MINSI BIG HOUSE CEREMONIES
The following account of the great ceremonies of the Minsi, which
correspond to the annual ceremony of the Unami, was obtained from Chief
James Wolf, now deceased, and his nephew, Chief Nellis Timothy.
MYTH OF ORIGIN
At first, it appears, the Indians did not know how to worship, so
Kĕ‛tanĭtoʹwĕt, the Great Manĭʹto or God, now called Pa‛ʹtŭmawas, came
down and told them what to do. After following his instructions, they
watched him when he ascended. He carried twelve sumach sticks in his
hand, and they could see them shine far up in the air. Every now and
then he dropped one, and when he dropped the twelfth he disappeared,
while they heard the heavens crack like thunder behind him as he went
in. After this the Lenape began to hold these meetings according to the
instructions he had given them.
NUMBER OF CEREMONIES
There were two of these ceremonies every year, both held in the Minsi Big
House (_W‛aʹtekan_), which was quite similar to that of the Unami. One of
these, performed about June when the wild strawberries were ripe, lasted
only a single night; the other, early in winter, covered twelve days and
nights. This latter corresponds to the Annual Ceremony of the Unami.
At the June ceremony fresh strawberries were made into a drink for the
people, which reminds one of the Iroquois Strawberry Dance, or Dance of
First Fruits, as it is sometimes called. Strawberries were dried at this
time to make a drink for the Winter Ceremony.
ARRANGEMENT OF THE BIG HOUSE
[Illustration: FIG. 14.—Drum of dried deerskin, Minsi type. E. T. Tefft
collection, American Museum of Natural History. (Length 16.7 in.)]
[Illustration: FIG. 15.—_a_, Drumstick, Minsi type; _b_, Prayerstick. E.
T. Tefft collection, American Museum of Natural History. (Length of _a_,
19 in.)]
Like the Unami Big House, that of the Minsi had a large central post
bearing carved faces; but, unlike that of the Unami, there was a second
short post, near the central one, upon which was hung, for each ceremony,
a raw fresh deerskin with the head and horns at the top. This feature,
however, corresponds with the second form of the Annual Ceremony
noted among the Lenape in Oklahoma and also recorded by Zeisberger in
Pennsylvania. Near this central post the singers sat, and beat with four
carved sticks upon a dry deerhide folded into a square, in lieu of a drum
(fig. 14), differing from the Unami form, which is a rolled dry deerskin
upon which are tied several slats of wood (fig. 8). The drumsticks are
flat, resembling those of the Unami, as each bears a face carved upon one
side, but differ from them in the form of the forked end, and in width.
Some, it is said, represented women, the breasts being indicated as
among the Unami, but this feature does not appear in the set collected by
the writer at Grand River reserve (fig. 15, _a_), which the Indians said
were representative of the Minsi type.
There were two poles laid along on each side from end to end of the
Big House to divide the dancing place in the center from the sitting
places on the side, which were covered with a special kind of leaves.
Along these poles twelve little sumach sticks (fig. 15, _b_), peeled and
painted, were laid for twelve people to hold in their hands, and tap on
the poles in time to the music. There were also provided a turtle rattle,
which was placed at the foot of the central pole; a fire-drill which
Nellis Timothy thinks was worked on the “pump-drill” principle, like that
of the Unami, and a lot of entirely new and unused bowls and spoons of
bark. Unlike the Unami custom, both doors of the Big House were used,
the people always going in at the east door and coming out at the west,
and here also (like the Unami) the ashes were carried out. “The Sun and
everything else goes toward the west,” say the Minsi, in explanation,
“even the dead when they die.”
PRELIMINARIES
The first act remembered by the informants preparatory to holding a
meeting was to send to each man in the tribe who had been blessed by a
“vision of power,” a little stick which represented an invitation to the
ceremony, the time of which the messenger gave out, before which date
the people leaving their scattered homes gathered and camped about the
Big House. Meanwhile hunters were sent out, appointed before, not during
the meeting as among the Unami, to bring in for the Winter Ceremony, if
possible, exactly twelve deer, which were cooked by four young men who
served as attendants in a small separate house, built for the purpose.
