The Minsi version of the myth explaining the origin of their great ceremonies has been already related, but not that of the Unami, for the latter, which concerns itself with the origin of the Unami rites as now practised, is so intimately interwoven with the story of the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, or mask (fig. 1), that it was thought best to place it in the chapter devoted to that curious being, with whose position in the Lenape pantheon, recorded history, and activities in the Annual Ceremony, we have already become acquainted.
The myth is therefore presented herewith, as related by Chief Charley Elkhair, the Lenape master of ceremonies, with only such additions as later questioning brought forth.
This is the way the Lenape found out that there is a living Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn above us. Many years ago, when the Delawares lived in the East, there were three boys who were not treated very well. Their relatives did not take care of them, and it seemed as if it made no difference whether the children died or not. These boys were out in the woods thinking about their troubles, when they saw the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn or Living Solid Face. He came and spoke to them, and gave them strength so that nothing could hurt them again. To one of these boys he said, “You come along with me and I will show you the country I come from.” So he took the boy up in the air to the place whence he came, which is rocky mountains above us, reaching out from the north and extending toward the south. It is not the place where people go when they die, for it is not very far from this earth. A long time ago people could see this country of Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, but none can see it now.
While he was showing the boy his country, the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn promised him that he would become stout and strong, and would have the power to get anything he wished. Then he brought the boy back.
Afterward, when the boy grew up and went hunting, he used to see the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn riding a buck around among the other deer, herding them together. Thus it happened that there were three men in the tribe, who knew that there is a Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, because they had seen him with their own eyes.
The Delawares had always kept a Big House (xiʹngwikan) to worship in, but in those days it was built entirely of bark and had no faces of the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ carved upon the posts as it has now. Here they used to sing about their dreams (visions of power); but some time after the three boys talked with the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, the people gave up this worship, and for ten years had none. Then there came a great earthquake, which lasted twelve months and gave great trouble to the Lenape. It came because they had abandoned the worship their fathers had taught them. In those times the tribe lived in towns, not scattered about the country as they are now, and in one of these towns a chief had a big bark house, and here the people met to worship, hoping to stop the earthquake, while they were building a new Big House. When it was finished, they began to worship there, and sang and prayed all winter for relief. After spring came, they were holding a meeting one night when they heard the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn making a noise, “Hoⁿ-hoⁿ-hoⁿ,” right east of the Big House. The chief, who did not know what was making the noise, called for somebody to go and see what it was. Then these three men offered to go, because, as they said, they knew what was making the noise and could find out what he wanted. So they went out and found Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, and asked him what he wanted. He answered:
“Go back and tell the others to stop holding meetings and attend to their crops. Do not meet again until fall, when I will come and live with you, and help in the Big House. You must take wood and carve a face (Mĭsiʹngʷ‛) just like mine, painted half black and half red, as mine is, and I will put my power in it, so that it will do what you ask. When the man who takes my part puts the face on, I will be there, and this is how I will live among you. This man must carry a turtle rattle and a stick, just as I do now.” Then he told them how to fix the twelve carved faces on the posts of the Big House, and the faces on the drumsticks, and taught them how to hold the ceremony.
Then he said:
“You must also give me hominy every year in the spring. I take care of the deer and other game, that is what I am for. Wherever you build the Big House, I will keep the deer close by, so that you can get them when you need them.
“Never give up the Big House. If you do, there will be another earthquake, or something else just as bad.
“The earthquake stopped that time; that is why the Delawares have kept the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ and the Big House ever since. The Mask is left in charge of some family who will take good care of it, and burn Indian tobacco for it from time to time.”
It will be seen that, according to the above tradition, the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ was, first of all, a personal helper, or guardian Spirit, that afterward became more or less of a tribal deity, and that his cult became engrafted on the Annual Ceremony among the Unami, the rites of which were already ancient among them. That this engrafting really took place seems possible from the fact that among the Minsi there were no masked performers at the Big House ceremonies, and that, while the central post of the temple was provided with carved faces, the masks had an entirely different function among this people. The innovation, if it took place at all, must have been before Brainerd’s[52] time, however, for, as related in our first chapter, he found the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ and Big House in use, as among the Unami today, as early as May, 1745, while traveling among the Delawares living at that time on Susquehanna river.
