USA > New Jersey > Passaic County > Paterson > History of Paterson and its environs (the silk city); historical- genealogical - biographical > Part 5
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Their dread of the mystery of death led them to speak of it by circum- locution or some euphemism, as "You are about to see your grandfathers," or, as among the whites, "If anything should happen." Probably because they had a vague belief that the spirits of the dead haunted their former home, Roger Williams says that in case of a death the Indians would remove their wigwam to a new spot. It is a thought that appeals strongly to the imagination-that of the Indian warrior returning in spirit to hover over his former home, to linger about his grave, a thought so beautifully expressed by our own Jersey poet, Freneatt :
By midnight moons, o'er moistening dews, In vestments for the chace array'd, The hunter still the deer pursues, The hunter and the deer, a shade !
And long shall timorous fancy see The painted chief, and pointed spear, And reason's self shall bow the knee To shadows and delusions here.
The friends of a deceased person blackened their faces, in token of their grief ; but the active mourning, so to speak, was left to the female relatives, who would repair daily to the grave, for a time, at morn and eve, to utter their cries of lamentation. A widow mourned a whole year, dressing with- out ornaments and seldom washing herself. The men did not alter their dress nor manner of living, nor did they mourn for any set period, but before marrying again they were expected to make an offering to the kindred of the deceased wife, "for Atonement, Liberty and Marriage."
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PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
CHAPTER III.
The Indian Language-More primitive than the Aryan-Personal pro- nouns joined to other words-No gender or relative pronouns. Specimens of conjugations-Holy Writ as read by the Lenape. Their description of the creation of the world-"The Indian Inter- preter."
It is impossible to tell how many languages were spoken in America when the whites first came hither. At the present time, there are in America north of Mexico, fifty-eight distinct linguistic families, as described in the admirable report of Major J. W. Powell, the Director of the United States Bureau of Ethnology, and depicted with vivid clearness on the map accom- panying his paper in the Seventh Annual Report of that Bureau. Of these, curiously enough, there are no less than forty families in the narrow strip between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast-a fact which militates strongly against any theory that the Indians are of Tartar or Mongolian origin. Of these fifty-eight distinct families, the Algonkin, as already remarked, occupied a very large territory; to be precise-almost the whole of the Dominion of Canada south of Lat. 60 degs. N., and east of Long. 115 degs. W .; and most of the United States as far South as Lat. 35 degs. N., east of the Mississippi. The territory lying around Lakes Erie and Ontario, on both sides of the St. Lawrence as far down as Quebec, and in Central Pennsylvania, was occupied by the Iroquois, who were thus included within the vast domain of the Algonkins. According to Major Powell's classifica- tion, there are thirty-six well defined tribes of the Algonkin stock, number- ing about 95,600 persons, of whom about 60,000 are in Canada and the remainder in this country. Among the best known were the Abnakis, Nova Scotia and south bank of the St. Lawrence river ; Arapahoes, head waters of Kansas river ; Blackfeet, head waters of Missouri river ; Cheyennes, upper waters of Arkansas river ; Chipeways or Ojibways, shores of Lake Superior ; Crees, southern shores of Hudson's bay ; Illinois, on the Illinois river ; Kicka- poos, on upper Illinois river ; Miamis, between Miami and Wabash rivers; Micmacs, Nova Scotia; Mohegans, on lower Hudson river; Manhattans, about New York bay; Nanticokes, on Chesapeake bay; Ottawas, on the Ottawa river; Passamaquoddies, on Schoodic river; Pottawattomies, south of Lake Michigan ; Sacs and Foxes, on Sac river ; Shawnees, on Tennessee river.