_Fire._—The fire was made with a fire-drill by a group of old men for use
in the Big House, but, as among the Unami, none of it could be taken
outside during the ceremony.
_Purification._—When the two fires had been built, but before the crowd
had gathered, the house was purified by the smoke of hemlock boughs
thrown on the flames, and by sweeping the floor with turkey-wing fans,
which cleared away both dirt and evil influences.
OPENING OF THE CEREMONY
_Chief’s Speech._—The next step was for the attendants to call in all the
people from their camps except the women in their menses who were not
allowed to enter. When all were seated, the speaker rose and addressed
those assembled in terms like the following:
“We are now gathered here, our house is purified and clean, and
Pa‛ʹtŭmawas is with us, ready to hear our worship. We must thank Him
for all the things that we enjoy, for He made them every one.” Then he
proceeded to tell the people not to drink liquor, nor to do anything
wrong in the Big House or in the camp about it, and advised them to be
always honest and kind and hospitable. He held virtue as something to
be followed, at the same time condemning evil, every vice that he could
think of being mentioned.
The chief then gave thanks for everything he could remember, from the
heavenly bodies to the animals, trees, and herbs of the earth, not
forgetting corn, beans, and squashes; and prayer for successful hunting
and good health for all the people. At the summer meeting he prayed for
good crops also. When he had finished, bear’s fat was thrown on the two
fires, and the smoke rose and filled the place with its odor.
CEREMONIAL DRINK
At this point it was customary to pass around a vessel of drink made of
crushed wild strawberries, from which each person present swallowed about
a spoonful, a drink made at the Summer Ceremony of fresh fruit, but in
winter necessarily of berries dried for the purpose.
RECITAL OF VISIONS
The first man to relate his vision (my informant did not remember whether
he was the one who “brought in” the meeting or not) took up the turtle
rattle from its place at the foot of the post and began to shake it
rapidly, while the singers struck the drum of dry hide. He then recited
the story of his vision of power, still keeping the rattle shaking,
following this with his dance song, at the same time dancing and rattling
the turtleshell.
Any one who wished to dance was supposed to give wampum to the
vision-teller for the privilege. Some who were well off would give him an
entire string, others merely a few beads. These the vision-teller would
take, when he had quite a handful, to two officers who sat in a corner of
the building, whose duty it was to count the wampum, after which it was
kept by the chief or leader. Sometimes if a poor person who had no wampum
wished to dance, they would give him some to pay the vision-teller.
A translated example of a Minsi vision chant and dance song has already
been given. When the dream-teller finished the first verse of his dance
song, he exclaimed, “_E-ye-he-ye-ĕ!_” whereupon the singers took up the
strain and sang the verse several times, for the benefit of those who
wished to dance, omitting, however, the final exclamation, but those
who had bought the privilege rose and danced where they stood, instead
of circling around, as among the Unami. Each “set” ended with a whoop,
“_kwi!_”.
When the vision-teller finished dancing, he went around the house and
shook hands with everyone; then the turtle rattle was passed to another
man who had been blessed with a vision, and so on, until all those
qualified, who wished to recite their visions, had done so.
OTHER FEATURES
_The Prayer Cry._—From time to time during the night the prayer cry
“_Ho-o-o!_” was repeated twelve times, and the twelfth cry, they say,
was heard by the Great Manĭʹto.
_Feast._—The people were accustomed to eat a light supper before going
into the meeting; then about midnight the four attendants carried around
baskets with boiled meat and corn bread, and in the morning, before
leaving the Big House, a regular feast of venison was served in new bark
bowls and eaten with new bark spoons especially made for the purpose.
_Final Address._—Before the meeting closed, the speaker again addressed
the people, telling them to do right, and prayed that the hunters about
to leave for the winter hunt might be successful, and that all might live
to meet again.
