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Says that eminent scholar, Prof. Reville: "The social and religious development of Central America was in the strictest sense native and origi- nal, and all attempts to bring it into connection with a supposed earlier inter- course with Asia or Europe have failed."
The most civilized nations of to-day point to their high development in language and literature as the most striking evidence of their progress in cul- ture. Compilers of grammars always take the verb "love" as the best example of a regular conjugation, from which it has been inferred by some scholars that the word has acquired the regular form because it represents a great elevation in the human soul, and a perfect attainment in expressing the emotions. But the language of the Klamath or Modoc Indians of Oregon conjugates the verb in three persons and numbers with all the finest shades of meaning known to the Greek grammar, and Dr. Brinton has shown from a comparison of several American with European languages that in them all, the words used to express the conception of love are based upon the same fundamental notions. "They thus reveal the parallel paths which the human mind everywhere pursued in giving articulate expression to the passions and emotions of the soul. In this sense there is a oneness in all languages, which speaks conclusively for the oneness in the sentient and intellectual attributes of the species."
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
The quotations cited are the conclusions reached by ripe scholars after careful study, in the scientific spirit and method, of the American races- their physical characteristics, their languages, legends, myths, astronomy, manners and customs. Examined in this way, the legend of Ta-oun-ya-wa- tha, so musically related by Longfellow, loses some of its picturesqueness, perhaps, but the character of that hero stands out boldly as one of the noblest statesmen the world ever saw. Where before his time did man ever dream of a confederation which should embrace all the nations of the earth in one mighty republic, and thus do away with war forevermore? This was the dream of Hiawatha, and by his nobility of character, his self-sacrificing devotion, his energy and shrewdness, he established the Iroquois Confedera- tion of Five Nations, which has maintained its existence for more than four centuries, and in the Council of which the name of Hiawatha is still pre- served as one of the original members. Here in the wilds of America, forty years before Columbus saw the new continent, was thus founded one of the first and purest republics on the face of the earth. The name Hiawatha is rendered by Hale "he who seeks the wampum belt;" by L. H. Morgan, "He who combs," and by Albert Cusick (an Indian), "One who looks for his mind, which he has lost, but knows where to find it." This suggests the per- sistence of purpose which Mr. Hale ascribes to him. "Like similar Iroquois names, the final syllables are pronounced wat-ha by the Indians, and by the Onondagas it is commonly called Hi-e-wat-ha." Beauchamp does not think this "Lawgiver of the Stone Age" lived much before 1600. Dr. Brinton and most Americanists preferably accept what Morgan and Hale say about the Iroquois. The most popular account of Hiawatha is that given by Henry R. Schoolcraft, in "Algic Researches," 1839, and in "The Myth of Hia- watha," etc., Philadelphia, 1856; it was from this account, confusing Hia- watha with the myth-god Michabo, that Longfellow drew his material for his beautiful poem.
No wonder that the story of his life appeals to our tenderest emotions as we read the "Song of Hiawatha :"
How he prayed and how he fasted, How he lived, and toiled, and suffered, That the tribes of men might prosper, That he might advance his people.
