VISIONS AND GUARDIAN SPIRITS
The most vital and intimate phase of Lenape religion is the belief in
dreams and visions, and in the existence of personal guardian spirits
or supernatural helpers—concepts of wide distribution among the North
American tribes, but rarely, perhaps, so vivid or well-developed as
we find them here. The vision was the point of contact, the channel
of communication, in Lenape belief, between the great and marvelous
supernatural world and the sphere of everyday human life. In a vision
the youth first found his guardian spirit, to whom he would always
appeal, as his own special friend in the supernatural hierarchy, for
aid and comfort in time of trouble, and for the revelation of coming
events. He felt that this being took a close personal interest in his
affairs, while the greater gods, including the Great Spirit himself,
were so remote and so occupied with controlling more important things
that they might not notice or concern themselves with the affairs of one
individual man. Therefore the bulk of his prayers and offerings went to
his guardian spirit. If a Lenape won great success on a war expedition
or a hunting trip, he was sure the spirit had helped him; if unlucky, he
believed that for some reason his guardian had become estranged, or had
been overpowered by superior and malevolent forces. A man might become
a sorcerer or a shaman at the behest of his guardian spirit, given in
a dream or vision, or change his mode of life in other ways. Not every
Lenape was blessed with such a guardian; yet many were so favored,
usually in their boyhood days. To be eligible for supernatural favor, the
youth had to be _piʹlsŭⁿ_, or pure, which means that not only must he be
chaste, but that he must have kept strictly all the taboos against eating
food prepared by women in their periodic condition, etc. Old Lenape say
that, as the children of the tribe are reared nowadays in the same way as
the whites, they can no longer be _piʹlsŭⁿ_, and the Powers will speak
to them no more. This is a sad matter, for it means the loss of their
principal ancient ceremonies, at which only those blessed with a vision
can take active part. The old people feel it keenly that there will be no
one left to conduct the rites when the last of their generation has been
laid away.
INITIATION OF BOYS
Parents were especially anxious, of course, that their sons should have
supernatural aid, hence, when a boy reached the age of about twelve
years, they would frequently pretend to abuse him, and would drive him,
fasting, out into the forest to shift as best he might, in the hope that
some _manĭʹto_ would take pity on the suffering child and grant him some
power or blessing that would be his dependence through life.
Sometimes a man who had several sons would take them out into the forest
and build them a rude little tent, and here they would remain for days
at a time. During the day the boys were not permitted to eat, but just
before sunrise every morning each was given a medicine to make him vomit,
after which a tiny piece of meat was given him, about the size of a man’s
little finger. Occasionally the boys became able to fast in this way for
twelve days, at the end of which time, the Lenape say, some had received
such power that they were able to rise into the air, or go down into the
ground, or prophesy events a year or two ahead, with the magic aid of the
supernatural being that had taken pity on them.
OTHER VISIONS
It sometimes happened also that people received visions of power in
natural sleep without fasting, or even when wide awake, while feeling
melancholy and heartsick over the death of a loved one, or suffering
other misfortune or trouble. As they sat brooding, some _manĭʹto_ might
address himself to them, and give them advice and comfort, or endow them
with some kind of power. Women occasionally had visions of this kind.
THE GUARDIAN SPIRIT
Whatever the precise circumstances of its appearance, the guardian spirit
in many instances was said to show itself first in human form, and it
was only when it turned to leave that its real shape (of an animal, for
instance) was noticed by the recipient of its blessing. Sometimes the
interview was quite long and the directions given by the _manĭʹto_ (for
ceremonies, etc.) quite explicit; on other occasions they were very vague
and cryptic. Frequently, according to the stories told, some tangible
object, called by the Unami the _opiʹna_, or blessing, was handed by the
_manĭʹto_ to the recipient of his favor, who usually swallowed it. Some
recipients were called on, however, to make and keep some symbol of their
protector, which was usually worn on the person in the form of a charm.
FAVORED INDIVIDUALS.—Persons favored with a guardian spirit usually
became prominent among their people and were held in high esteem. They
composed rythmic chants referring to their visions for use at the Annual
Ceremony (which will be discussed in the next chapter), and dance songs
to accompany them. Rarely were the words of either chants or songs at
all definite: as a rule they merely mentioned attributes of the singer’s
guardian, or incidents of their first meeting, without stating outright
what the guardian spirit was, or telling a consecutive story of the
vision.
