The Lenâpé and Their Legends / With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticity

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 other strictly aboriginal production in Algonkin, where a tendency toward rhyme is as prominent as in the Walam Olum. It is well to remember, however, that our material for comparison is exceedingly scanty, and also that for nearly three fourths of a century before this song was obtained, the music-loving Moravian missionaries had made the Delawares familiar with numerous hymns in their own tongue, correctly framed and rhymed.

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 were before him. Yet it must be said that the pictographs of the Walam Olum have less resemblance to these than to those published by the Chipeway chief, George Copway, in 1850, and by Schoolcraft, in his "History and Statistics of the Indian Tribes." There is generally a distinct, obvious connection between the symbol and the sense of the text, sufficient to recall the latter to one who has made himself once thoroughly familiar with it. I have not undertaken a study of the symbols; but have confined myself to a careful reproduction of them, and the suggestion of their more obvious meanings, and their correspondences with the pictographs furnished by later writers. I shall leave it for others to determine to what extent they should be accepted as a pure specimen of Algonkin pictographic writing.

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 the knowledge of these ancient signs has been lost, but that the word olum is still preserved by the Delaware boys in their games when they keep the score by notches on a stick. These notches— not the sticks—are called to this day olum—an interesting example of the preservation of an archaic form in the language of children.

The name Wâlâm Olum is therefore a highly appropriate one for the record, and may be translated "Red Score."

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 ║ for each verse of the poems or songs ║ translated word for word ║ by C S Rafinesque ║ 1833

The title of the second part is:—

Walam-olum

First and Second Parts of the ║ Painted and engraved traditions ║ of the Linni linapi

II Part

When Rafinesque died, his MSS. were scattered and passed into various hands. Prof. Haldeman, in his notice above referred to (p. 150), stated that he and "Mr. Poulson of Philadelphia" had a large part of them.

This particular one, and also others descriptive of Rafinesque's archaeological explorations in the southwest, his surveys of the earthworks of Kentucky and the neighboring states, and the draft of a work on "The Ancient Monuments of North and South America," came into the possession of the Hon. Brantz Mayer, of Baltimore, distinguished as an able public man and writer on American subjects, from whose family I obtained them.

He loaned them all to Mr. E. G. Squier, who made extensive use of Rafinesque's surveys, in the "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," giving due credit.

In June, 1848, Mr. Squier read before the New York Historical Society a paper entitled, "Historical and Mythological Traditions of the Algonquins; with a translation of the 'Walum-Olum,' or Bark Record of the Linni-Lenape." This was published in the "American Review," February, 1849, and has been reprinted by Mr. W. W. Beach, in his "Indian Miscellany" (Albany, 1877), and in the fifteenth edition of Mr. S. G. Drake's "Aboriginal Races of North America."

This paper gave the symbols, original text and Rafinesque's translation of the first two songs, and a free translation only, of the remainder. The text was carelessly copied, whole words being omitted, and no attempt was made to examine the accuracy of the translation; the symbols were also imperfect, several being reversed. Hence, as material for a critical study of the document, Squier's essay is of little value.

At the close of the second part of the MS. there are four pages, closely written, with the title:—

"Fragment on the History of the Linapis since abt 1600 when the Wallamolum closes translated from the Linapi by John Burns."

This was printed by Rafinesque and Squier, but as it has no original text, as nothing is known of "John Burns," and as the document itself, even if reasonably authentic, has no historic value, I omit it.

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 days.

In an earlier chapter I have collected the imperfect fragments of these which we hear of among the Delawares, and these are sufficient to show that they had substantially the same mythology as their western relatives.

The cosmogony describes the formation of the world by the Great Manito, and its subsequent despoliation by the spirit of the waters, under the form of a serpent. The happy days are depicted, when men lived without wars or sickness, and food was at all times abundant. Evil beings, of mysterious power, introduced cold and war and sickness and premature death. Then began strife and long wanderings.

However similar this general outline may be to European and Oriental myths, it is neither derived originally from them, nor was it acquired later by missionary influence. This similarity is due wholly to the identity of psychological action, the same ideas and fancies arising from similar impressions in New as well as Old World tribes. No sound ethnologist, no thorough student in comparative mythology, would seek to maintain a genealogical relation of cultures on the strength of such identities. They are proofs of the oneness of the human mind, and nothing more.

As to the historical portion of the document, it must be judged by such corroborative evidence as we can glean from other sources. I have quoted, in an earlier chapter, sufficient testimony to show that the Lenape had traditions similar to these, extending back for centuries, or at least believed by their narrators to reach that far. What trust can be reposed in them is for the archaeologist to judge.

