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THE LENÂPÉANDTHEIR LEGENDS;
THE LENÂPÉANDTHEIR LEGENDS;
WITH THE COMPLETE TEXT AND SYMBOLS OF THE WALAM OLUM, A NEW TRANSLATION, AND AN INQUIRY INTO ITS AUTHENTICITY. BY DANIEL G. BRINTON, A.M., M.D., PROFESSOR OF ETHNOLOGY AND ARCHÆOLOGY AT THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADELPHIA. President of the Numismatic and Antiquarian; Society of Philadelphia; Member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Antiquarian Society, the Pennsylvania Historical Society, etc.; Membre de la Société Royale des Antiquaires du Nord; Délégné Général de l'
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PREFACE.
PREFACE.
In the present volume I have grouped a series of ethnological studies of the Indians of Eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland, around what is asserted to be one of the most curious records of ancient American history. For a long time this record—the Walam Olum , or Red Score—was supposed to have been lost. Having obtained the original text complete about a year ago, I printed a few copies and sent them to several educated native Delawares with a request for aid in its translation and opi
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§ 1. The Algonkin Stock.
§ 1. The Algonkin Stock.
About the period 1500-1600, those related tribes whom we now know by the name of Algonkins were at the height of their prosperity. They occupied the Atlantic coast from the Savannah river on the south to the strait of Belle Isle on the north. The whole of Newfoundland was in their possession; in Labrador they were neighbors to the Eskimos; their northernmost branch, the Crees, dwelt along the southern shores of Hudson Bay, and followed the streams which flow into it from the west, until they met
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§ 2. The Iroquois Stock.
§ 2. The Iroquois Stock.
Surrounded on all sides by the Algonkins were the Iroquois , once called the Five or Six Nations. When first discovered they were on the St. Lawrence, near Montreal, and in the Lake Region of Central New York. Various other, tribes, not in their confederacy, and generally at war with them, spoke dialects of the same language. Such were the Hurons or Wyandots, between the Georgian Bay and Lake Erie, the Neutral Nation on the Niagara river, the Eries on the southern shore of the lake of that name,
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The Confederated Tribes.
The Confederated Tribes.
All the Algonkin nations who dwelt north of the Potomac, on the east shore of Chesapeake Bay, and in the basins of the Delaware and Hudson rivers, claimed near kinship and an identical origin, and were at times united into a loose, defensive confederacy. By the western and southern tribes they were collectively known as Wapanachkik —"those of the eastern region"— which in the form Abnaki is now confined to the remnant of a tribe in Maine. The Delawares in the far West retain traditionally the an
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The Mohegans.
The Mohegans.
The Mohegans, Mo-hé-kun-ne-uk , dwelt on the tide-waters of the Hudson, and from this their name was derived. Dr. Trumbull, indeed, following Schoolcraft, thinks that they "took their tribal name from maingan , a wolf, and Moheganick = Chip. maniganikan , 'country of wolves.'" [18] They, themselves, however, translate it, "seaside people," or more fully, "people of the great waters which are constantly ebbing or flowing." [19] The compound is machaak , great, hickan , tide ("ebbing tide," Zeis;
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The Nanticokes.
The Nanticokes.
The Nanticokes occupied the territory between Chesapeake Bay and the ocean, except its southern extremity, which appears to have been under the control of the Powhatan tribe of Virginia. The derivation of Nanticoke is from the Delaware Unéchtgo , "tide-water people," and is merely another form of Unalachtgo , the name of one of the Lenape sub-tribes. In both cases it is a mere geographical term, and not a national eponym. In the records of the treaty at Fort Johnston, 1757, the Nanticokes are al
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The Conoys.
The Conoys.
The fourth member of the Wapanachki was that nation variously called in the old records Conoys , Ganawese or Canaways , the proper form of which Mr. Heckewelder states to be Canai . [27] Considerable obscurity has rested on the early location and affiliation of this people. Mr. Heckewelder vaguely places them "at a distance on the Potomac," and supposes them to have been the Kanawhas of West Virginia. [28] This is a loose guess. They were, in fact, none other than the Piscataways of Southern Mar
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The Shawnees.
The Shawnees.