Most Lenape who have had such visions can not be induced to tell the
details; but the following examples of such experiences, imperfect in
many points, were finally obtained. Incomplete though they are, they will
give some idea of this class of beliefs and in this way may prove of
value.
UNAMI EXAMPLES.—One old man named Pokiteʹhemun (“Breaker”), known to the
whites in Oklahoma as George Wilson, saw in his vision what seemed to
be a man who held out to him a white round object like a boy’s marble,
then tossed it to him. Pokiteʹhemun caught it and swallowed it. Then as
it turned to go, the being cried “_Kwank! kwank! kwank!_ The ducks have
a praying meeting in the fall of the year!” As it turned, Pokiteʹhemun
noticed that it was really a duck instead of a man, and was colored half
black and half white.[39]
Pokiteʹhemun could pound on his chest at any time and apparently cough
up a round marble-like object, which he would show in his hand and then
appear to swallow again. This he claimed was the _opiʹna_ given by his
guardian spirit.
He seemed to regard the words of the duck spirit as an admonition to do
all he could to keep up the tribal Annual Ceremony, which was held in the
fall; while the “blessing” gave him good fortune. The chant he composed
for use at this ceremony is as follows:
_Lawulĕnjei_
_Wŭⁿjegŭk toxweyu_
_Kwĕⁿnanowagŭⁿ_
_Wailaⁿgomaⁿole_
_Lĕnape, eli nanŭⁿ_
_Telowaⁿ, lowaⁿ_
_Nuⁿni, ĕndageko_
_Lowaet, lowa nŭⁿni._
The interpreter’s translation, which is a somewhat free one, follows:
“When he opened his hand
Something came out of the center
That’s his blessing
(For?) our kinfolks, the
Lenape; because that
Is what he said, he did say
This, when
He spoke, he said this.”
Then came the dance song:
_He-e-e-e nehani_
_Latamaⁿne_
_Nehani lamaⁿne_
_Kwĕⁿnanowagŭⁿ, nowagŭn_
_Hayelaⁿgomaⁿ_
_Gweheyeha_
_Gehe!_
This, according to the interpreter, means simply, when stripped of its
superfluous syllables, “We own a temple—his blessing—our kinfolks.”
Another man saw in his boyhood vision the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, or Living Solid
Face, riding on a deer. I was unable to get the details of their meeting,
or the chant, but this is the dance song:
_Hehotawegeʹna_
_Hotowegeʹna_
_Xingâloʹ pai awheʹwani_
_Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn_
_Hâliʹkŭne_
_A-heʹ-he-heʹ!_
This, the interpreter said, means “Riding it, riding it, big buck deer,
this one, Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn!” Seldom do the songs or chants refer so
definitely to the protector as does this.
A third Lenape, when a boy, was sent out to the corn-field to drive away
the crows. As he stood by the field he saw them flying around to light
on a tree near by. Suddenly someone spoke to him, and among the things
said (which were not revealed to me) were the words “I like this Lenape
food,” referring to the corn. The boy thought a man was addressing him,
until the person suddenly flew away in the form of a crow, crying “_Ha!
Ha! Ha!_” I failed to get the Indian words for the song, and my informant
did not remember the chant, but the translation of the song was given as
follows:
“I like this Lenape food:”
I never knew a crow said that
Till the crow was cawing
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”
A fourth had seen some kind of an animal in his vision, but never told
any of his tribesmen what it was. His song, as now remembered, was
translated thus:
Come, follow me,
I am going
Out into the country.
A fifth had “Mother Corn” (the Corn Spirit) for a guardian, but only part
of his song is remembered.
“All my children
Are glad when I come out!”
Some people were helped by the spirits of the dead in the same way that
others received aid from animal or other nature spirits.