Thus, too, the innumerable legends of Michabo or Manibozho resolve themselves into a Light-myth. Brinton says: "Michabo, giver of life and light, creator and preserver, is no apotheosis of a prudent chieftain, still less the fabrication of an idle fancy or a designing priestcraft, but in origin, deeds, and name the not unworthy personification of the purest conceptions they possessed concerning the Father of All. To Him at early dawn the Indian stretched forth his hands in prayer ; and to the sky or the sun as his home, he first pointed the pipe in his ceremonies, rites often misinterpreted by travellers as indicative of sun worship." Michabo was the Great Light, or the Great White One, born of a virgin mother. Was this so very different from the worship of the ancient Aryans, who prayed to the Sky-Father-
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THE ABORIGINES
Dyu patar-Dyaush-pitar-Jupiter ? Moreover, we are told that Michabo was one of the brothers-Wabun, Kabun, Kabibonokka and Shawans-the East, West, North and South, and the winds blowing from those cardinal points. Among the most diverse of the American races similar legends are preserved, evidently relating to the four points of the compass, and the unceasing warfare between the Sun and Moon, Light and Darkness, Good and Evil. The vague and pathetic stories that are handed down from age to age, of the time when their people had a great prophet, a white man, with a long beard, who has promised to come again and restore that mythical golden age to which all races fondly look back, are only variations of the same Light-myth, possibly modified by some historic basis of truth, which may even have been derived from a vanished race. The tales of the miraculous conception of the Light, and even of an immaculate conception, which horri- fied the early European missionary priests, and the figure of the cross, so often found carved on the massive stone buildings of the Mayas, the Aztecs, and other Central American nations, and frequently depicted by the rude Indian of the north on his buffalo robe or on prominent rocks, are all very reasonably ascribed to the same widespread cult among the natives of this continent. Dorman, however. insists that Manabozho is the deification of some former distinguished ancestor. This is improbable. Of late years there has arisen a school of writers who are imbued with a single idea, and would have us believe that all the symbolism in every religion, ancient and modern, in the Old World, and the New, in the tropics and in the coldest climates, has but one meaning, which is expressed in India by the ling-yoni ; in Ireland by the famous round towers and the Irish cross; in Egypt by the pyramids; in Mexico by the pyramidal teocallis and the calendar stone ; in Central America by the stone cross and the image of Centeotl (the Goddess of Agriculture, holding in her arms an infant, the male Centeotl, the maize) ; in North America by the snake dance and sundry totems; by the sacred "groves" of Palestine Assyria, and Chaldea ; by the "garter" which formed the occasion for the motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense ; by the brazen serpent in the Wilder- ness, and the rod of Aaron; by the Druid circles at Stonehenge and else- where ; by the priest's stole and his chasuble; by the campanili of Italy, and the spires of modern Christian churches-in short, by every object in nature and art to which a lively, not to say prurient, fancy can impart a question- able significance. Some of these writers combine great industry in the col- lection of facts with a marvelous credulity and riotous imagination in the interpretation of them. There is no sense in seeking a far-fetched explana- tion for an object or a rite when a more obvious, simple meaning is at hand. In that amusing and interesting work, "Sacred Mysteries among the Mayas and Quiches, 11,500 years ago, their relations to the sacred mysteries of Egypt. Greece, Chaldea and India ; Free Masonry in Times Anterior to the Temple of Solomon," by August Le Plongeon, New York, 1886, the writer gravely asks us to believe that the uræus figured in Egyptian sculpture on the heads of the royal family was so worn because when distended in anger
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
the asp took the shape of the isthmus of Yucatan, where lived the Mayas, whom he assumes to have been ancient relatives of the Egyptians !
The similarity that exists between the races of the Old World and the New, in respect to the character of their stone implements, their pottery and architecture, their social customs and their religious myths, are explained by the parallelism in the development of mankind. The inhabitants of neither hemisphere borrowed from the other. The civilization of America was developed on independent lines. So were the American languages. This proves that the first races on this Continent must have separated from the primitive stock at a very early period. But the fact that the development was so similar in character proves likewise that the Americans had the same physiological and mental structure as their European relatives, and is addi- tional evidence of the truth of Paul's declaration, that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth." As Roger Williams quaintly puts it, "More particular :"
Boast not proud English, of thy birth and blood, Thy Brother Indian is by birth as Good. Of one blood God made Him, and Thee, and All. As wise, as faire, as strong, as personall.
When the whites came to America they found one great family of Indian nations-the Algonkins. According to Brinton this name may be a corruption of agomeegwin, "people of the other shore." Roger Williams says that the Narragansett Indians spoke of England or Europe as Acawe- menoakit, "from the land on the other side." This would correspond with the Cree akamik, from the other side of the water. But may it not be derived from the Cree root kona (k being substituted for g), French neige, snow ; and kiwihur, French il est errant, sans residence, or homeless, refer- ring to the wanderings of this people in the frozen regions of the far North? The Algonkins collectively were called by the nations west, north and south by the name of Wapanachki Apenaki, Openagi, Abenaquis or Abenakis. "Eastlanders." a name still retained by a small tribe in Maine. The word comes from the Cree root wab, white, whence wapan, dawn or day, wapanok, at or from the east. The Delawares in the far West still retain a tradition of the ancient confederate name, and speak of themselves as O-puh-narke.