The wanderings of the unstable and migratory Shawnees have occupied the attention of several writers, but it cannot be said that either their history or their affiliations have been satisfactorily worked out. [38] Their dialect is more akin to the Mohegan than to the Delaware, and when, in 1692, they first appeared in the area of the Eastern Algonkin Confederacy, they came as the friends and relatives of the former. [39] They were divided into four bands, as follows:— 1. Piqua , properly Pikoweu
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The Sapoonees.
The Sapoonees.
A tribe called the Sapoonees, or Saponies, is mentioned as living in Pennsylvania, attached to the Delawares, about the middle of the last century. [44] They are no doubt the Saponas who once dwelt on a branch of the Great Pedee river in North Carolina, and who moved north about the year 1720. [45] They were said to have joined the Tuscaroras, but the Pennsylvania records class them with the Delawares. Others, impressed by the similarity of Sa-po-nees to Pa-nis , have imagined they were the Pawn
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The Assiwikales.
The Assiwikales.
This band of about fifty families, or one hundred men (about three hundred souls), are stated to have come from South Carolina to the Potomac late in the seventeenth century, and in 1731 were settled partly on the Susquehanna and partly on the upper Ohio or Alleghany. Their chief was named Aqueioma, or Achequeloma. Their name appears to be a compound of assin , stone; and wikwam , house, and they were probably Algonkin neighbors of the Shawnees in their southern homes, and united with them in th
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Derivation of Lenni Lenape.
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
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The Lenape Sub-Tribes.
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 ,
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The Totemic Animals.
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 n
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The New Jersey Lenape.
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 t
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Political Constitution.
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, th
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Agriculture and Food Resources.
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 geographic
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House Building.
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 some
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Manufactures.
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, ex
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Paints and Dyes.
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
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Dogs.
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]...
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Interments.
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, accor
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Computation of Time.
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 Feb
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Pictographic Signs.
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 mat
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Record Sticks.
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 th
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Moral and Mental Character.
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 an
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Religious Beliefs.
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 brin
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Doctrine of the Soul.
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 r
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The Native Priests.
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 interprete
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Religious Ceremonies.
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 festiv
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§ 1. Literature of the Lenape Tongue.
§ 1. Literature of the Lenape Tongue.
The first study of the Delaware language was undertaken by the Rev. Thomas Campanius (Holm), who was chaplain to the Swedish settlements, 1642-1649. He collected a vocabulary, wrote out a number of dialogues in Delaware and Swedish, and even completed a translation of the Lutheran catechism into the tongue. The last mentioned was published in Stockholm, in 1696, through the efforts of his grandson, under the title, Lutheri Catechismus , Ofwersatt pä American-Virginiske Spräket , 1 vol., sm. 8vo,
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§ 2. General Remarks on the Lenape.
§ 2. General Remarks on the Lenape.
The Lenape language is a well-defined and quite pure member of the great Algonkin stock, revealing markedly the linguistic traits of this group, and standing philologically, as well as geographically, between the Micmac of the extreme east and the Chipeway of the far West. These linguistic traits, common to the whole stock, I may briefly enumerate as follows:— 1. All words are derived from simple, monosyllabic roots, by means of affixes and suffixes. 2. The words do not come within the grammatic
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§ 3. Dialects of the Lenape.
§ 3. Dialects of the Lenape.
Two slightly different dialects prevailed among the Delawares themselves, the one spoken by the Unami and Unalachtgo, the other by the Minsi. The former is stated by the Moravian missionaries to have had an uncommonly soft and pleasant sound to the ear [158] , and William Penn made the same remark. It was also considered to be the purer and more elegant dialect, and was preferred by the missionaries as the vehicle for their translations. The Minsi was harsher and more difficult to learn, but wou
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§ 4. Special Structure of the Lenape.
§ 4. Special Structure of the Lenape.
The Root and the Formation of the Theme. —As they appear in the language of to-day, the Lenape radicals are chiefly monosyllables, which undergo more or less modifications in composition. They cannot be used alone, the tongue having long since passed from that interjectional condition where each of these roots conveyed a whole sentence in itself. Whether they can be resolved back into a few elementary sounds, primitive elements of speech, I shall not discuss. This has been done for the Cree root
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§ 1. The Lenape as "Women".
§ 1. The Lenape as "Women".
