399, 400.

[143] Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, p. 472.

[144] Heckewelder, MSS., says that he has often heard the lamentable cry, _matta wingi angeln_, "I do not want to die."

[145] "As for the Powaws," says the native Mohegan, the Rev. Sampson Occum, in his account of the Montauk Indians of Long Island, "they say they get their art from dreams." _Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls_., Vol. X, p. 109. Dr. Trumbull's suggested affinity of powaw with Cree _tàp-wayoo_, he speaks the truth; Nar, _taupowauog_, wise speakers, is, I think, correct, but the latter are secondary senses. They were wise, and gave true counsel, who could correctly interpret dreams. Compare the Iroquois _katetsens_, to dream; _katetsiens_, to practice medicine, Indian fashion. Cuoq, _Lexique de la Langue Iroquoise_.

[146] David Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 400, 401.

[147] _Hist. Ind. Nations_, p. 280.

[148] _Hist. and Statistics of the Indian Tribes_, Vol. I, p. 358, seq.

[149] Wassenaer's _Description of the New Netherlands_ (1631), in _Doc. Hist of New York_, Vol. III, pp 28, 40. Other signs of serpent worship were common among the Lenape. Loskiel states that their cast-off skins were treasured as possessing wonderful curative powers (_Geschichte_, p. 147), and Brainerd saw an Indian offering supplications to one (_Life and Journal_, p. 395).

[150] See Brainerd, _Life and Journal_, pp. 310, 312, 364, 398, 425, etc., and E. de Schweinitz, _Life of Zeisberger_, pp. 265, 332, etc.