MYTHS AND TRADITIONS OF THE LENAPE.
Cosmogonical and Culture Myths.--The Culture-hero,
Michabo.--Myths from Lindstrom, Ettwein, Jasper Donkers,
Zeisberger.--Native Symbolism.--The Saturnian Age.--Mohegan
Cosmogony and Migration Myth. National Traditions.--Beatty's
Account.--The Number Seven.--Heckewelder's Account.--Prehistoric
Migrations.--Shawnee Legend.--Lenape Legend of the Naked Bear.
_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 _Wisakketjâk_, the Trickster; by the Chippeways as Nanabozho
(_Nenâboj_), the Cheat; by the Black Feet as _Natose_, Our Father, or
_Napiw_; and by the Micmacs and Penobscots as _Glus-Kap_, the Liar.
I have given the details of this myth and analyzed them in previous
works;[222] here it is sufficient to say that it is a Light-myth, and
one of noble proportion and circumstance, quite worthy of comparison
with those of the Oriental world.
Traces of it are reported among the Lenape, and I doubt not that had
we their ancient stories in their completeness, we should find that
they had preserved it as wholly as the Chipeways. These related of
their Nanabozho that he was the son of a maiden who had descended from
heaven. She conceived without knowledge of man, and having given birth
to twins, she disappeared. One of these twins was Nanabozho. Having
formed the earth by his miraculous powers, and done many wonderful
things, he disappeared toward the east, where he still dwells beyond
the sunrise.
It was undoubtedly a fragment of this legend that the Swedish engineer,
Lindstrom heard among the Lenape, on the Delaware, about 1650. They
told him, or rather he understood them, as follows:--
"Once, one of your women (_i.e._, a white woman) came among us, and
she became pregnant, in consequence of drinking out of a creek; an
Indian had connection with her, and she became pregnant, and brought
forth a son, who, when he came to a certain size, was so sensible and
clever, that there never was one who could be compared to him, so much
and so well he spoke, which excited great wonder; he also performed
many miracles. When he was quite grown up, he left us, and went up to
heaven, and promised to come again, but has never returned."[223]
This is but a mistranslation of the general Algonkin legend, in which
the virgin mother bears a white and dark twin, the former of whom
becomes the tribal culture hero and demiurgic deity.
Its interpretation is, that the virgin is the Dawn, who brings forth
the Day, which assures safety and knowledge, and the Night, which
departs with her. The Day leaves us, and in its personified form
returns no more, though ever expected.
That such were the original form and significance of the myth, we have
the testimony of Bishop Ettwein,[224] himself a Delaware scholar, and
who drew his information from the natives as well as the missionaries.
He tells us that their legend ran, that in the beginning the first
woman fell from heaven and bore twins; that it was toward the east that
they directed their children to turn their faces when they prayed to
the spirits; and that their old men had said that it was an ancient
belief that from that quarter some one would come to them to benefit
them. Therefore, said they, when our ancestors saw the first white men,
they looked upon them as divine, and adored them.
The Dutch travelers, Jasper Donkers and Peter Sluyter, relate a part
of this myth as they heard it from New Jersey Indians in 1679. These
informed them that all things came from a tortoise. It had brought
forth the world, and from the middle of its back had sprung up a tree,
upon whose branches men had grown.
This tortoise "had a power and a nature to produce all things, such as
earth, trees and the like." But it was not the _primum mobile_, not the
ultimate energy of the universe. "The first and great beginning of all
things was _Kickeron_ or _Kickerom_, who is the original of all, who
has not only once produced or made all things, but produces every day."
The tortoise brought forth what this primal divinity "wished through it
to produce."[225]
This is a very interesting statement. It reveals a depth of thought
on the part of the native philosophers for which we were scarcely
prepared. The worthy Dutch travelers do not pretend to explain the
myth. But its sense can be clearly interpreted.
The turtle or tortoise is everywhere in Algonkin pictography the symbol
of the earth.[226] From the earth, from the soil, all organic life, the
whole realm of animate existence--ever sharply defined in Algonkin
grammar and thought from inanimate existence--proceeds, directly
as vegetable life, or indirectly as animal life. The earth is the
All-Mother, ever-producing, inexhaustible.
As for _Kikeron_, the eternally active, hidden spirit of the universe,
I have but to refer the reader to the list of ideas associated around
this root _kik_, which I have given on a previous page (p. 102) to
reveal the significance of this word. We may, with equal correctness,
translate it Life, Light, Action or Energy. It is the abstract
conception back of all these.
The distinction was the same as that established by the scholastic
philosophers between the _mundus_ and the _anima mundi_; between the
_essentia_ and the _existentia;_ between _natura naturans_ and _natura
naturata_. But who expected to find it among the Lenape?
