History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 11

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466

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Living so close to nature as did these dusky sons of the forest, it is not strange that they looked upon the earth as

1 Heckewelder, 253. The same myth exists among the Mayas of Central America, and among the Hindoos. 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. See " Myths of the Iroquois," by Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith, in Second Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-81, P. 77.

2 Journal of a Voyage to New York and a Tour in Several of the American Colonies in 1679-80, by Jaspar Dankers and Peter Sluyter. Translated by Henry C. Murphy, Brooklyn, N. Y., pp. 150-51. [Memoirs of the Long Island Historical Society, Vol. I.]

8 Ib., 267-8. " As for Kikeron, the eternally active, hidden spirit of the universe, * * we may, with equal correctness, translate it Life, Light, Action or Energy. It is the abstract conception back of all these." -Brinton's Lenâpé, 133.

their universal mother. The Minsis had a legend that in the beginning they dwelt in the earth under a lake, from which they accidentally discovered a way to the surface- to the light. The other Lenâpé tribes had the same story, except as to the lake.1 "They had some confused Notion of the Flood, and said : All men were once drowned, only a few got on the Back of an old big Tortoise, floating on the Water ; that a Diver at last brought them some Earth in his Bill, and directed the Tortoise to a small Spot of Ground, where they alighted and multiplied again. Therefore has the great Tortoise Tribe the Preference among the Tribes."2 This deluge myth is known to all the Algonkin tribes, and to most others in America. "Others say, the first Person had been a Woman, which fell from Heaven *

* * and bore Twins, which peopled this Country."3 Or, as heard by Lindstrom, a Swedish engi- neer, about 1650, this woman bore a son, who grew up to be a wonderfully wise and good man, who performed many miracles, and at last went up to heaven, promising to re- turn. 4 These legends are regarded by Dr. Brinton as varia- tions of the myth so universal among the most widely-dis- persed races of mankind, wherein the ever-recurring phe- nomena of light and darkness are personified.5 It would seem that such an idealization of familiar phenomena could be possible only among a people far more advanced in cul- ture than our New Jersey Indians, and it is to be regretted that we have not more definite information on this point re- garding their beliefs.

It is certain that they held in veneration fire and light, and their common source, the sun ; and by a natural de- duction, the sun's place of rising-the east. "They di- rected their Children in their Prayers to turn their face to- wards the East, because God hath his dwelling on the other Side of the rising Sun."6 Another author writ- ing half a century earlier than Bishop Ettwein, in describ- ing the sacrifices made by the Indians, in which they burned tobacco, says : Ex qua re, quia sicubi fumus adscendit in altum; ita sacrificulus, duplicata altiori voce, Kännakä, kännakä, vel aliquando hoo, hoo, faciem versus orientem convertit."7 "Whereupon, as the smoke ascends on high, the sacrificer crying with a loud voice, Kännakä, hännakä, or sometimes hoo, hoo, turns his face toward the East." Loskiel, indeed, says fire is considered as the first parent of all Indian nations, and he minutely describes the sacrifice

1 Heckewelder, 249, 250 ; Ettwein, 30, 31.

2 Ettwein, 30.

3 Ib., 31.

4 Campanius, 139; Essays of an Americanist, 182-3.

5 The Myths of the New World, as cited, Capters v, VI1, v11I ; Ameri- can Hero-Myths, as cited, passim ; The Religious Sentiment, by Daniel G. Brinton, New York, 1876, Chap. v.

6 Ettwein, 30.

7 Dissertatio Gradualis, De Plantatione Ecclesia Svecanæ In America, Quam, Suffragante Ampl. Senatu Philosoph. in Regio Upsal. Athenæo, Præside, Viro Amplissimo atque Celeberrimo Mag. Andrea Brorwall Eth. & Polit. Prof. Reg. & Ord. In Audit. Gust. Maj. d. 14 Jun. An. MDCCXXXI. Examinandam modeste sistit Tobias E. Biörck. Ameri- cano-Dalekarlus. Upsaliæ Literis Wernerianis, p. 28. Biörck evid- ently believed himself to be a poet and a linguist, for he dedicates his

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

in its honor. "Twelve manittos attend him as subordinate deities, being partly animals and partly vegetables. A large oven is built in the midst of the house of sacrifice, consisting of twelve poles, each of a different species of wood, These they run into the ground, tie them together at the top, and cover them entirely with blankets, joined close together. The oven is heated with twelve large stones made ret hot. Then twelve men creep into it, and remain there as long as they can bear the heat. Mean- while an old man throws twelve pipes full of tobacco upon the hot stones, which occasions a smoke almost powerful enough to suffocate the persons" in the oven.1 The recur- rence of the number twelve evidently refers to the months into which the year is divided. "In great danger, an Indian has been observed to lie prostrate on his face, and throwing a handful of tobacco into the fire, to call aloud, as in an agony of distress, 'There, take and smoke, be pacified, and don't hurt me.' "2