A unique peculiarity of the political condition of the Lenape was that for a certain time they occupied a recognized position as non-combatants—as "women," as they were called by the Iroquois. Indian customs and phraseology attached a two-fold significance to this term. The more honorable was that of peace-makers. Among the Five Nations and Susquehannocks, certain grave matrons of the tribe had the right to sit in the councils, and, among other privileges, had that of proposing a cessation of ho
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§ 2. Historic Migrations of the Lenape.
§ 2. Historic Migrations of the Lenape.
It does not form part of my plan to detail the later history of the Lenape. But some account of their number and migrations will aid in the examination of the origin and claims of the Walum Olum . The first estimate of the whole number of native inhabitants of the province was by William Penn. He stated that there were ten different nations, with a total population of about 6000 souls. [203] This was in 1683. Very soon after this they began to diminish by disease and migration. As early as 1690,
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§ 3. Missionary Efforts in the Provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
§ 3. Missionary Efforts in the Provinces of New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
None of the American colonies enjoyed a more favorable opportunity to introduce the Christian religion to the natives than that located on the Delaware river. What use was made of it? The Rev. Thomas Campanius, of Stockholm, a Lutheran clergyman, attached to the Swedish settlement from 1642 to 1649, made a creditable effort to acquire the native tongue and preach Christianity to the savages about him. He translated the Catechism into the traders' dialect of Lenape, but we have no record that he
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Cosmogonical and Culture Myths.
Cosmogonical and Culture Myths.
The Algonkins, as a stock, had a well developed creation-myth and a culture legend, found in more or less completeness in all their branches. Their culture hero, their ancestor and creator, he who made the earth and stocked it with animals, who taught them the arts of war and the chase, and gave them the Indian corn, beans and squashes, was generally called Michabo , The Great Light, but was also known among the Narragansetts of New England as Wetucks , The Common Father; among the Cree as Wisak
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National Traditions.
National Traditions.
Many early writers attest the passionate fondness of the Delawares for their ancestral traditions and the memory of their ancient heroes. The missionary, David Brainerd, mentions this as one of the leading difficulties in the way of "evangelizing the Indians." "They are likewise much attached," he writes, "to the traditions and fabulous notions of their fathers, which they firmly believe, and thence look upon their ancestors to have been the best of men." [232] To the same effect, Loskiel inform
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Rafinesque and his Writings.
Rafinesque and his Writings.
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz, to whom we owe the preservation and first translation of the Walam Olum , was born in Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, Oct. 22d, 1783, and died in Philadelphia, of cancer of the stomach, Sept. 18th, 1840. His first visit to this country was in 1802. He remained until 1804, when he went to Sicily, where he commenced business. As the French were unpopular there, he added "Schmaltz" to his name, for "prudent considerations," that being the surname of his m
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History of the Walam Olum.
History of the Walam Olum.
Rafinesque's account of the origin of the The Walam Olum may be introduced by a passage in the last work he published, "The Good Book." In that erratic volume he tells us that he had long been collecting the signs and pictographs current among the North American Indians, and adds:— "Of these I have now 60 used by the Southern or Floridian Tribes of Louisiana to Florida, based upon their language of Signs—40 used by the Osages and Arkanzas, based on the same—74 used by the Lenàpian (Delaware and
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Discovery of the Walam Olum.
Discovery of the Walam Olum.
As for the Lenape records, he gives this not very clear account of his acquisition of them:— "Having obtained, through the late Dr. Ward, of Indiana, some of the original Wallam-Olum (painted record) of the Linàpi Tribe of Wapihani or White River, the translation will be given of the songs annexed to each." [252] On a later page he wrote:— [253] " Olum implies a record, a notched stick , an engraved piece of wood or bark. It comes from ol , hollow or graved record. * * * These actual olum were a
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Was it a Forgery?
Was it a Forgery?
The crucial question arises: Was the Walam Olum a forgery by Rafinesque? It is necessary to ask and to answer this question, though it seems, at first sight, an insult to the memory of the man to do so. No one has ever felt it requisite to propound such an inquiry about the pieces of the celebrated Mexican collection of the Chevalier Boturini, who, as an antiquary, was scarcely less visionary than Rafinesque. But, unquestionably, an air of distrust and doubt shadowed Rafinesque's scientific repu
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Phonetic System.
Phonetic System.
