The Doll Being, called by the Unami O‛ʹdas and by the Minsi Naniʹtĭs, has been already mentioned as a minor Lenape deity, and it now remains only to relate the ceremonies and beliefs connected with it, beginning with the myth accounting for its origin.
Long ago, the Lenape say, some children, playing with sticks, decided to cut faces upon them, and were then very much surprised to notice that the little dolls which they had thus made seemed to have life. Their parents made them throw the dolls away when they discovered this, and most of the children soon forgot what had happened. One little girl, however, grieved for her doll; it bothered her all the time, and finally she began to dream of it every night. Then she told her parents of her trouble, and they realized that they should not have compelled her to throw the doll away. One night the doll appeared to the child and spoke to her, saying, “Find me and keep me always, and you and your family will ever enjoy good health. You must give me new clothing and hold a dance for me every spring,” and then told her exactly what to do. The girl reported this to her parents, who immediately looked for the doll and found it, then dressed it, made some hominy, killed a deer, and held a dance in its honor as they were instructed, and this rite has been continued to the present day.
When the family owning a doll of this kind is ready to conduct the Doll Dance (O‛ʹdas-kĭʹnĭkä), they select two men to gather firewood and to clean up the dance-ground used every year, and to engage a speaker and two singers, paying each of them with a yard of wampum. The dance-ground is square, similar to that used for the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ dance, with logs ranged about for seats, in some pleasant place out in the woods. A hunter is then selected, who calls on several to help him get a deer, which, when brought in, is hung on poles prepared for it at the dance-ground, where it remains over night. The next morning they cook the deer and a kettle of hominy, and are then ready for the ceremony.
About the middle of the afternoon the speaker rises and addresses the people, telling them the story of the doll’s origin and explaining its function; then he addresses the doll, which has now been fastened on a pole, calling it “grandmother” and notifying it that they are about to hold a dance in its honor, at the same time asking it to insure good health to the family of its owner. When he finishes, the dance leader, who should be a relative of the family owning it, takes the doll on its pole, and then, as the drummers sitting in the center of the dance-ground begin to strike the dry hide stuffed with grass that serves as a drum, and to sing the song of the Doll dance, he commences to dance, circling round the drummers, still carrying the doll, the people falling in behind him, forming two circles, the men inside, next to the drummers, and the women outside. When the leader finishes his “set,” he passes the doll pole to the man behind him, who repeats the process, and so on until the men dancers have carried it six times, when it is transferred to the women, who, in their turn, dance six sets, making twelve in all, the Lenape sacred number.
The twelve sets, or “changes,” lengthen the ceremony far into the night, and this necessitates a large fire to give light. This is built near the center of the dance-ground. Sometimes, if the crowd in attendance is large, two such fires are built. Between the changes the doll pole is stuck into the ground near the fire. When the twelfth set is finished, the speaker announces, “The Doll Dance is over,” and the feast of hominy and venison is served to everyone. Then the speaker says: “If you want to dance the rest of the night, you may do so, for many of you have come a long way from home and should have a chance for more enjoyment. We will hold another Doll Dance next year.” Then they put the doll away and amuse themselves with various social dances until morning.
Among the Minsi the beliefs concerning the Doll Being were similar, but differed in detail. As to origin, Wolf told the writer that one time a man lay ill, likely to die, and his family called in a medicine-man, or “witch-doctor.” The shaman finally announced that the family must make one of these dolls and care for it, and that the sick man would then get well. This was done, and the doctor’s prediction being realized, the Minsi have ever since made and used these dolls, called in their dialect naniʹtĭs, which were transmitted from parents to children. Wolf’s own mother had one, carved out of wood in the form of a person, with a woman’s dress and moccasins (for as a rule they represent women); and she always cared for it religiously, in the belief that if well treated it would protect the family and give them good health, but if neglected, someone would surely die. Every year, in the fall, when the deer are in their best condition, Wolf’s mother held a dance for it, called “Feeding the Naniʹtĭs;” but she did more than feed it: she put new clothes on it, three sets, and new moccasins every year. She believed that the image sometimes went about of its own accord, although she kept it carefully in a box, for the old dresses always seemed worn at the bottom and soiled, and she found burrs clinging to them when she went to put new clothes on “Naniʹtĭs.”
She hired a man especially to hunt a yearling doe for the ceremony, which took place in her own dwelling. The details are lost, but it is remembered that a man beat a little drum and sang while she, as owner, danced around, carrying the doll in her hands, followed by such of the other women present as wished to participate. Said Wolf, “The Naniʹtĭs helped the Indians, that’s why they fed it.”