“Old man” Secondine, now dead, a well known Oklahoma Lenape, was one of
these. When a boy his parents drove him out in the woods, as was the
custom, in the hope that he might receive a supernatural helper. After
wandering about for a time, he took refuge in a large hollow tree, and
made that his camping place. Before long he was visited by apparitions
of persons he knew to be dead, who took pity on his starving condition,
and brought him food which they had taken at night from the houses of
the living, this being the way that disembodied spirits are supposed
to get nourishment when visiting the scenes of their earthly life. In
the meantime his parents were unable to find him, and searched for him
without avail until the ghosts finally revealed to them his camping
place, and then he was brought safely home. Ever afterward he claimed
the ghosts as his guardians, and like others blessed with this kind of
helpers, was said to hold some kind of communication with the departed.
MINSI EXAMPLES.—The late James Wolf, my principal Minsi informant, was
said to possess this power, as was stated in the preceding chapter. He
had, moreover, received another vision when a boy, but had made little,
if any, use of it, because of his profession of Christianity. One time in
his boyhood days, he told me, he thought or dreamed (he was not asleep
at the time) that there was no water in the river, and that he went down
into its bed and found only one little hole containing water. In this was
a creature resembling a catfish, yet somewhat different, and near it was
an ordinary crayfish, while on the surface of the water walked a number
of little flies. The boy thinking what he had seen was real, ran home in
haste to tell his father. The father walked down with him to see, but
stopped on the bank where the edge of the water had been, while the boy
ran on down to his pool. The river-bed seemed dry to him, but his father
would not come, saying that the river was full of water. The boy then
came out and they started for home, but before they were out of sight,
the lad looked back. To his surprise, the river was full as usual.
The father, who was Flying Wolf, a noted Minsi warrior, had been favored
himself, when a boy, with a rather unusual sort of vision, which James
Wolf related to me, as nearly as possible the way the old man used to
tell it at the Annual Ceremony.
“When I was a boy, I was once fast asleep on a hill near a little creek.
Someone said, ‘Wake up! Let us go where our friends are!’ So I got up and
followed him across the little creek and up a hill, where I saw six men
sitting on a log. Then I went up and shook hands with them all. After
they had shaken hands with me they all danced around in a ring.” At this
point he used to sing one verse of his dance song—
_Wĕmi wangoⁿtowak kewiha_
All greet one another
_Yoki lĕnape witci._
Now Lenape at the same time
_E-ye-he-ye-ĕ!_
“They told me, ‘We will go to see our friends,’ so I went with them.
Every now and then they stopped and danced around as they had done
before. After a while one of them told me to look toward the south, and
there I saw a black cloud in which the lightning flashed. ‘Would you like
to go there?’ they asked me. I answered ‘No.’ Then one asked if I wanted
to go _that_ way, pointing to the northeast, where the sky was blue and
bright, to which I answered that I would rather go in that direction
toward the clear sky. A little farther on they said: ‘We will now leave
you. Watch us as we go.’ They went to the east a little way, and then I
saw them trotting. They were wolves, and I had thought all the while that
they were human beings.”
Verses of the dance song were sung at intervals during this speech. From
analogy with other visions, such as are recorded above, one would think
that the six wolf-men must have become Flying Wolf’s protectors, but
instead, it was a Thunder Being that became his principal guardian, whose
participation in the vision is merely inferred from the mention in the
speech of the black cloud and the lightning. Evidently this Thunder Being
was not offended when Flying Wolf told his guides that he would rather go
toward the clear sky than toward the black cloud.
The Minsi say that when Flying Wolf recited his vision in the Big
House ceremonies, he moved everyone, some even to tears. After he had
finished, they say, a thunder-shower would almost always rise. He would
become strangely excited when the dark clouds began to bank up on the
horizon and spread themselves over the land. Stripping himself to the
breech-cloth, he was ready to go out when the storm broke, for he would
never stay beneath a roof at such a time. He loved to expose his body
to the driving gusts of wind and rain; the appalling roar was music to
his ears; while the lighting, to the eyes of the frightened onlookers,
seemed to play about his very body. He used to say that if he stayed
indoors the lightning display would be so terrible that the others in the
house could not endure it. No wonder they used to say of him, “_PilesʹwaL
pewaʹlatcil!_” “He is in league with the Thunders!”, or better, perhaps,
“The Thunders will protect him!”