The phonetic system adopted by the writer, whoever he was, is not that of the Moravian brethren. They employed the German alphabet, which does not obtain in the present text. On this point Rafinesque says: "The orthography of the Linapi names is reduced to the Spanish or French pronunciation, except sh , as in English; u , as in French; w , as in how ." [258] A comparison of the words with their equivalents in Zeisberger's spelling shows that this is generally true. It is obvious that the guttur
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Metrical Form.
Metrical Form.
Even to an ear not acquainted with the language, the chants of the Walam Olum are obviously in metrical arrangement. The rhythm is syllabic and accentual, with frequent effort to select homophones (to which the correct form of the words is occasionally sacrificed), and sometimes alliteration. Iteration is also called in aid, and the metrical scheme is varied in the different chants. All these rhythmical devices appear in the native American songs of many tribes, though I cannot point to any othe
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Pictographic System
Pictographic System
The pictographic system which the Walam Olum presents is clearly that of the Western Algonkins, most familiar to us through examples from the Chipeways and Shawnees. It is quite likely, indeed, that it was the work of a Shawnee, as we know that they supplied such songs, with symbols, to the Chipeways, and were intimately associated with the Delawares. At the time Rafinesque wrote, Tanner's Narrative had been in print several years, and the numerous examples of Algonkin pictography it contains we
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Derivation of Walam Olum.
Derivation of Walam Olum.
The derivation of the name Walam Olum has been largely anticipated on previous pages. I have shown that wâlâm (in modern Minsi, wâlumin ) means "painted," especially "painted red ." This is a secondary meaning, as the root wuli conveys the idea of something pleasant, in this connection, pleasant to the eye, fine, pretty. ( See ante p. 104 .) Olum was the name of the scores, marks, or figures in use on the tally-sticks or record-boards. The native Delaware missionary, Mr. Albert Anthony says that
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The MS. of the Walam Olum.
The MS. of the Walam Olum.
The MS. from which I have printed the Walam Olum is a small quarto of forty unnumbered leaves, in the handwriting of Rafinesque. It is in two parts with separate titles. The first reads:— Walamolum First Part of the painted-engraved ║ traditions of the Linni linapi,&c. ║ containing ║ the 3 original traditional poems ║ 1 on the Creation and Ontogony, 24 verses ║ 2 on the Deluge, &c. 16 v ║ 3 on the passage to America, 20 v ║ Signs and Verses, 60 ║ with the original glyphs or signs
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General Synopsis of the Walam Olum.
General Synopsis of the Walam Olum.
The myths embodied in the earlier portion of the Walam Olum are perfectly familiar to one acquainted with Algonkin mythology. They are not of foreign origin, but are wholly within the cycle of the most ancient legends of that stock. Although they are not found elsewhere in the precise form here presented, all the figures and all the leading incidents recur in the native tales picked up by the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century, and by Schoolcraft, McKinney, Tanner and others in later
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Synopsis of the separate parts.
Synopsis of the separate parts.
The formation of the universe by the Great Manito is described. In the primal fog and watery waste he formed land and sky, and the heavens cleared. He then created men and animals. These lived in peace and joy until a certain evil manito came, and sowed discord and misery. This canto is a version of the Delaware tradition mentioned in the Heckewelder MSS. which I have given previously, p. 135 . The notion of the earth rising from the primal waters is strictly a part of the earliest Algonkin myth
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I.
I.
⇒The references to authorities on Algonkin picture-writing are the Appendix to Tanner's Narrative of Captivity and Adventures , Copway's Traditional History of the Ojibway Nation , and Schoolcraft's Synopsis of Indian Symbols , in Vol. I of his History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes . I have not pursued an investigation of the symbols beyond the first chant. 1. Rafinesque translates wemiguna "all sea water." The proper form is wemmguna , "at all times" (Anthony). The symbol is that of the s
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II.
II.
1. Maskanako ; the Lenape words would be mechek , great, achgook , snake; but maska is more allied to the Cree maskaw , strong, hard, solid. Raf. translates the close of the line "when men had become bad." 2. Schingalan , to hate; from the adjective schingi , disliking, unwilling. This is the contrary of wingi , liking, willing. Both are from the subjective radical n or ni , I, Ego , the latter with the prefix wĕl , signifying pleasurable sensation ( see page 104 ). Shawelendamep , preterite for
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III.