This creation myth of the Delawares is also given in brief by
Zeisberger. It dated back to that marvelous overflow which is heard
of in many mythologies. The whole earth was submerged, and but a few
persons survived. They had taken refuge on the back of a turtle, who
had reached so great an age that his shell was mossy, like the bank of
a rivulet. In this forlorn condition a loon flew that way, which they
asked to dive and bring up land. He complied, but found no bottom. Then
he flew far away, and returned with a small quantity of earth in his
bill. Guided by him, the turtle swam to the place, where a spot of dry
land was found. There the survivors settled and repeopled the land.[227]
This is more a tale of reconstruction than a creation myth. It is that
which has generally been supposed to refer to the Deluge. But, as I
have explained in my "Myths of the New World," all these so-called
Deluge Myths are but developments of crude cosmogonical theories.
To understand the significance of this myth we must examine the Indian
notion of the earth. This is the more germane to my theme, as the
meaning of the original text which is printed in this volume can only
be grasped by one acquainted with this notion.
The Indians almost universally believed the dry land they knew to be
a part of a great island, everywhere surrounded by wide waters whose
limits were unknown.[228] Many tribes had vague myths of a journey
from beyond this sea; many placed beyond it the home of the Sun and
of Light, and the happy hunting grounds of the departed souls. The
Delawares believed that the whole was supported by a fabled turtle,
whose movements caused earthquakes and who had been their first
preserver.[229] As above mentioned, the turtle in its amphibious
character and rounded back represented the earth or the land itself,
as distinguished from water. Like the turtle, the land lies at times
under the water and at times above it. The spirit of the earth was the
practical and visible developmental energy of nature.
The medicine men, or conjurers, who professed to be in personal
relations with this power, made their "medicine rattle" of a turtle
shell (Loskiel), and when they died, such a shell was suspended from
their tomb posts (Zeisberger).
The Delawares also shared the belief, common to so many nations the
world over, that the pristine age was one of unalloyed prosperity,
peace and happiness, an Age of Gold, a Saturnian Reign. Their legends
asseverated that at that time "the killing of a man was unknown,
neither had there been instances of their dying before they had
attained to that age which causes the hair to become white, the eyes
dim, and the teeth to be worn away."
This happy time was brought to a close by the advent of certain evil
beings who taught men how to kill each other by sorcery.[230]
Their kinsmen, the Mohegans, varied this cosmogonical tradition, though
retaining some of its main features. They taught that in the beginning
there was nought but water and sky. At length from the sky a woman
descended, our common mother. As she approached the boundless ocean,
a small point of land rose above the watery surface, and supplied her
with firm footing. She was pregnant by some mysterious power, and she
brought forth on this island animal triplets--a bear, a deer and a
wolf. From these all men and animals are descended. The island grew to
a main land, and the mother of all, her mission accomplished, returned
to her home in the sky.[231]
This creation-myth, obtained from the Indians around New York harbor in
the first generation after the advent of the whites, has every mark of
a genuine native production, and coincides closely with that generally
believed by the early Algonkins.
It is followed by a migration myth, which ran to the effect that their
early forefathers came out of the northwest, forsaking a tide-water
country, and crossing over a great watery tract, called _ukhkok-pek_,
"snake water, or water where snakes are abundant," (_âkhgook_, snake,
and _pek_, standing water, probably from _n'pey_, water, _akek_, place
or country). They crossed many streams, but none in which the water
ebbed and flowed, until they reached the Hudson. "Then they said,
one to another, 'This is like the Muhheakunnuck (tidal ocean) of our
nativity.' Therefore they agreed to kindle a fire there and hang a
kettle, whereof they and their children after them might dip out their
daily refreshment." Hence came their name, the Tide-water People (see
ante, p. 20).