Included in these tribes are the Delawares and Munsees, about 1,750 persons, descendants of the former native inhabitants of New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania. All the languages spoken by the Algonkin tribes have marked resemblances, indicating a common origin, and in a general way it may be said that the tribes of that stock nearest to the Crees speak languages or dialects most closely resembling the tongue of that people, which has certain unmistakable signs of greater purity and antiquity than the others. It may be said to bear the same relation to the other Algonkin languages that the Sanscrit was formerly supposed to hold to the Aryan. The student of any
3I
THE ABORIGINES
of the Algonkin tongues finds it a great help to have at his side Howse's Cree grammar, a work held in very high esteem by scholars for its scientific precision ; Lacombe's "Dictionnaire de la Langue des Cris" (his grammar, attached to the dictionary, does not stand so high as Howse's), and Cuoq's "Lexique de la Langue Algonquine." The study of the comparative gram- mar of allied languages, and of the etymology of words as traced through different families of the same linguistic stock, is of obvious advantage in tr: cing the various shades of meaning of a word, and its original significance. w hereby light is often gained on obscure points in history, and the primitive ruanners and customs, myths and religious beliefs of a people. The earlier travelers and writers who attempted to describe the American race-or races - did not recognize fully this separation of the Indians into distinct families, speaking languages totally different, and many later writers have also ignored this important fact. In reading the narratives of explorers it is important to note carefully what region they traversed, and hence what particular lin- guistic stock or family they are describing. Colden's famous and invaluable "History of the Five Nations" is of very slight use in the study of the Lenâpé of New Jersey. Adair's account of the Muskoheegan Indians of the Southern States is equally valueless for the same purpose. These various stocks spoke languages radically different. There is no more resemblance between the Cree and Tinné-spoken by two peoples geographically con- tiguous-than there is between the French and the Chinese. Still, there are certain features, certain modes of thought, of expression, common to all or most American languages, which indicate a common origin of the peoples using them, notwithstanding the superficial differences between them. There is no gender in the American tongues ; words are animate or inanimate, the distinction being not always one of fact. There are no relative pronouns, few or no conjunctions ; no articles; very few adjectives or prepositions. Many objects were spoken of always in connection with their relations to other objects. Instead of saying "arm," "thigh," "hand," the Indian would say "my-arm," "your-thigh," "his-hand." Words apparently disconnected were run together and incorporated into each other, a part of one being united with another, and thus new words were formed, new ideas expressed. The Indian who saw a cow for the first time described it in his own tongue as "animal-that-walks-on-flat-split-foot." The Delaware word for horse means "the four-footed-animal-which-carries-on-his-back." Although lack- ing in faculty of precise expression, according to our ideas, in many instances the American languages avoid confusions common to us. While they had little use for words to convey abstract ideas, or metaphysical, theo- logical or scientific terms, missionaries have often found it entirely practica- ble to explain the mysteries of religion and theology in native words. The two examples just given show how concrete objects were often described. Certain words were used, as "indifferent themes," sometimes corresponding to our nouns, sometimes to verbs, sometimes to adjectives, according to their connection. If used in a verbal sense, a change in the root would indicate that the action was suppositive, instead of positive. Many other peculiarities
32
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
show that the American languages differ in structure from those of the eastern hemisphere. They are more primitive than the Aryan languages, and hence arises their interest for the ethnologist, who has here the oppor- tunity of studying the earlier methods of expression used by mankind ; and so of analyzing the mental processes of man in his primitive state. The light thus gained on the history of the development of the human race in mind, in manners and customs. in ways of obtaining a living, in civilization, religion and government, is of the greatest value and fascinating in its inter- est. Prof. Whitney says with truth: "Our national duty and honor are peculiarly concerned in this matter of the study of aboriginal American lan- guages, as the most fertile and important branch of American archeology. * Indian scholars, and associations which devote themselves to gathering together and making public linguistics and other archæological materials for construction of the proper ethnology of the continent, are far rarer than they should be among us." But there is no lack of literature on these subjects now, and every year is adding to our store of knowledge, and perhaps demolishing old theories. The newer students are satisfied to gather facts, and are more chary of conclusions than their predecessors. Already we have a far greater body of original texts in the American languages- dealing with their popular traditions, myths, religion, folk-tales, religious songs and dances, ceremonies, initiation rites into medicine lodges and other secret societies, etc .- than can be found in the whole of the ancient Greek and Latin literature put together. The various societies mentioned, besides others, are constantly adding to the mass, while the United States Bureau of Ethnology is accumulating a priceless treasure of original material, the result of the well-directed labors of scores of intelligent, industrious and zealous workers.