The Algonkins occupied the country from frozen Labrador to sunny Savannah, and from the shores swept by the Atlantic's surges to the snow- capped Rocky Mountains. The only exception to this undisputed sway was the territory occupied by the Iroquois, or Five Nations, in Central and Northern New York, and southerly along the Susquehanna valley to Vir- ginia. Among the innumerable independent nations of the Algonkins was one which its members proudly called the Lenape, or Lenni Lenape.
Lenape, according to the aborigines, was pronounced Len-ah-pay, the accent on the second syllable, which has a nasal inflection. Authorities differ as to the meaning of the word. Brinton translates it "our men;" Loskiel declares it means "Indian men," and Trumbull "the Indians of our tribe and nation." According to the Lenape-English dictionary, edited by Daniel G.
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THE ABORIGINES
Brinton and Rev. Albert Seqaqkind Anthony, it means "the original, or pure Indian."
The Lenapé occupied most of New Jersey-at least the southern part, which they called Scheyechbi (pronounced Shay-ak-bee), "long land water ;" probably referring to the waters enclosing the Southern peninsula of the State. It is improbable that the Indians had any general name for the whole territory now known as New Jersey, and it is quite likely that Scheyechbi merely designated the shore of the Delaware Bay.
Whence came the Lenape? When did they first occupy New Jersey? Questions more easily asked than answered. As already remarked, they were one of the many nations belonging to the great Algonkin stock. This is shown by the similarity in physical structure, in language, customs, reli- gious cults and myths, their agriculture, pipes and implements. Many modern scientists incline to the belief that the language spoken by the Crees (inhabiting the southern shores of Hudson's Bay) has probably preserved most fully the characteristics of the parent language in us among the common ancestors of all the Algonkin nations. The migration legends of the Lenapé apparently indicate a northern origin of their nation, although it has been commonly interpreted otherwise. Their people, they say, resided many hun- dred years ago in the far West. Resolving to migrate eastward, they came, after many years, to the Namaesi Sipu (according to Heckewelder the Mis- sissippi, or fish river ), where they fell in with the Mengwe (as the Delawares called the Iroquois and the Five or Six Nations), who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck this river higher up. The region east of the river was inhabited by a warlike people, who had many large fortified towns. These people called themselves Talligeu or Talligewi. They refused to permit the Lenapé to settle among them, but allowed them to pass through their country to the East. However, when they saw the many thou- sands of the Lenape they took alarm and made war on them. After many years of contest, the Talligewi abandoned their country, and retreated to the South. The Lenapé and the Mengwe occupied the country for hundreds of years, gradually spreading out, till in time the former migrated, in small bodies, further South, and finally settled in New Jersey and along the Dela- ware river, which the Lenapes called Lenapewihittuck, "the rapid stream of the Lenape." Such is the legend as gathered by Heckewelder from the Lenapé themselves.
The Minisink and Pompton Indians had nearly all left New Jersey by the middle of the eighteenth century, gradually drifting westward to and beyond the Mississippi, although some of the former found their way to Canada. In 1822 there was published, at New Haven, "A Report to the Secretary of War of the United States, on Indian Affairs, comprising a narrative of a tour performed in the Summer of 1820, under a commission from the President of the United States, for the purpose of ascertaining, for the use of the Government, the actual state of the Indian tribes in our coun- try," by the Rev. Jedidiah Morse, D. D., who gives these particulars of the New Jersey Indians :
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Brothertons, near Oneida Lake; adopted into the Six Nations.
Delawares, a few, at Cattaraugus, New York; 80 near Sandusky, Ohio; 1800 west of the Mississippi river, on Currant river ; a town of Delawares twenty miles south of Chicago; sixteen miles north of the centre another town; between them, two villages; another town on White river; in all, five towns containing about 1,000 souls, Delawares, Muncies, Mohegans, Nanti- cokes, etc. In 1802 a council was held at Wappecommehhoke, on the banks of the White river, between the Delawares and delegates of the Moheakun- nunk nation, at which the former accepted the propositions of the latter, including civilization. Tatepahqsect, of the Wolf clan, was the speaker and principal Sachem of the Delawares; his head warrior was Pokenchelah. In 1818 the Delawares numbered about 800 on the banks of the White river, their principal town being Wapeminskink, or chestnut tree; their principal chief was Thahutooweelent, or William Anderson, of the Turkey tribe.