_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 informs us that the Delawares "love to
relate what great warriors their ancestors had been, and how many
heroic deeds they had performed. It is a pleasure to them to rehearse
their genealogies. They are so skilled at it that they can repeat the
chief and collateral lines with the utmost readiness. At the same time,
they characterize their ancestors, by describing this one as a wise or
skillful man, as a great chieftain, a renowned warrior, a rich man,
and the like. This they teach to their children, and _embody it in
pictures, so as to make it more readily remembered."_[233]
The earliest writer who gives us any detailed description of what these
traditions were, is the Rev. Charles Beatty, who visited the Delaware
settlements in Ohio in 1767. On his way there, he met a white man,
Benjamin Button, who for years had been a captive among the natives. He
related to Beatty the following tradition, which he had heard recited
by some old men among the Delawares:--
"That of old time their people were divided by a river, nine parts
of ten passing over the river, and one part remaining behind; that
they knew not, for certainty, how they came to this continent; but
account thus for their first coming into these parts where they are now
settled; that a king of their nation, where they formerly lived, far to
the west, left his kingdom to his two sons; that the one son making war
upon the other, the latter thereupon determined to depart and seek some
new habitation; that accordingly he sat out, accompanied by a number
of his people, and that, after wandering to and fro for the space of
forty years, they at length came to Delaware river, where they settled
370 years ago. The way, he says, they keep an account of this is by
putting on a black bead of wampum every year on a belt they keep for
that purpose."[234]
From another source Mr. Beatty obtained the traditions of the
Nanticokes, which is apparently a version of that of their relatives,
the Delawares. It ran to this effect: At some remote age, while on
their way to their present homes, "They came to a great water. One of
the Indians that went before them tried the depth of it by a long pole
or reed, which he had in his hand, and found it too deep for them to
wade. Upon their being non-plussed, and not knowing how to get over
it, their God made a bridge over the water in one night, and the next
morning, after they were all over, God took away the bridge."[235]
A curious addition to this story is mentioned by Loskiel.[236] The
number of the mythical ancestors of their race who thus were left on
the shore of the great water was _seven_. This at once recalls the
seven caves (_Chicomoztoc_) or primitive stirpes of the Mexican tribes,
the seven clans (_vuk amag_) of the Cakchiquels, the seven ancestors
of the Qquechuas, etc., and strongly intimates that there must be some
common natural occurrence to give rise to this widespread legend.[237]
Some peculiar sacredness must have attached to this number among the
Delawares also, as we are informed that the period of isolation of
their women at the catamenial period was seven days.[238]
The lunar month of 28 days, if divided and assigned equally to
each of the four cardinal points, would give a week of seven days
to each. Something of this kind seems to have been done by another
Algonkin tribe, the Ottawas, who declared that the winds are caused
(alternately?) by seven genii or gods who dwelt in the air.[239]
The seven day period is also a natural, physical one, whose influence
is felt widely by vertebrate and invertebrate animals, as Darwin has
pointed out,[240] and hence its appearance among these people, who
lived entirely subject to the operation of their physical surroundings,
is not so surprising.
The most complete account of the Delaware tradition is that preserved
by Heckewelder. In his pages it appears, not as a reminiscence of
tribal history, but as the tradition of the whole eastern Algonkin
race, and it claims for the three Delaware tribes an antiquity of
organization surpassing that of any of their neighbors.
It holds such an important place that I quote all the essential
passages:--
"The Lenni Lenape (according to the traditions handed down to them
by their ancestors) resided many hundred years ago in a very distant
country in the western part of the American continent. For some reason,
which I do not find accounted for, they determined on migrating to the
eastward, and accordingly set out together in a body. After a very
long journey, and many nights' encampments by the way, they at length
arrived on the _Namoesi Sipu_, where they fell in with the Mengwe, who
had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this
river somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of the
Delawares; they were proceeding on to the eastward, until they should
find a country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent
forward for the purpose of reconnoitring, had long before their arrival
discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by
a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great
rivers flowing through their land. Those people (as I was told) called
themselves Talligeu or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a
gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks
several of their languages, is of opinion that they were not called
Talligewi, but Alligewi. * * *
"Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said
to have been remarkably tall, and stout, and there is a tradition that
there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the
tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves
regular fortifications or entrenchments, from whence they would sally
out, but were generally repulsed. * * *
"When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a
message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle themselves in
their neighbourhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave
to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the
eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi Sipu, when the
Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact
they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who
had crossed, threatening them all with destruction, if they dared to
persist in coming over to their side of the river. * * *
"Having united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared war against
the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many warriors
fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erected
fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they
were successively attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An
engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards
buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth.
No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last, finding that
their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy,
abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi
river, from whence they never returned. * * *
"In the end the conquerors divided the country between themselves; the
Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes
and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of
the country to the south. For a long period of time--some say many
hundred years--the two nations resided peaceably in this country, and
increased very fast; some of their most enterprising huntsmen and
warriors crossed the great swamps, and falling on streams running to
the eastward, followed them down to the great Bay river, thence into
the Bay itself, which we call Chesapeak. As they pursued their travels,
partly by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times
on the great Salt-water Lake, as they call the sea, they discovered
the great river, which we call the Delaware; and thence exploring still
eastward, the _Scheyichbi_ country, now named New Jersey, they arrived
at another great stream, that which we call the Hudson or
North river. * * *
"At last they settled on the four great rivers (which we call Delaware,
Hudson, Susquehannah, Potomack), making the Delaware, to which they
gave the name of _'Lenape-wihittuck'_ (the river or stream of the
Lenape), the centre of their possessions.