Authentic history tells us nothing about the migrations of the Lenape before we find them in the valley of the Delaware. There is no positive evidence that they arrived there from the west; still less concerning their earlier wanderings.

Were I to reconstruct their ancient history from the Walam Olum, as I understand it, the result would read as follows:—

At some remote period their ancestors dwelt far to the northeast, on tide-water, probably at Labrador (Compare ante, p. 145). They journeyed south and west, till they reached a broad water, full of islands and abounding in fish, perhaps the St. Lawrence about the Thousand Isles. They crossed and dwelt for some generations in the pine and hemlock regions of New York, fighting more or less with the Snake people, and the Talega, agricultural nations, living in stationary villages to the southeast of them, in the area of Ohio and Indiana. They drove out the former, but the latter remained on the upper Ohio and its branches. The Lenape, now settled on the streams in Indiana, wished to remove to the East to join the Mohegans and other of their kin who had moved there directly from northern New York. They, therefore, united with the Hurons (Talamatans) to drive out the Talega (Tsalaki, Cherokees) from the upper Ohio. This they only succeeded in accomplishing finally in the historic period (see ante p. 17). But they did clear the road and reached the Delaware valley, though neither forgetting nor giving up their claims to their western territories (see ante p. 144).

In the sixteenth century the Iroquois tribes seized and occupied the whole of the Susquehanna valley, thus cutting off the eastern from the western Algonkins, and ended by driving many of the Lenape from the west to the east bank of the Delaware (ante p. 38,).

Synopsis of the separate parts.

I.

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 mythology, as I have amply shown in previous discussions of the subject. See my Myths of the New World, p. 213, and American Hero Myths, Chap. II.

II.

The Evil Manito, who now appears under the guise of a gigantic serpent, determines to destroy the human race, and for that purpose brings upon them a flood of water. Many perish, but a certain number escape to the turtle, that is, to solid land, and are there protected by Nanabush (Manibozho or Michabo). They pray to him for assistance, and he caused the water to disappear, and the great serpent to depart.

This canto is a brief reference to the conflict between the Algonkin hero god and the serpent of the waters, originally, doubtless, a meteorological myth. It is an ancient and authentic aboriginal legend, shared both by Iroquois and Algonkins, under slightly different forms. In one aspect, it is the Flood or Deluge Myth. For the general form of this myth, see my Myths of the New World, pp. 119, 143, 182, and American Hero Myths, p. 50, and authorities there quoted; also, E. G. Squier, "Manabozho and the Great Serpent; an Algonquin Tradition," in the American Review, Vol. II, Oct., 1848.

III.

The waters having disappeared, the home of the tribe is described as in a cold northern clime. This they concluded to leave in search of warmer lands. Having divided their people into a warrior and a peaceful class, they journeyed southward, toward what is called the "Snake land." They approached this land in winter, over a frozen river. Their number was large, but all had not joined in the expedition with equal willingness, their members at the west preferring their ancient seats in the north to the uncertainty of southern conquests. They, however, finally united with the other bands, and they all moved south to the land of spruce pines.

IV.

The first sixteen verses record the gradual conquest of most of the Snake land. It seems to have required the successive efforts of six or seven head chiefs, one after another, to bring this about, probably but a small portion at a time yielding to the attacks of these enemies. Its position is described as being to the southwest, and in the interior of the country. Here they first learned to cultivate maize.

The remainder of the canto is taken up with a long list of chiefs, and with the removal of the tribe, in separate bands and at different times, to the east. In this journey from the Snake land to the east, they encountered and had long wars with the Talega. These lived in strong towns, but by the aid of the Hurons (Talamatans), they overcame them and drove them to the south.

V.

Having conquered the Talegas, the Lenape possessed their land and that of the Snake people, and for a certain time enjoyed peace and abundance. Then occurred a division of their people, some, as Nanticokes and Shawnees, going to the south, others to the west, and later, the majority toward the east, arriving finally at the Salt sea, the Atlantic ocean. Thence a portion turned north and east, and encountered the Iroquois. Still later, the three sub-tribes of the Lenape settled themselves definitely along the Delaware river, and received the geographical names by which they were known, as Minsi, Unami and Unalachtgo (see ante, p. 36). They were often at war with the Iroquois, generally successfully. Rumors of the whites had reached them, and finally these strangers approached the river, both from the north (New York bay) and the south. Here the song closes.

THE WALUM OLUM

or

RED SCORE,

of the

LENÂPÉ.

I.

II.

III.

IV.