PL. VIII
“NAHNEETIS THE GUARDIAN OF HEALTH”
(E. T. Tefft Collection, American Museum of Natural History)
An Old Minsi “Doll.”—The writer was able to obtain but one old specimen of this type (pl. VIII), which was procured at the Grand River reserve, Ontario, for the E. T. Tefft collection, now in the American Museum of Natural History, and was described in the writer’s article,[55] before cited, as follows:
“Perhaps the most interesting Delaware specimen of all is the little wooden image, about eight inches high, bought of Dr. Jones, which his father, Rev. Peter Jones, described and illustrated in his book under the name ‘Nahneetis, the Guardian of Health.’ He says:
“‘I have in my possession two family gods. One is called Pabookowaih—the god that crushes or breaks down diseases. The other is a goddess named Nahneetis, the guardian of health. This goddess was delivered up to me by Eunice Hank, a Muncey Indian woman, who with her friends used to worship it in their sacred dances, making a feast to it every year, when a fat doe was sacrificed as an offering, and many presents were given by the friends assembled. She told me she was now restored to worship the Christian’s God, and therefore had no further use for it.’
“There can be no doubt in this case concerning the identity of this specimen with the one illustrated in the book quoted. It will be noticed however by those who are familiar with Peter Jones’ illustration that Nahneetis, like many humans, has lost her hair in her old age. An interesting feature of the specimen is the primitive skirt, which is made apparently by belting a blanket-like bit of cloth, bound at the edges, around Nahneetis’ waist. A vestige of this method of making a skirt survives, I think, in the form of the beaded strip running up one of the vertical seams of the more modern Indian skirt, among both the Delawares and the Iroquois.”
The writer afterward found such skirts still in use among the Lenape in Oklahoma (pl. I, b).
An Early Account of Naniʹtĭs.—Another early account of the Naniʹtĭs among the Minsi may be found in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, among the documents relating to the Stockbridge Mission, written by the Rev. Cutting Marsh.[56] It reads as follows:
“Nov. 6th [1839]. A Munsee Indian who came to this place over a year previous from Canada called upon me with an interpreter in order to give up a family idol. This man whose name is Big-Deer is upwards of 50 years of age, and since removing to this place, thro’ the influence of this family above mentioned has attended meetings constantly and gives some evidence of a change of heart.
“The history of this idol was very interesting. He said that his mother gave it to him before her death which occurred about 29 years ago, and that he had worshipped it until within a few years when he heard about Jesus Christ, but had never given it up before. ‘Now he says I wish to give it up and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and I give this idol to you and you may do what you are a mind to with it.’ It was indeed not only a ‘shameful thing,’ but a horribly looking object about the size of a common doll; fantastically arrayed in Indian costume and nearly covered with silver broaches and trinkets; and whilst retained as an object of worship was kept wrapped up in some 20 envelopments of broad-cloth trimmed with scarlet ribbon. They called it their ‘Mother,’ it is more than a hundred years old, and its late possessor was the fourth generation which had worshipped it. The season for worshipping it was in the fall after a hunt when they made a feast to it and danced around it. ‘If they did not do this every fall they said, that is, make the feast &c. it would be angry and destroy them by some dreadful sickness.’ It was therefore an object of fear or dread with them, but not one of love and compassion.”
We will now consider two ceremonies of the Unami which are based on animal cults which show a considerable similarity not only in their traditional origin, but also in their ritual.
The more important seems to be the one called Papasokwit‛ʹlŭn, which, although no part of a bear appears in its rites as practised within recent years, was evidently a Bear ceremony in the days when these animals were abundant. It also exhibits some features suggesting the Annual Ceremony before described, but there is no Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ and there are many other important differences.
The Indians say that a cub bear, kept as a pet by a Lenape family long ago, became a great playmate of one of the little sons of the family, but finally grew so large that the child’s parents decided to get rid of it; so they tied a little bag of tobacco around its neck and told it to go away. This it did, but the little boy, its playmate, soon fell ill, and his parents searched in vain for a cure. After a long while one of the Indian doctors told his parents that if they would hold a ceremony of this kind and repeat it every two years, the child would recover and would keep his health. This was done; the boy recovered, and his family, who belong to the Wolf phratry, have continued to practise the rites ever since, believing that it preserves their health.