CONCLUSION OF RITES
In the morning after the ceremonies in the Big House were finished, the
people filed out through the west door, circled about the building, and
lined up, facing eastward, to the east of it. Then they raised their
hands and cried “_Ho-o-o!_” twelve times, and the twelfth time, it is
said, their cry reached Heaven.
In comparing this form of the Annual Ceremony with that of the Oklahoma
Lenape the most noticeable difference is that here no masked impersonator
of Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn was seen in or about the Big House, the Masks among the
Minsi, as with the Iroquois, constituting a society with its own separate
rites.
GRAND RIVER VERSION
Such was the version of the great ceremonies given the writer by the
Minsi of Munceytown, Ontario, which is similar to, but more detailed
in parts than, the account previously obtained from the Delawares
of Grand River reserve, published by the writer in the _American
Anthropologist_[50] which we will reproduce here. It will be noticed that
this description gives fuller information in some places where the first
is deficient; so that between this and the preceding account, a good
general idea of the Minsi form of the ceremony can be reconstructed. It
reads:
“In the old religious ceremonies of the Delawares at Grand River a
very peculiar drum was used, a dry skin folded in rectangular form and
beaten with four sticks, each bearing a tiny human head carved in relief
(fig. 15, _a_). I secured the set of four original sticks from Michael
Anthony (_Na‛nkŭmaʹoxa_), and employed him to make me a reproduction
of the drum (fig. 14) as the original had been destroyed. This he did,
and in addition made six painted sticks (fig. 15, _b_) also used in
the ceremony. The description of how these articles were used, pieced
together from several Indian accounts, may prove of interest here.
“It appears that the Delawares of Six Nations Reserve formerly held
what was known as a ‘General Thanksgiving’ ceremony called in Lenape
_Gitctlaʹkan_, twice a year, once in the spring and again in the fall.
At these times it was customary to meet in the Cayuga long-house,
borrowed for the occasion. At a certain point in the proceedings (I
shall not attempt a consecutive description from hearsay testimony) a
man stood up and recited, in a rythmical sing-song tone, his dream—the
vision of power seen by him in his youth. Na‛nkŭmaʹoxa remembered how
one old man was accustomed to tell about a duck, half black and half
white, which had appeared to him. Between the verses of the dream four
musicians kneeling at the drum (_pw‛awaheʹgŭn_) began a plaintive song,
beating time with the carved sticks (_pw‛awaheʹgŭnŭk_). As they sang, the
reciter swayed his body to and fro, while a group of dancers gathered on
the floor behind him danced with a sidewise step. Before the ceremony,
poles were laid lengthwise along both sides of the council house, and
against these, at intervals, three on a side, the painted sticks, called
_mkäähiʹgŭn_, were laid. If anyone in the crowd felt ‘especially happy’
he was privileged to strike with one of these sticks upon one of the
poles in time to the music. The carved heads on the drumsticks meant that
human beings were giving thanks; the lengthwise painting of the sticks,
half black and half red, implied that men and women were together in
thanksgiving, the black representing the warriors, the red the women. The
fork at the striking end of the sticks was to give a sharper sound. The
dyes for producing the colors were made by boiling bark, the black being
soft maple (_sexiʹkiminsi_), and the red, red alder bark (_witoʹ‛pi_).