Within the memory of Minsi now living in Canada there were two members of
the tribe who claimed the Sun spirit, _Kiʹzho_ (or _Kiʹzhox_) as their
protector. One of these was known as “Old man” Halfmoon, the other as
“Muncey John” Henry. Halfmoon, it is said, when he wished to appear as a
warrior, would sometimes hold his bare hands up toward the flaming face
of his guardian, then rub the palms down his cheeks. When he removed
his hands, it was seen that his face, clean before, was now painted in
brilliant colors! “Surely,” the people cried, “this man is in league with
the Sun!”
That the idea of a tangible ‘blessing’ is found among the Minsi, as well
as among the Unami, is shown in certain of their traditions.
HISTORICAL REFERENCES.—_Brainerd._—Brainerd seems to have been about the
first author to recognize in any degree the importance of the dream or
vision in Lenape religious belief. He says:[40]
“They give much heed to _dreams_, because they suppose that
these invisible powers give them directions at such times about
certain affairs, and sometimes inform them what _animal_ they
would choose to be worshipped in.”
Other remarks by Brainerd on the same general topic were quoted in the
preceding chapter.
_Zeisberger._—Zeisberger[41] also devotes a paragraph to it, in which he
says:
“Almost all animals and the elements are looked upon as
spirits, one exceeding the other in dignity and power. There
is scarcely an Indian who does not believe that one or more of
these spirits has not been particularly given him to assist him
and make him prosper. This, they claim, has been made known to
them in a dream, even as their religious belief and witchcraft
has been made known to them in a dream. One has, in a dream,
received a serpent or a buffalo, another the sun or the moon,
another an owl or some other bird, another a fish, some even
ridiculously insignificant creatures such as ants. These are
considered their spirits or _Manittos_. If an Indian has no
Manitto to be his friend he considers himself forsaken, has
nothing on which he may lean, has no hope of any assistance and
is small in his own eyes. On the other hand those who have been
thus favored possess a high and proud spirit.”
_Loskiel._—Loskiel’s account[42] seems largely derived from the above. He
remarks:
“The _manittos_ are also considered as tutelar spirits. Every
Indian has one or more, which he conceives to be peculiarly
given to assist him and make him prosper. One has in a dream
received the sun as his tutelar spirit, another the moon; a
third, an owl; a fourth, a buffaloe; and so forth. An Indian is
dispirited, and considers himself as forsaken by God, till he
has received a tutelar spirit in a dream; But those who have
been thus favored, are full of courage, and proud of their
powerful ally.”
_Heckewelder._—Heckewelder[43] devotes a whole chapter to the subject,
under the head of “Initiation of Boys,” to which the reader is referred,
as it is all of interest, but can not be reproduced here. I will merely
quote portions of one paragraph, which will serve to show that this
author found approximately similar ideas as had his predecessors,
concepts which still exist among the Lenape.
“When a boy is to be thus _initiated_, he is put under an
alternate course of physic and fasting ... so that he sees, or
fancies that he sees visions, and has extraordinary dreams.
Then he has interviews with the Manitto or with spirits, who
inform him of what he was before he was born, and what he will
be after his death. His fate in this life is laid entirely
open before him, the spirit tells him what is to be his future
employment, whether he will be a valiant warrior, a mighty
hunter, a doctor, a conjuror or a prophet.”
Later in the chapter Heckewelder mentions the fact that persons favored
with such dreams considered themselves under the protection of the
“celestial powers,” and mentions the “strength, the power, and the
courage” conveyed to them, but lays more stress on the prophetic side
of these visions than on the actual aid rendered, according to Lenape
belief, by the supernatural guardians.
_Adams._—From Heckewelder’s time to the present, I know of but one
writer, besides myself, who describes, from his own observation, the
Lenape belief in visions and guardian spirits. This is R. C. Adams,[44]
himself of Delaware blood, whose notes may be found in the volume on
Indians of the United States Census Report for 1890 (p. 298 et seq.). He
says:
“It is believed by the Delawares that every one has a guardian
spirit which comes in the form of some bird, animal, or other
thing, at times in dreams, and tells them what to do and what
will happen. The guardian spirit is sent from the Great Spirit.”
Having now considered the very foundation of Lenape religion, we may turn
with better understanding, to their great Annual Ceremony.