This ceremony required a special house, which was made new for it every two years, so the first thing the family did, when the time approached, was to find a number of men, each of whom was paid a yard of wampum to cut forks and poles and erect the building. This was made by setting up a frame of poles in the form of a Big House, but smaller, only seven paces wide and fifteen paces long, then covering the top with brush and piling brush at the sides. Then to the east of the house a pole was erected, upon which to hang the meat for the feast, which, in old times, had to be a bear; but when bears became scarce a black hog was substituted, and of late a hog of any color has been used. The building finished, the hog was killed, and, having been hung on the pole over night, was taken into the house the next day, quartered, singed on a fire that had been built inside, then carried out again, cut up, and cooked, all except the loose fat, which was kept for a special purpose, as will appear later. When done, the meat was kept in large baskets, with the exception of the head, which, having been cooked whole, was placed in a large bowl with two of the animal’s ribs in its mouth.
When night came, the leader entered the brush house, taking with him a turtle rattle similar to that used in the Annual Ceremony, followed by the men who were to participate (no women being allowed), and then made a speech, telling of the men who had “brought in” this meeting, and explaining its origin, but making no prayers to the Great Spirit or to any of the manĭʹtowŭk, his helpers. He then threw half of the hog-fat upon the fire, and placed a string of wampum around his own neck. At this juncture the cook brought him the hog’s head in its bowl, and then, first announcing, “I am now going to carry the head around,” the leader began to chant and to walk about the house, making false motions to everyone as if to give him the head, then withdrawing it and proceeding to the next. The burden of the chant, the Indians say, was “what his dream helper told him,” very much as in the Big House, but here the people kept time to his chant orally, saying “Hu-hu-hu!” until he stopped. The informant does not know who, if any one, shook the rattle. Probably it was employed by the singers after the burning of the head. After making the circuit twice, the leader hung his string of wampum upon some old man of the Turkey phratry who had a “vision of power,” who took the head and made his rounds in the same way. He finally cut off the ears of the head, pulled the ribs from its mouth, and threw it into the fire, bowl and all. The meat was then distributed to everyone, whereupon the floor was open to any man who wished to sing an account of his vision. A bucket of prepared drink was placed at each end of the house for the refreshment of such singers, but the head, of course, was gone. When the songs were finished, the remainder of the fat, and finally the broth in which the meat had been cooked, were thrown upon the fire, and in conclusion, six women were called in and instructed to go out and give six times the prayer cry, “Ho-o-o!”
Perhaps the following ceremony noted by Zeisberger[57] may have been of this kind:
“A fourth kind of feast is held in honor of a certain voracious spirit, who, according to their opinions, is never satisfied. The guests are, therefore, obliged to eat all the bear’s flesh and drink the melted fat. Though indigestion and vomiting may result they must continue and not leave anything.”
Similar to the Bear ceremony in many ways, both in traditional origin and in rites, was the observance called A‛ʹtcigamuʹLtiⁿ, said to mean “compulsory hog-eating,” held to propitiate the Otter spirit, a cult whose paraphernalia the writer was fortunate enough to collect for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation.
Many years ago, so runs the story, a little girl about ten years of age was given a young otter for a pet, and this she kept and cared for until it was well grown. About this time she began to feel that she should keep him no longer, for she had come to realize that he was piʹlsŭⁿ, meaning “pure” or “sacred,” and, like all wild things, belonged to the Powers Above. The old people told her what she must do, so she took her otter down to the creek, and, first tying a little bag of tobacco on his neck, said to him: “Now I shall set you free. I have raised you and cared for you until now you are full grown. Go, then, and follow the ways of your kind.”
The otter disappeared into the waters, and the little girl returned to her home, feeling that she had done well. But before a year had passed, a sickness came upon her, which the Indian doctors told her was caused by her pet otter, which wanted something to eat. The only way for the child to get well, they said, was for her to have a hog killed and cooked, and then to invite a number of men to eat it all, in the name of the otter. This was done, and when the men finished eating the hog and the soup, they said that the girl would recover, and so she did. For this ceremony they took an otter-skin (fig. 16, a) to represent the girl’s pet, which was used every two years, and when the owner died was passed to the oldest survivor of the family which owned it, and kept in the belief that it would benefit the health of all of them. It was the only one of its kind in the tribe, and is called “Kunuⁿʹxäs.”
Fig. 16.—a, Regalia of otter-skin used in the Otter Rite; b, Regalia as worn. (Length of a, 56.5 in.)