The literature of the Lenape may be thus summarized, from Pilling's Algonquian Bibliography: Translations from the Bible, and Bible history, thirteen titles ; dictionaries, seven, of which one was printed in 1887 and one in 1889; lists of geographic names, six; grammatic comments, eleven ; grammatic treatises, two; hymns and hymn books, six; translations of the Lord's Prayer, twelve (two by Trumbull) ; lists of numerals, fifteen; lists of proper names and translations, seven; vocabularies, forty-seven. A grammar was compiled with infinite care by the devoted missionary, David Zeisberger, in the latter part of the eighteenth century; it was translated in 1816 by Peter S. Duponceau, and published in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. III., New Series, in 1827, filling one hundred and fifty large quarto pages. It is not such a grammar as an accomplished philologist would prepare in the second decade of the twentieth century, but it is the only one we have of the language, and gives a very full and comprehensive exposition of the structure and idioms of the Lenâpé tongue. The introduction and notes by the translator (pp. 65-96) add much to its value. Zeisberger's dictionary of the English, German, Onondaga and Delaware languages, also prepared more than a century ago, was published in 1887, in a volume of two hundred and thirty-six quarto pages. It con-
VIEWS OF THE FALLS.
Tki PUBLI
AGT.
Bez
33
THE ABORIGINES
tains about four thousand Delaware words, of the Minsi dialect. The origi- nal manuscript is in the library of Harvard University. Another manuscript dictionary of the Delaware (the Unami dialect), believed to be the work of the Rev. C. F. Dencke, a missionary to the Indians in Canada, who died in 1839, is in the Moravian Archives at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It has been carefully edited by Dr. Brinton and the Rev. Albert Seqaqkind Anthony (a native Delaware missionary), and published in 1889, in a handsome small quarto volume of two hundred and thirty-six pages, giving about three thou- sand seven hundred words. These three works-the grammar and the two dictionaries-are the principal sources of information regarding the language spoken by the New Jersey Indians two centuries ago. The only really philo- sophical analysis of the language is given by Dr. Brinton, in his "Lenâpé and their Legends," already so freely quoted in this work. As illustrating the peculiar mode of expressing ideas by modifications of a single theme, he gives this example of the combinations of the root ni, I, mine :
I. In a good sense :
Nihilleu, it is I, or mine. Nihillatschi, self, oneself. Nihillapervi, free. Nihillapewit, freeman. Nihillasowagan, freedom, liberty. Nihillapeuhen, to make free, to redeem. Nihillapeuhoalid, the Redeemer, the Saviour.
II. In a bad sense :
Nihillan, he is mine to beat, I beat him. Nihillan, I beat him to death, I kill him. Nihillowen, I put him to death, I murder him. Nihillowet, a murderer. Nihillowervi, murderous.
III. In a demonstrative sense :
ne; plural, nek or nell, this, that, the. Nall, nan, nanne, nanni, this one, that one. Nill, these. Naninga, those gone, dead.
IV. In a possessive sense :
Nitaton, in-my-having, I can, am able, know how. Nitaus, of-my-family, sister-in-law. Nitis, of-mine, a friend, companion. Nitsch! my child, exclamation of fondness.
Thus the same root is used to express ideas so opposite as freedom and slavery, murder and Saviour.
The inseparable pronouns, n, k, and w or u or o, in the first, second and third persons, respectively, are used as prefixes with words expressing objects and actions. For example :
P-3
34
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
Nooch, my father.