Besides the part taken by the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ in the Annual Ceremony, he has certain rites peculiar to himself which were held every spring. As the Indians put it:
“When spring comes, the Delawares are glad, and they are thankful that their helper, the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ is still among them. For this reason they give a feast and dance to make him happy too.”
Notification.—So at the time of the full moon (about May), the keeper of the mask gives another Indian a yard of wampum to ride around to all the Delaware houses, wearing the mask and bearskin costume (pl. II) to let the people know that the time for the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ dance (Mĭsingkĭʹnĭkä) is at hand. The Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ rides horseback, and another man, also mounted, follows him to see that he comes to no harm. At each house the impersonator dismounts and enters, making known his errand by signs, but saying only “Hoⁿ-hoⁿ-hoⁿ,” and everywhere they give him tobacco, which he puts in his sack. At this time the people frighten disobedient children with the threat that, unless they behave, the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ will carry them away in a sack full of snakes.
Preparations.—The dance-ground customarily used for this purpose has meanwhile been put in order, a cleared place in the woods selected for good shade and pleasant surroundings, and the logs which serve as seats arranged to form the rectangle within which the dance takes place. A great pot of hominy is also prepared; this constitutes the main dish of the feast.
The Ceremony.—When the people have gathered on the night appointed, and the impersonator has returned from the bushes where he retired to dress, wearing the mask and bearskin suit (pl. II), the speaker addresses the people and relates the origin of the dance, then addressing the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, says, “Take care of us while we are dancing, so that everything goes smoothly.” Then they have a dance in which the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ joins, but he dances around the outside of the circle of people, not with them. When they have finished, he dances twelve changes alone, which occupies the time until morning. When daylight appears, the hominy is brought out and everyone eats, including the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, after which the speaker says, “Now we have eaten with our Mĭsiʹngʷ‛. We will have this dance again next spring.” The people then disperse to their homes, the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ is put away and the impersonator paid a yard of wampum for his dancing. At this dance the singers keep time by striking with sticks on a dry deerhide rolled over and stuffed with dried grass, very similar to the “drum” used in the Big House.
Adams’ Account.—The only account the writer has seen of this ceremony is that of Adams’,[53] the chief inaccuracy of which is the statement that the dance is “only for amusement.” It furnishes, however, several additions to our knowledge of the “Solid Face.” It is as follows:
“Messingq or Solid Face Dance or Devil Dance.—The principal leader in this dance is the Messingq, an Indian, who is dressed in a bearskin robe with a wooden face, one-half red and one-half black. He has a large bearskin pouch and carries a stick in one hand and a tortoise shell rattle in the other. He is a very active person. The dance is only for amusement, and men and women join in it. A large place is cleared in the woods, and the ground is swept clean and a fire built in the center. Across the fire and inside of the ring is a long hickory pole supported at each end by wooden forks set in the ground. On the east of this pole the singers stand; on the west end is a venison or deer, which is roasted. About daylight, when the dance is nearly over, all the dancers eat of the venison. They have a dried deer hide stretched over some hickory poles, and standing around it beat on the hide and sing. The dancers proceed around the fire to the right, the women on the inside next to the fire. After the dance is under headway the Messingq comes from the darkness, jumps over the dancers, and dances between the other dancers and the fire. He makes some funny and queer gestures, kicks the fire, and then departs. The Messingq is never allowed to talk, but frequently he visits the people at their homes. He is a terror to little children, and when he comes to a house or tent the man of the house usually gives him a piece of tobacco, which the Messingq smells and puts in his big pouch, after which he turns around and kicks back toward the giver which means ‘thank you,’ and departs. He never thinks of climbing a fence, but jumps over it every time that one is in his way. The Devil dance is what the white men call it, but the Delawares call it the Messingq, or ‘solid face’ dance. The Messingq does not represent an evil spirit, but is always considered a peacemaker. I suppose that it is from his hideous appearance that white men call him the devil.”
The Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ the Indians claim, “takes care of the children,” as well as of the deer, for as before related if any Delaware has a child who is weak, sickly, or disobedient, he sends for the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ and asks him to “attend to” his child. On his arrival it does not take the impersonator long to frighten the weakness, sickness, or laziness out of such children, so that “afterward they are well and strong, and whenever they are told to do a thing, they lose no time in obeying.” This is the only trace of the doctoring function of the mask found among the Unami.
When the keeper of the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ burns tobacco for him and asks for good luck in hunting, “it turns out that way every time;” and the Lenape say moreover that if anyone loses horses or cattle, either strayed away or stolen, he can go to the keeper of the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ with some tobacco as a gift and get them back. He explains his errand to the keeper, who in turn informs the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ that they want him to look for the horses or cattle. The loser then goes back home, and after a few days the missing animals return, driven back by the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, who if they had been tied or hobbled by the thieves, frightened them until they broke away and came home. When the Big House meeting is held in the fall, the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, as before related, is seen going around among the tents of the Delawares assembled, and in and out of the Big House, always coming from the woods, where the impersonator has a place to change his clothes. The Indians say:
“He helps the people with their hunting, and also helps in the Big House while the ceremonies are in progress. If he finds anyone there who has not done right, he informs the three guards of the meeting, who take that person and put him out. In all these ways the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ helps the Delawares.”
The Minsi Miziʹnk (cognate with the Unami Mĭsiʹngʷ‛) was a mask made of wood with copper or brass eyes and a crooked nose, according to my informants at Munceytown; and judging by Peter Jones’ drawings (pl. III) they were provided also with hair, tufts of feathers, and jingling copper cones or deer-hoofs. The Mizink at Grand river was of Minsi type, judging by the specimen obtained by the writer (fig. 4).
Such masks were made to represent Mizinkhâliʹkŭn, who was “something like a person, but different from the Indians, and was powerful. They saw him first among the rocks on a hill, and he spoke to them and told them what to do to get his power. When a man put on a Mizink he received the power of this person or spirit; he could even see behind him, and could cure diseases.”
The Mask Society.—The men who owned these masks formed a kind of society which Nellis Timothy says originally had twelve members, but which, before it disbanded, dwindled to about five. Sometimes only two appeared in costume.
The society had a meeting-house of its own where its dances, Mizinkĭʹntĭka, were held, for, unlike the Unami custom, no Mizink ever appeared in the Big House. The members appeared wearing their masks and clad in rough bearskin and deerskin costumes, while some, at least, were provided with a turtleshell rattle which they would rub on a long pole, crying “Oⁿ-oⁿ-oⁿ!” the while.
Ceremonies.—While no consecutive account of their ceremonies is now remembered, it was said that they sometimes put down their rattles, heaped up the ashes from the two fires, then threw the ashes all over the house to prevent the people assembled from having disease.
Should any sick person appear, he or she would be especially treated with ashes. Sometimes the performers would pick up live coals and throw them about, frightening the people. At other times the whole company of them would go around to the different houses begging for tobacco, and would dance in any house where someone was willing to sing for them.
Nothing was said among the Minsi about the Mizink bringing back stray stock or driving deer, characteristic attributes of the Mask Being of the Unami. The writer obtained but one mask among the Canadian Lenape, and this was from the Grand River band (fig. 4); it has been described by him[54] in the following words:
“But one mask (mizink) was obtained. It differed from those of the Iroquois chiefly in being cruder, and also in decoration, the lines being burnt into the wood instead of being painted or carved. The original use of the mask had to do, in part at least, with healing the sick, but Isaac Montour (Kaʹpyŭ‛hŭm), from whom I bought it, failed to make himself clear as to the details.”
It will be seen that the Minsi beliefs and practices noted above resemble those of the False Face Company of the Iroquois tribes much more than they do the customs connected with Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ among the Unami.
In fact, a vague tradition exists to the effect that the False Face Company of the Cayuga once put a stop to an epidemic of cholera among the Minsi. While this was not given to account for the origin of the society among the Minsi, it at least shows that they were familiar with the Iroquois practices in this line.