The exact details and order of the ceremony were not remembered by our informant, but it was certain that the family in question “fed the otter” every two years in the spring, that being the time of year when the little girl had been taken ill. Everyone was invited, men and women, and a man was selected to cook the hog, and another to supply wood and to cut the poles for swinging the kettle, both of whom were paid with a yard of wampum. The fire was kindled with a special flint-and-steel always kept with the outfit (fig. 17).
Fig. 17.—Flint and steel used in the Otter Rite. (Length of a, 3 in.)
It will be observed that the otter-skin has a slit down the middle of the neck, through which the owner thrust his head in such manner that the otter’s nose lay under the wearer’s chin, while its body and tail hung down his back. Wearing the skin in this manner (fig. 16, b), himself impersonating the original otter, the owner would open the ceremony by walking about the fire, chanting and shaking the turtle rattle (fig. 18), which resembles those used in the Big House, while the audience kept time to his song by uttering “Hu-hu-hu-hu!” The nature of the song the writer was unable to learn, but, like the chants of the Bear Ceremony, it probably was concerned with the singer’s “dream helper.” When he had finished, another man put on the skin and took up the chant, and so on until noon the next day, when the ceremony was brought to a close and all joined in the feast. At this time the skin is told, “We will feed you again in two years.”
Fig. 18.—Rattle of land-tortoise shell used in the Otter Rite. (Length, 3.9 in.)
Such was the list of native Lenape ceremonies furnished by our informants; but Adams[58] mentions several more, for which the writer was unable to procure much in the way of data. One of these was the Buffalo dance, which the writer feels should be included with the Otter and Bear ceremonies, although Adams calls it a “pleasure dance.” He admits, it will be observed, that it usually took place before hunters started on the chase. His account follows:
“The Buffalo dance is a pleasure dance and always begins in the morning and lasts all day. The ground is made clean in a circle large enough to dance on, and in the center a fire is built and a fork driven into the ground on each side, and a pole placed across the fire east and west. On each side of the fire is a large brass kettle hanging across the pole with hominy in it, and when the dance is nearly over, the dancers eat the hominy, dipping their hands in the kettle. The singers are outside of the ring and beat on a dried deer hide stretched over poles. They do not use the same step in the dance, but gallop like buffaloes and bellow like them, also have horns on their heads and occasionally hook at each other. The dance is usually given before starting on a chase.”
The preceding ceremonies have all been, ostensibly at least, of native Lenape origin, but we now come to several whose outside origin is admitted by the Indians themselves. The most ancient of these is the “Human Skeleton Dance,” mentioned by Adams.[59] He calls it a rite belonging to the Wolf clan or phratry of the Delawares, but the writer’s informants say that it is not true Lenape at all, but a Nanticoke (On‛ʹtko) ceremony introduced among the Lenape by the survivors of that tribe who had joined forces with them. Adams’ account, which is better than any the writer was able to obtain, is as follows:
“Human Skeleton Dance.—Given only by the Wolf clan of the Delawares. A certain dance given as a memorial to the dead was supposed to clear a way for the spirit of the deceased to the spirit land. When a member of the Wolf clan died, the flesh was stripped from the bones and buried, and the bones were dried at some private place. At the end of 12 days the skeleton would be wrapped in white buckskin and taken to a place prepared for the dance and there held up by some one. As the singers would sing the men who held the skeleton would shake it and the bones would rattle as the dancers would proceed around it. After the dance the skeleton was buried. Traditions say that in ancient times some of the head men in the Wolf clan had a dream that they must treat their dead in that way, and the custom has been handed down to them for many centuries. The other clans say the custom does not belong to them. The custom has been long dropped. There has not been a skeleton dance since 1860.”
Fig. 19.—Peyote “Button.” (Diameter, 1.9 in.)
One of the latest of introduced ceremonies, which was still much in favor with the Oklahoma Lenape when last visited by the writer, is the Peyote Rite, a cult now widespread among the tribes of the Central West, introduced among this people by an Indian named John Wilson, who obtained it, they say, from the Caddo on Washita river about the year 1890 or 1892. During this ceremony remarkable visions are produced by eating the dried top of a small cactus, the peyote (fig. 19), for which the cult is named, and these visions, coupled with the moral teachings embodied in the ritual, make it very attractive to the Indian, who, on joining the cult, is often persuaded to discard entirely the ancient beliefs of his own people. The writer is acquainted with two principal forms of the rite, one involving native deities only, the other, almost entirely Christian in teaching and symbolism. It is this latter form which has been adopted by the Lenape, to whom the tipi, in which the ceremony is held, is as foreign an institution as the little cactus itself, brought in from southern Texas and Mexico.