In 1822 the eccentric Rafinesque procured in Kentucky an original Lenapé record, pictured on wood, giving some primitive legends of that people. This record is called the Walam Olum, or Red Score, from the fact that it was doubtless painted in red on wood or prepared bark, whence it has been sometimes called the Bark Record. The original is not known to exist. What is preserved is a manuscript copy made in 1833 by Rafinesque. Of this, imperfect extracts have been frequently printed, but the first accurate reproduction-figures and text-was published in 1885 by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, under the title: "The Lenâpé and their Legends; with the Com- plete Text and Symbols of the Walam Olum." After describing the creation, the record goes on to say :
I. Pehella wtenk lennapewi tulapewini psakwiken woliwikgun wittank talli.
After the rushing waters (had subsided) the Lenape of the turtle [clan] were close together, in hollow houses, living together there.
2. Topan-akpinep, wineu-akpinep, kshakan-akpinep, thupin-akpinep. It freezes where they abode, it snows where they abode, it storms where they abode, it is cold where they abode.
8. Wemiako yagawan tendki lakkawelendam nakopowa wemi owen- luen atam.
All the cabin fires of that land were disquieted, and all said to their priest, "Let us go."
17. Wulelemil w' shakuppek,
Wemopannek hakshinipek, Kitahikan pokhakhopek.
On the wonderful, slippery water, On the stone-hard (icy) water all went, On the great Tidal Sea, the mussel-bearing sea.
20. Wemipayat gunéunga shinaking,
Wunkenapi chanelendam payaking, Allowelendam kowiyey tulpaking.
They all come, they tarry at the land of the spruce pines ; Those from the west come with hesitation, Esteeming highly their old home at the Turtle land.
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THE ABORIGINES
And so the record goes on to say : "Long ago the fathers of the Lenape were at the land of spruce pines."
A long succession of Chiefs (Sakimas) followed: Beautiful Head, White Owl, Keeping-Guard. and Snow Bird, "who spoke of the South, that our fathers should possess it by scattering abroad." Then many more Chiefs (each probably representing a period of twenty-five years), among them Tally-Maker. "who made records ;" and Corn Breaker, "who brought about the planting of corn." From time to time southern and eastern migrations are noted; then the war with the Talligewi, "who possessed the east ;" then, "all the Talega go south ;" "they stay south of the lakes." The Lenape spread south and east to the seashore, winning their way by frequent wars.
Dr. Brinton thus summarizes the narrative of the Walam Olum: At some remote period the ancestors of the Lenâpé dwelt probably at Labrador. They journeyed south and west to the St. Lawrence, near Lake Ontario. Next they dwelt for some generations in the pine and hemlock regions of New York, fighting often with the Snake people, and the Talega, agricul- tural nations, living in fortified towns, in 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 others of their kin who had moved there directly from northern New York. So they united with the Hurons to drive out the Talega from the Upper Ohio, which was not fully accomplished for many centuries, some Cherokees lingering along there as late as 1730. Other writers think the Lenape migrated from the woody region-Shinaking- "land of the spruce pines," or "fir trees"-north of Lake Superior, and crossed the Detroit river-Messu-sipi, or "Great River"-and so came into Northern Ohio.
It is not to be expected that we shall ever determine the periods of the successive wanderings and sojournings of the Lenape in the course of their migration south and east. Allowing twenty-five years as the average life of each Chief, we would have five hundred years as elapsing from the time the nation set out on their southward journey till they acquired the art of plant- ing corn ; about five hundred years more ere they reached the upper St. Law- rence, and encountered the Talligewi; about seven hundred years more when they reached the "great sea," the "Mighty Water ;" one hundred and fifty years more, when "the whites came on the Eastern sea ;" about three hun- dred years more, when "from north and south, the whites came." Here we have a total of two thousand one hundred and fifty years as covering the whole period of the migrations of this people. The more adventurous spirits were of course always pushing on ahead of the great body of the nation. From the crude data at hand, and making due allowance for the deliberation with which an entire nation must have moved, it is probable that the advance guard of the Lenape reached New Jersey at least as early as the eighth or ninth century, or one thousand years ago.