Kooch, thy father.
Ochwall, his or her father.
Noochena. our father. Koochuwa, your father.
Ochuwawvall, their father.
Hacki, earth; hakihacan, plantation.
N'dakihacan, my plantation.
K'dakihacan, thy plantation. W'dakihacan, his plantation.
N'dakihacanena, our plantation.
K'dakihacanena, your plantation.
W'dakihacanowawall, their plantation.
These inseparable pronouns are the same for nouns and verbs, and are used in the nominative, possessive and accusative cases, and in both numbers, without change. Vowel changes, accent and emphasis, played an important part in the spoken language, effecting great differences in the meaning of words otherwise apparently the same. Students of the Indian languages often doubt if there is any fixed rule of accent or pronunciation. There appears to have been a tendency among the Lenape to place the emphasis on the penult in words of two syllables, and on the antepenult in words of more than two syllables, but so far as this was the practice, it was modified by the laws altering the meaning of a word through the emphasis. Changes in the consonants are also frequent among Indians, even of the same tribe. Not only were there permutations of consonants of the same class, but often of labials into dentals, of liquids into sibilants. Zeisberger says the Dela- wares (meaning those in the northern part of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, the Minsis) had no f nor r in their language, and those consonants have no place in his grammar and dictionary ; nor are they found in the Lenâpé-Eng- lish dictionary which has been cited in these pages. On the other hand, Campanius, the Swedish missionary in West Jersey, says that the Indians in that section had no / in their language ; that they called themselves Renni Renape, instead of Lenni Lenape. But it is hardly safe to accept these state- ments as absolutely correct in either case. Names of places and of persons show that the sound of r was not unknown in Northern New Jersey, nor the sound of / in West Jersey. Allowance must be always made for the accuracy with which persons hear and distinguish between the sounds of a foreign tongue.
The careless assumption that the Indian languages undergo great and constant changes in brief periods, because they are spoken and not written tongues, finds emphatic contradiction in the case of the Lenâpé. We have the numerals as recorded by Campanius in 1645, in the Swedish alphabet ; by Thomas, in 1695, in English ; by Zeisberger, about 1750, in German, and by Lieutenant Whipple, on the Pacific railroad survey, in 1855, when he found a party of the Delawares in Kansas. From a comparison it will be seen that, allowing for the differences in pronunciation by the different recorders, the Indian words have undergone practically no change in two hundred and fifty years :
35
THE ABORIGINES
Campanius. 1645
Thomas.
Zeisberger.
Whipple.
169
1750
1855
I
Ciutte
Kooty
Ngutti
Cote
2
Nissa
Nisha
Nischa
Nisha
3
Naha
Natcha
Nacha
Naha
4
Naevvo
Neo
Newo
Neewah
5
Pareenach
Pelenach
Palenach
Pahlenahk
6
Ciuttas
Kootash
Guttasch
Cottasch
7
Nissas
Nishash
Nischasch
Nishasch
8
Haas
Choesh
Chasch
Hasch
9
Paeschum
Peshonk
Peschkonk
Pesco
IO Thaeren
Telen
Tellen
Telen
It would be difficult to find two persons unfamiliar with the Indian lan- guage, who, hearing these numerals uttered by a Delaware to-day, would write them down more nearly alike than they are given above as taken from the different authors named.
Jan de Laet, who was the first to describe the New Netherlands, in 1625, gives the numerals thus : I. Cotte; 2. Nysse ; 3. Nacha ; 4. Wyue (probably a typographical error for Nyue) ; 5. Parenag; 6. Cottash; 7. Nysas; 8. Gechas ; 9. Pescon ; 10. Terren. He says this was according to the language of the Sanhikans (about Trenton).
A careful comparison of the Lenâpe with other Algonquian languages shows that it was departed from the purity of the parent stock. These changes have been effected partly by environment, partly by climatic influ- ences, and possibly in part by long contact, either as neighbors or as con- querors, with tribes who occupied New Jersey before their own arrival from their home in the Far North. A closer study of the language may some day throw more light on the share these several influences have had in the modi- fication of the Lenâpé.