"They say, however, that the whole of their nation did not reach this
country; that many remained behind, in order to aid and assist that
great body of their people which had not crossed the Namaesi Sipu, but
had retreated into the interior of the country on the other
side. * * *
"Their nation finally became divided into three separate bodies; the
larger body, which they suppose to have been one-half the whole, was
settled on the Atlantic, and the other half was again divided into two
parts, one of which, the strongest, as they suppose, remained beyond
the Mississippi, and the remainder where they left them, on this side
of that river.
"Those of the Delawares who fixed their abodes on the shores of
the Atlantic divided themselves into three tribes. Two of them,
distinguished by the names of the _Turtle_ and the _Turkey_, the
former calling themselves _Unâmi_, and the other _Unalâchtgo_, chose
those grounds to settle on which lay nearest to the sea, between the
coast and the high mountains. As they multiplied, their settlements
extended from the _Mohicanittuck_ (river of the Mohicans, which we
call the North or Hudson river) to the Potomack." * * * "The third
tribe, the _Wolf_, commonly called the _Minsi_, which we have corrupted
into _Monseys_, had chosen to live back of the other two." * * * They
extended their settlements from the Minisink, a place named after them,
where they had their council seat and fire, quite up to the Hudson, on
the east; and to the west or southward far beyond the Susquehannah.
"From the above three tribes, the _Unami, Unalachtgo_ and the _Minsi_,
had, in the course of time, sprung many others, * * * the Mahicanni,
or Mohicans, who spread themselves over all that country which now
composes the Eastern States, * * * and the _Nanticokes_, who proceeded
far to the south, in Maryland and Virginia."
On their conquests during the period of their western migrations, the
Delawares based a claim for hunting grounds in the Ohio valley. It
is stated that when they had decided to remove to the valley of the
Muskingum, their chief, Netawatwes, presented this claim to the Hurons
and Miamis, and had it allowed.[241] They also claimed lands on White
River, Indiana, and their settlement in that region at the close of the
last century was regarded as a return to their ancient seats.
Nevertheless, in the earliest historic times, when the whites first
came in contact with the Lenape tribes, none of them dwelt west of the
mountains, nor, apparently, had they any towns in the valley of the
west branch of the Susquehanna or of its main stream.
Although the above mentioned facts point to a migration in prehistoric
times from the West toward the East, there are indications of a yet
older movement from the northeast westward and southward to the upper
Mississippi valley. A legend common to the western Algonkin tribes,
the Kikapoos, Sacs, Foxes, Ottawas and Pottawatomies, located their
original home north of the St. Lawrence river, near or below where
Montreal now stands. In that distant land their ancestors were created
by the Great Spirit, and they dwelt there, "all of one nation." Only
when they removed or were driven west did they separate into tribes
speaking different dialects.[242]
The Shawnees, who at various times were in close relation with the
Delawares, also possessed a vague migration myth, according to which,
at some indefinitely remote past, they had arrived at the main land
after crossing a wide water. Their ancestors succeeded in this by their
great control of magic arts, their occult power enabling them to walk
over the water as if it had been land. Until within the present century
this legend was repeated annually, and a yearly sacrifice offered up in
memory of their safe arrival.[243] It is evidently a version of that
which appears in the third part of the WALAM OLUM.
One of the curious legends of the Lenape was that of the Great
Naked or Hairless Bear. It is told by the Rev. John Heckewelder, in
a letter to Dr. B. S. Barton.[244] The missionary had heard it both
among the Delawares and the Mohicans. By the former, it was spoken
of as _amangachktiátmachque_, and in the dialect of the latter,
_ahamagachktiât mechqua_.[245]
The story told of it was that it was immense in size and the most
ferocious of animals. Its skin was bare, except a tuft of white hair on
its back. It attacked and ate the natives, and the only means of escape
from it was to take to the water. Its sense of smell was remarkably
keen, but its sight was defective. As its heart was very small, it
could not be easily killed. The surest plan was to break its back-bone;
but so dangerous was an encounter with it, that those hunters who went
in pursuit of it bade their families and friends farewell, as if they
never expected to return.
Fortunately, there were few of these beasts. The last one known was to
the east, somewhere beyond the left bank of the Mahicanni Sipu (the
Hudson river). When its presence was learned a number of bold hunters
went there, and mounted a rock with precipitous sides. They then made
a noise, and attracted the bear's attention, who rushed to the attack
with great fury. As he could not climb the rock, he tore at it with
his teeth, while the hunters above shot him with arrows and threw upon
him great stones, and thus killed him.
