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:

The interpreter’s translation, which is a somewhat free one, follows:

Then came the dance song:

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:

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:

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:

A fifth had “Mother Corn” (the Corn Spirit) for a guardian, but only part of his song is remembered.

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—

“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]

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:

Loskiel.—Loskiel’s account[42] seems largely derived from the above. He remarks:

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.

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:

Having now considered the very foundation of Lenape religion, we may turn with better understanding, to their great Annual Ceremony.