In his grammar Zeisberger gives paradigms of eight conjugations of verbs, through the active, passive, personal and reciprocal forms, positive and negative, with the five or six transitions of each mood. A single specimen must suffice :
Ahoalan, to love. N'dahoala, I love. K'dahoala, thou lovest. Ahoaleu or W'dahoala, he loves. N'dahoalaneen, we love. K'dahoalohhumo, you love. Ahoalewak, they love.
The past tense is formed in the singular by adding ep to the verb, and in the plural by adding ap, and the future tense by the use of the suffix tsch. The negative is formed by the prefix atta: Atta n'doahawi, I do not love. The passive by the suffix gussi: N'dahoalgussi, etc. In the negative form, past tense : Atta w'dahoalgussiwipannik, they were not loved; in the future : Atta n'dahoalgussiwuneentsch, we shall not be loved. In the fourth transi- tion : K'dahoalohhummowuneen, we do not love you.
It must not be inferred that the Lenape was as elegant or as copious as the Greek, or Latin, or English; but it is evident from what has been said
36
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
that it had a very elaborate construction. Its very richness or redundancy of inflections, however, is regarded by scholars as a sign of its primitiveness. This is another reason why its study should interest us, as it represents a stage in the development of human language thousands of years older than our own vernacular. It shows the mental process of men in a state of bar- barism; how objects, facts, ideas were apprehended by them. This mental process may be illustrated by a specimen of the Lenape language (in the Unami or West Jersey dialect), as given by Dr. Brinton, in his Lenâpé and their Legends, from an unpublished manuscript in the library of the Ameri- can Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia, the passage being the parable related in Matthew XXII, I-5:
I. Woak Jesus wtabptonalawoll woak lapi nuwuntschi And Jesus he-spoke-with-them and again he-began Enendhackewoagannall nelih woak wtellawoll. parables them-to and he-said-to-them.
2. Ne Wusakimawoagan Patamauwoss (wtellgigui) (mallaschi )
The his-kingdom God it-is-like
mejauchsid Sakima, na Quisall mall'nitauwan certain King, his-son he-made-for-him Witach-pungewiwuladtpoàgan. marriage.
3 Woak wtellallocalan wtallocacannall, wentschitsch nek
And he-sent-out his-servants the-bidding the Elendpannik lih Witachpungewiwuladtpoàgannüng those-bidden to marriage
wentschimcussowoak; tschuk necamawa schingipawak. those-who-were-bidden, but they they-were-unwilling
4. Woak lapi wtellallocalan pili wtallocacannall woak And again he-sent-out other servants and (panni) (penna)
wtella ( wolli ) ; Mauwiloh nen Elendpannik, (schita ) he-said-to-them those the-bidden
Nolachtüppoágan 'nkischachtüppui, nihillalachkik the-feast I-have-made-the-feast they-are-killed Wisuhengpannik auwessissak nemætschi nhillapannik they-fattened-them beasts the-whole I-killed-them
woak weemi ktaköcku 'ngischachtüppui, peeltik lih and all I-have-finished come to Witachpungkewiwuladtpoàgannüng. marriage.
5. Tschuk necamawa mattelemawoawollnenni, woak
But they they-esteemed-it-not and
ewak ika, mejauchsid enda wtakihàcannüng, napilli went away certain thither to-his-plantation-place other
nihillatschi (M'hallamawachtowoagannüng) (Nundauchsowoagannüng to-merchandise-place.