On the other hand, the testimony of archaeology demands a far greater antiquity to account for the innumerable traces of primitive human habita-
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
tion within the bounds of Scheyechbi. All along the New Jersey shore are shell-heaps, refuse thrown up by the aboriginal villagers through unknown centuries. Some of them have accumulated on the fast ground, but are now several feet below the ocean level, in swamps, and in some instances covered with earth to a depth of six feet. Estimating that the New Jersey coast is subsiding at the rate of two feet in a century, as calculated by Prof. Cook, the evidence is strong that the beginnings of these shell-heaps must date back far beyond a thousand years, and that the aborigines must have occu- pied this land long before they began to throw up these piles of kitchen refuse so systematically. But there are no signs that any race since palæo- lithic man has inhabited New Jersey other than the Indians whom the whites found here, and so it is very probable that David Cusick's vague tradition of the period of the encounter of the Northern Indians with the Tallegewi is nearer the truth than the estimate based on the imperfect record of Chiefly successions of the Lenapé, and that it was "perhaps about two thousand two hundred years before the Columbus discovered the America," that the North- ern nations began their migration to the South and East, and hence fully three thousand years since the Lenape saw the shining sea, from Scheyechbi.
Whatever the wanderers may have learned from their long contact with the Tallegewi, there is no indication that they ever patterned after them in the building of mounds, for none have been found in New Jersey. It is possible that some terraces supposed to be of natural origin may prove to be the handiwork of man. But there is no reason to believe that the Lenape ever reached that stage of development when it would have been possible for them to have organized, disciplined and supported an industrial force capable of constructing such vast mounds as are scattered over the prairies of the West.
CHAPTER II.
Indian Home Life-Providing Wigwams and food-The men hunted and fished while the women tilled the fields-Their code of laws-Wam- pum and its uses-Method of keeping time-Marriage and parentage. Diseases, medicine men, death and mourning.
The earliest white travelers in this part of the country looked upon the natives as simply savages, but little different from the wild beasts whose skins they wore. Hence they did not trouble themselves to study their insti- tutions, religion, mythology or traditions. That has been done of late years better than was possible then. However, for descriptions of the actual man- ners and customs of the people, as far as they were obvious to the casual observer, the accounts given by the first visitors to these shores are of value. So we read that the Indians of New Jersey (and the same was true of the aborigines generally) were well built and strong, with broad shoulders and small waists; dark eyes, snow-white teeth, coarse, black hair, of which the men left but a single tuft (scalp lock) on the top of the head, convenient for
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THE ABORIGINES
an enemy's scalping knife, and which the women thrust into a bag behind. There were few or none cross-eyed, blind, crippled, or deformed. Woolley says: "They preserved their Skins smooth by anointing them with the Oyl of Fishes, the fat of Eagles, and the grease of Rackoons, which they hold in the Summer the best antidote to keep their skins from blistering by the scorching Sun, and their best Armour against the Musketto's * and stopper of the Pores of their Bodies against the Winter's cold."
The men painted or stained their bodies, using colors extracted from plants or finely-crushed stones, or found along the seashore. The women, not having the advantage of Christian training, and being therefore less wise than their white sisters, were wont to paint their faces ; and in general they adorned themselves more than did the men, for'a proud squaw would some- times display her charms set off by a petticoat ornamented with beads to the value of one hundred dollars or more.
In the Lenape language the word for woman is ochqueu, pronounced och-quay-oo, or, by softening the guttural, os-quay-oo, which was readily modified into squa or squaw. Kik-ochqueu, a single woman ; kikey-ochqueu, an elderly woman ; wuskiochque, a young woman ; ochqueunk, of a woman; wilariochqueu, a rich woman. See Zeisberger's Indian Dictionary, English, German, Iroquois (the Onondaga) and Algonquin (the Delaware), printed from the Original Manuscript in Harvard College Library, Cambridge, 1887; A Lenâpé-English Dictionary, as cited. The Cree root is iskw, whence iskwew (or iskwayoo), woman ; oskiskwew, a young woman.
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