Though this was the last of the species, the Indian mothers still used
his name to frighten their children into obedience, threatening them
with the words, "The Naked Bear will eat you."
FOOTNOTES:
[222] D. G. Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, Chap. VI. (N.Y., 1876),
and _American Hero Myths_, Chap. II (Phila., 1882). The seeming
incongruity of applying such terms as Trickster, Cheat and Liar to
the highest divinity I have explained in a paper in the _American
Antiquarian_ for the current year (1885) and will recur to later.
[223] Thomas Campanius, _Account of New Sweden_, Book III, cap. xi.
[224] _Traditions and Language of the Indians_, in _Bulletin Hist. Soc.
Pa._, Vol. I, pp. 30-31.
[225] _Journal of a Voyage to New York in 1679-80_. By Jasper Donkers
and Peter Sluyter, p. 268. Translation in Vol. I of the _Transactions
of the Long Island Historical Society_ (Brooklyn, 1867).
[226] Schoolcraft says of the Chipeway pictographic symbols: "The
turtle is believed to be, in all instances, a symbol of the earth, and
is addressed as mother." _History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes_,
Vol. I, p. 390.
[227] Zeisberger, MSS, in E. de Schweinitz, _Life and Times of
Zeisberger_, pp. 218, 219; Heckewelder, _Indian Nations_, p. 253.
[228] "The Indians call the American continent an island, believing
it to be entirely surrounded by water." Heckewelder, _Hist. Indian
Nations_, p. 250.
[229] Ibid, p. 308.
[230] Heckewelder, MSS in the Library of the American Philosophical
Society. It is one of the points in favor of the authenticity of the
WALAM OLUM that this halcyon epoch is mentioned in its lines, though no
reference to it is contained in printed books relating to the Lenape
legends.
[231] Van der Donck, _Description of the New Netherlands_, _Coll. N. Y.
Hist. Soc._, Ser. II, Vol. I, pp. 217-18.
[232] _Life and Journal of the Rev. David Brainerd_, pp. 397, 425
(Edinburgh, 1826).
[233] So we may understand Loskiel to mean when he says, "Das bringen
sie ihren Kindern ebenfalls bey, und kleiden es in Bllder ein, um es
noch eindrücklicher zu machen." _Geschichte der Mission_, etc., s. 32.
I think Zeisberger, who was Loskiel's authority, meant _Bilder_ in its
literal, not rhetorical, sense.
[234] Charles Beatty, _Journal of a Two Months' Tour: with a View of
Promoting Religion among the Frontier Inhabitants of Pennsylvania, and
of Introducing Christianity among the Indians to the Westward of the
Alleghgeny Mountains_, p. 27 (London, 1768).
[235] Ibid, p. 91.
[236] _Geschichte der Mission_, etc., p. 31.
[237] The Mohegans seem also to have at one time had a sevenfold
division. At least a writer speaks of the "seven tribes" into which
those in Connecticut were divided. _Mass. Hist. Soc. Colls._, Vol. IX
(I ser.), p. 90.
[238] Charles Beatty, _Journal_, etc., p. 84.
[239] _Relation des Jesuites_, 1648, p. 77.
[240] _The Descent of Man_, p. 165, note.
[241] Heckewelder, _Tran. Amer. Philos. Soc._, Vol. III, p. 388.
[242] This legend was told by the Sac Chief Masco, to Major Marston,
about 1819. See J. Morse, _Report on Indian Affairs_, p. 138.
[243] This myth was obtained in 1812, from the Shawnees in Missouri
(Schoolcraft, _Indian Tribes_, Vol. IV, p. 254), and independently in
1819, from those in Ohio (Mr. John Johnston, in _Trans. of the Amer.
Antiq. Soc._, Vol. I, p. 273). Those of the tribe who now live on
the Quapaw Reservation, Indian Territory, repeat every year a long,
probably mythical and historical, chant, the words of which I have
tried, in vain, to obtain. They say that to repeat it to a white man
would bring disasters on their nation. I mention it as a piece of
aboriginal composition most desirable to secure.
[244] Published in the _Transactions of the American Philosophical
Society_, 1st ser., Vol. IV, pp. 260, sqq.
[245] From _amangi_, great or big (in composition _amangach_), with
the accessory notion of terrible, or frightful; Cree, _amansis_, to
frighten; _tiât_, an abbreviated form of _tawa_, naked, whence the name
_Tawatawas_, or Twightees, applied to the Miami Indians in the old
records. (See _Minutes of the Provincial Council of Penna._, Vol. VIII,
p. 418).