III.
1. Wittank talli : in the MS. these words are first translated "dwelling town there," but the last two words are erased and "of Talli" substituted. This is one of a number of instances where Rafinesque altered his first translations, which is further evidence that he did not manufacture the text. In this instance, as frequently, he altered it for the worse. Wittank is from witen , to go with or be with, Zeis., and talli is the adverb "there." 3. Meshautang , "many deer" (see Vocabulary), transla
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IV.
IV.
2. Sittamaganat , Raf. translates "Path Leader." The word tamaganat appears in other verses, as w'tamaganat , IV, 37; tamaganat , IV, 55; tamaganend , V, 2. I derive it from the root tam , literally to drink, but generally, to smoke tobacco, as in Roger Williams' Key wut-tammagon , a pipe ( see above, page 49 ). Hence I take tamagamat to be the pipe-bearer, he who had charge of the Sacred Calumet. If it is objected that this puts the use of tobacco by the Lenape too remote, I reply that we do no
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V.
V.
2. Wapalaneng , apparently the White River, Indiana, or else the Wabash. 16. In this line the three tribes are mentioned which were previously named in IV, 44, 45, 46, and the difference in the spelling shows that the chant was written down by one unacquainted with the forms of the language. The correspondent names are:— The termination ako , uniformly rendered by Rafinesque snake , appears to be either the animate plural in ak , or the locative aki , place or land. The Towako are probably the O
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VOCABULARY.
VOCABULARY.
In the following Vocabulary the meaning placed immediately after the word is that assigned to it in Rafinesque's original MS, the probable composition of it is then added, with its correct rendering. The standard of the language adopted is that of the Moravian missionaries ( see above, p. 97 ). The initials referring to authorities are Z., for Zeisberger, K., for Kampman, H., for Heckewelder, R. W., Roger Williams, C. or Camp., Campamus, etc. Aan. I,6. To move; to go; Z. conjugated, Gram. , p.
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AGOZHAGÀUTA. (page 14. Note.)
AGOZHAGÀUTA. (page 14. Note.)
With reference to this word I have been favored with the opinions of Gen. Clark, Mr. Horatio Hale, and the Rev. J. A. Cuoq, all able Iroquois scholars. Gen. Clark and Mr. Hale believe that it is a dialectic or corrupt form for agotsaganha , which is a derivature from atsagannen (Bruyas, Radices Verborum Iroquaeorum , p. 42). This verbal means, in one conjugation, "to speak a foreign language," and in another, "to be of a different language, to be a foreigner." The prefix ago or ako is an indefin
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DIALECT OF THE NEW JERSEY LENAPE. (p. 46)
DIALECT OF THE NEW JERSEY LENAPE. (p. 46)
An interesting specimen of the South Jersey dialect of the Lenape is preserved in the office of the Secretary of State, Trenton, N.J. It is a list of 237 words and phrases obtained in 1684, at Salem, N.J. It was published in the American Historical Record , vol. I, pp. 308-311, 1872. The orthography is English, and it is evidently the same trader's jargon which Gabriel Thomas gives. ( See p. 76 .) The r is frequent; man is renus leno ; devil is manitto ; God is hockung tappin (literally, "he who
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REV. ADAM GRUBE. (p. 84.)
REV. ADAM GRUBE. (p. 84.)
His full name was Bernhard Adam Grube. Between 1760-63 he was missionary in charge of the Moravian mission at Wechquetank, Monroe County, Pa., and there translated into Delaware, with the aid of a native named Anton, a "Harmony of the Gospels," and prepared an "Essay of a Delaware Hymn Book." Both these were printed by J. Brandmüller, at Friedensthal, Pa., and issued in 1763; but no copy of either is known to exist....
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EASTERN ORIGIN OF THE ALGONKINS. (pp. 12 and 145.)
EASTERN ORIGIN OF THE ALGONKINS. (pp. 12 and 145.)
Quite recently M. Emile Petitot, in an article entitled, " De la pretendue Origine Orientale des Algonquins " ( Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie , 1884, p. 248), has attacked the theory that the Algonkin migrations were from the northeasterly portions of the American continent, toward the west and south. His arguments are based on two Cree legends which he relates, one of which is certainly and the other probably of modern date, as the incidents show; and on his criticism of the derivation
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