37
THE ABORIGINES
The following is the Lord's prayer in Delaware (Minsi dialect), from Zeisberger's Spelling Book (1776) and History of our Lord (1806). Pro- nounce a like awe in law; e like ay in say; i like ee; u like oo or ou in you; ch nearly like Scottish gh; j like English i in in; g like g in gay. For the termi- nation of the verbal noun, here printed -wagan, Zeisberger has -woagan; Heckewelder, wagan. The translation is by Heckewelder :
( Ki) Wetochemellenk, (talli) epian awossagame :
Thou our-Father there dwelling beyond the clouds
Machelendasutsch ktellewunsowâgan ;
Magnified (or praised) be thy name.
Ksakimawãgan pejewiketsch ;
Thy kingdom come-on
Ktelitehewãgan leketsch talli achquidhakamike elgiqui
Thy-thoughts (will, intention) come-to-pass here upon
leek tulli awossagame ;
(or, all-over-the) earth, the same as it is there in heaven (or, be- yond the clouds )
Milineen juke gischquik gunigischuk achpoan ;
Give-to-us on (or, through) this day the-usual (or, daily) bread
Woak miwelendamau (w) ineen 'ntschanauchsowagannena,
And forgive us our-transgressions ( faults) the same-as
elgiqui niluna miweledamauwenk nik we-mutually-forgive-them who (or, those) who
tschetschanilawemquengik ; have-transgressed (or, injured) us
Woak katschi npawuneen li achquetschiechtowâganink ;
And let-not us-come-to-that that we-fall-into-temptation
Schukund ktennineen untschi medhikink ;
But (rather) keep us free from all-evil
Ntite knihillatamen ksakimawâgan, woak ktallewussowâgan,
For thou-claimest thy-kingdom and the-superior-power
woak ktallowilissowâgan; (newuntschi hallemiwi) li hallamagamik. and all-magnificence. From henceforth ever (always).
Amen. Amen.
In his introduction to Zeisberger's grammar the learned Duponceau enthusiastically declares: "There is no shade of idea in respect to time, place and manner of action which an Indian verb cannot express, and the modes of expression which they make use of are so numerous, that if they were to be considered as parts of the conjugation of each verb, one single paradigm might fill a volume." One of his examples is this: n'mitzi, I eat (in a general sense) ; n'mamitzi, I am eating (at this moment, now) ; n'schingitvipoma, I do not like to eat with him.
The greatest singer of the nineteenth century has declared that man, in his vain efforts to voice the loftiest aspirations of the human soul, is but
38
PATERSON AND ITS ENVIRONS
An infant crying in the night, An infant crying in the light, And with no language but a cry !
When Tennyson was thus at a loss, what wonder if the untutored sav- age of primeval America had but shadowy notions of the origins of men and things, of the future life, the spirit land, and of the mysterious influences which he felt were constantly shaping his destinies for good or ill-in short, of religion ?
The Algonkins everywhere regarded the turtle as the creator of all things, doubtless because of its amphibian character. According to the traditions of the Lenâpé, the turtle supports the earth-which was considered an island-on its back. The Iroquois have a whimsical tale to the effect that a big fat turtle so blistered his shoulders in walking fast one hot day that he finally walked out of his shell altogether ; the process of transformation went on, and in time he became a man, who was the progenitor of the Turtle clan. In 1679 an Indian, eighty years old, called Jasper or Tantaqué, living at Hackensack or at Acquackanonk, described the origin of the world thus: "He first drew a circle, a little oval, to which he made four paws or feet, a head and a tail. 'This,' said he, 'is a tortoise, lying in the water around it,' and he moved his hand round the figure, continuing, 'this was or is all water. and so at first was the world or the earth, when the tortoise gradually raised its round back up high, and the water ran off of it, and thus the earth became dry. He then took a little straw and placed it on end in the middle of the figure, and proceeded, 'the earth was now dry, and there grew a tree in the middle of the earth, and the root of this tree sent forth a sprout beside it and there grew upon it a man, who was the first male. This man was then alone, and would have remained alone; but the tree bent over until its top touched the earth, and there shot therein another root, from which came forth another sprout, and there grew upon it the woman, and from these two are all men produced."
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