“In another part of the same ceremony wampum was used in the form of
strings and bunches, both of which were represented in my collection from
the Delawares. At least thirteen of the strings were used, each one made
different by different combinations of the white and purple beads. These
thirteen, it is said, represented respectively (1) Earth; (2) Plants;
(3) Streams and Waters; (4) Corn, Beans, and Vegetables; (5) Wild Birds
and Beasts; (6) Winds; (7) Sun; (8) Moon; (9) Sky; (10) Stars; (11)
Thunder and Rain; (12) Spirits; and (13) Great Spirit. At the ceremony
these strings were laid upon a bench before a speaker, who picked them
up one by one as he made his address, each string reminding him of one
part of his speech. He began, my informant told me, by explaining that
the Great Spirit had made all things—the earth, plants, streams, and
waters—everything. Having thus enumerated all the things represented
by the wampum, he proceeded to speak to each of the remaining twelve
directly, holding the appropriate string in his hand. Thus he gave thanks
to the Earth for the benefits it gives to man, and prayed that its
blessings might continue; then thanked in the same way the Plants, the
Streams and Waters, the Winds; the Corn, Beans, and Vegetables—each one
in turn. As he finished each string he handed it to an attendant, who
laid it aside. When his long speech or prayer was finished, he announced,
‘We will now enjoy ourselves,’ and selected a man to distribute little
bunches of wampum, three beads in each, which served as invitations to
join in the dancing that followed. These bunches were delivered only
to a certain number of those known to be ‘sober and honest’ among the
crowd in the long-house. If any person wishing to dance failed to get
invitation wampum, it was his privilege to ask for one of the bunches,
which was given him if he was considered qualified. The first man
receiving wampum arose first; then the others, until the dancers were
all on the floor. It is said that this dance, which sometimes lasted all
night, did not circle around like most of the Iroquois dances, but each
performer remained in about the same spot.
“I was told that in this dance a small rattle without a handle and made
of turtleshell was used, probably like the box-turtle rattle still used
in the annual Planting Dance by the Seneca and Cayuga.”
WAUBUNO’S VERSION
The only extended account in print, known to the writer, of the great
ceremonies of the Minsi, beside his own, quoted above, is that furnished
by John Wampum, known as Chief Waubuno,[51] which reads as follows:
“They kept annual feasts:—... a feast of first fruits which
they do not permit themselves to taste until they have made
an offering of them to the manitu-oo-al, or gods; ... There
is one of the greatest sacrifice offerings of our forefathers
every six months for cleansing themselves from sin; they will
have twelve deers to be consumed in one day and night. At
the great feast of the offerings of the first fruits of the
earth, which feast the Delawares or Munceys hold annually,
they brought a little of all that they raised, such as Indian
corn, or hweisk-queem, potatoes, beans, pumpkins, squashes,
together with the deer. The Indian women were busily engaged
in cooking their provisions, previous to the commencement of
their exercises. They invited all strangers into a long pagan
temple prepared for such purposes, there is a door at each
end—one opening to the east, and one opening to the west. On
entering, they with all the Indians were seated on the ground
around two fires; in the center of the temple was a large
post, around which was suspended a number of deer skins, and
wampum is kept buried at the foot of this post. Near the post
sat two Indian singers, each with a large bundle of undressed
deer skins which served as drums. There were two young men
appointed to watch the doors and keep the fires burning, the
doors being closed. Each of the young men brought an armful of
hemlock boughs, which being thrown on the fires smothered them
and caused a great smoke. In order that the smoke might fill
every corner of the temple, each man waved his blanket over the
fire; this was done with the idea of purifying the temple and
driving out the evil spirits. After the smoke had subsided, the
master of ceremonies, an old chief, rose and began to rattle
a turtle shell he had in his hand. He delivered a speech to
the people telling them the object of the meeting was to thank
the great spirit for the growth and ripening of the corn. When
he finished his speech he began to dance, sing and rattle the
shell, the two singers joining in, beating on their skins. When
he took his seat he handed the shell to the next person, who
performed in the same way, thus it went from one to the other
all night. The purport of their speeches was to recount the
mercies of the Great Spirit to them during the past year, and
telling any remarkable dreams that they had had. In the course
of the night a number of them went out the west door, making a
wailing noise to the moon, and came in again the east door. In
the morning the meat and soup were divided amongst the people.
“These feasts often lasted twelve days and twelve nights, and
the Indians call it nee-shaw-neechk-togho-quanoo-maun, or
ween-da-much-teen. No drinking or improper conduct is allowed.
The utmost solemnity prevails.”