PL. IX
THE PEYOTE RITE AMONG THE LENAPE
Native Painting by Earnest Spybuck, a Shawnee
Paraphernalia.—For this ceremony the tipi is erected with the door to the east, and a complex series of symbols arranged inside, as shown in the smaller drawing, pl. IX. On the western side of the lodge is built a crescent-shaped mound, or “moon,” of earth, packed hard, its horns turned toward the east, which they say represents the tomb where Christ was buried, and on the center of this is placed a large peyote, dampened and flattened (fig. 19), resting either on a bed of feathers or on the bare earth; and to the west of this again, sometimes a crucifix, as shown in the illustration. Between the points of the crescent is built the fire in a certain prescribed manner with overlapping sticks forming an angle pointing westward. Near the door lies another mound—a round one representing the sun. From the peyote resting on the embankment to the sun mound, directly through the middle of the fire, a line is drawn in the earth of the floor. This represents the “peyote road” along which the Peyote Spirit takes the devotee on a journey toward the sun, and also symbolizes the road to Heaven that Jesus made for the souls of men when He returned thither. West of the crescent-shaped mound stands, when not in use, the highly decorated arrow or staff, frequently made in the form of a long cross, with a groove extending from end to end, representing the spirit road. A small water-drum made of a piece of deerskin stretched over a crock, as seen in pl. IX, a nicely carved drumstick, an eagle-feather fan for brushing all evil influence away from each devotee as he enters or leaves the ceremony, and a supply of dried peyote, dampened and crushed in a mortar, are all necessary for the ceremony. Each devotee, moreover, must be supplied with a decorated gourd rattle of his own.
Officers.—The only officers needed for this rite are a “Road-man” or speaker, who sits in the west, just opposite the door, and a fire guard stationed at the door, whose duty it is to keep the fire burning, and to brush with the feather fan the devotees as they enter. This is illustrated in the colored plate (pl. IX), which represents also the “Road-man” guiding a newcomer to a seat.
Conduct of the Ceremony.—When all are gathered in the tipi, the leader first passes around a fragment herb which the people chew and rub over hands and body. Then the macerated peyote is passed, and each takes enough to make eight pellets about half an inch in diameter, of which some eat all, some only part, reserving some pellets to be eaten later. About this time the leader addresses the peyote and the fire, prays, and often delivers a regular sermon or moral lecture. He then takes the staff in his left hand, and sitting, or kneeling on one knee, he sings a certain number of peyote songs, which are a class to themselves, while the man to the left beats the drum, then passes the staff to the person on his right, himself taking the drum while this person sings, and so the staff travels round and round the lodge, each taking his turn at singing, while the devotees, men and women alike, keep their eyes fixed upon the fire or upon the peyote lying on the mound. As the night wears on the “medicine” begins to take effect, and the devotees see many strange visions, pictures, and brilliant-colored patterns. Often one may see the Peyote Spirit, in the form of an old man, who takes his spirit on a wonderful journey along the “peyote road,” eastward toward the sun. At daybreak they all file out of the tipi bearing their paraphernalia, as seen in pl. IX, b, and when the sun appears they raise their hands in salutation, and then those who are left standing (for some fall as if dead at the sight of the sun) “give thanks to the Great Father in Heaven.” Those who fall at sunrise, they say, are the ones who visited the sun in their visions. All sleep, or at least rest, until about noon, when a feast is served, after which everyone tells what he or she saw while “on the peyote road.”
The Lenape variant of this ceremony, as related above, differs somewhat from that of other tribes practising the Christian form of the Peyote rite, but in all essentials it is almost identical.
The Ghost dance was also introduced among the Lenape by an Indian named Wilson, about the same time, our informants thought, as the Peyote rite, and, like it, probably from the Washita River region.
Wilson would call a dance every now and then during his lifetime, at which the people appeared in their everyday dress, without such special costumes as were seen, for instance, at such functions among the Kiowa and the Arapaho. At these meetings the participants would dance round and round for a long time, with a sidewise step, to the sound of song and water-drum, sometimes for a considerable period without stopping. Occasionally one would fall and appear to faint, and when revived would claim to have visited Heaven in spirit while his body lay as if dead. When Wilson died, the cult, so far as the Delawares were concerned, perished with him.
Such were the ceremonies surviving until recent times among the Lenape, from which have been omitted only the observances connected with the dead, shamanism, witchcraft, and war, all of which will be discussed in later papers.