The Lenâpé, in common with the Americans in general, were firm believers in a future life, and in rewards for the good. David Brainerd gives the best account of their views : "They seem to have some confused notion about a future state of existence, and many of them imagine that

Dissertation to Count Charles Gyllenborg, in this sort of English, refer- ring to the Swedes in " Pennsilvani-Wood :"

How Swedish Cburch is planted there, Of Swedish Priests and Sheeps, On hoth they Sides of de la Ware, Among great many Heaps, Of diverse Sects and Indians, Is now, My Lord, the Same, I am perswaded of my Brains, To offer Your great Name.

Tobias Eric Biörck was horn in New Sweden, heing tbe son of Ericus Björck·(so he signed his name) and Christina (daughter of Peter Stalcap, also a native of the Swedish colony) bis wife. Eric Björck was a tutor at Westmania, Sweden, when he was commissioned by King Charles XI. in 1696 as one of three missionaries for New Sweden. He was ordained at Upsal, sailed 4 August, and from London on 4 February following, arriv- ing at Christina, Del., in June, 1697. In 1698 he secured tbe erection of a new church, where be ministered until 1713, when he was succeeded by Andrew Hesselius. On 12 August, 1713, he was appointed Provost of the Swedish Lutheran congregations in America, but having been given a de- sirable charge in Sweden by the King, he sailed 29 June, 1714, with bis wife and five children (Tobias among them)-"the first American family given hack to Sweden." Hedied in 1740 .- Biorck, as cited, 11-20; Acrelius, 198, 254-274; Annals of the Swedes on the Delaware, by the Rev. Jehu Curtis Clay, Philadelphia, 1835, 54-95, 152 ; History of the Original Settlements on the Delaware, etc., by Benjamin Ferris, Wilmington, 1846, 153-166, 179-80. He read the service for some time in the English cburcb at Appoquim- inick, and in an address by the clergy in Pennsylvania to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel was declared to he "a gentleman of great worth, learning and piety and upon whose qualifications we could make a very large and just enconium."-Historical Collections relating to the American Colonial Church, edited by William Stevens Perry, D. D., Volume II .- Pennsylvania, Printed for the Subscribers, MDCCCLXXI., 61, 63. From the prefatory letter of Andrew Hesselius, published in the Dissertatio Gradualis of Tohias Biörck, as well as from his own poem, partly quoted above, it seems that Tohias designed coming to America as a missionary ; but no record of him in that capacity bas been found.

1 Loskiel, 42 ; Ettwein, 37 ; Tbe Journal of a Two-Months Tour, etc., by Charles Beatty, A. M., London, 1768, 85-6. Mr. Beatty was a pious missionary, and a zealous and intelligent ohserver of the manners and customs of the Delawares and their kindred, the Sbawnese.

2 Loskiel, 45.

the chichung,1 i. e., the shadow, or what survives the body, will at death go southward, and in an unknown but curious place, will enjoy some kind of happiness, such as, hunting, feasting, dancing and the like. What they suppose will contribute much to their happiness in that state is, that they shall never be weary of those entertainments."2 And he adds, with an unusually sagacious attempt to compre- hend and explain an Indian myth in a common-sense way : "It seems by this notion of their going southward to obtain happiness, as if they had their course into these parts of the world from some very cold climate, and found the further they went southward the more comfortable they were ; and thence concluded, that perfect felicity was to be found further towards the same point."3 An intelligent Indian once told him "that the souls of good folks would be happy, and the souls of bad folks miserable." By "bad folks " he meant "those who lie, steal, quarrel with their neighbors, are unkind to their friends, and especially to aged parents, and, in a word, such as are a plague to mankind." Not a bad definition that !

Notwithstanding the belief in a future state of existence, it had little influence on the daily life of the Indian. " That which occupies the attention of the savage mind re- lates to the pleasures and pains, the joys and sorrows of present existence. * * * Life, health, prosperity, and peace are the ends sought."4 Not so different, after all, from the whites who in 1776 declared that "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness " were the grand ends to be aimed at by all governments. But the mysteries of life and death, and the belief in a future state, undoubtedly had their effect on these primitive people in leading up to the conception of a supernatural influence, or rather influences, expressed in the word Manito5 -the Wonder-worker ;6 sig- nifying some spiritual and mysterious power thought to exist in a material form.7 This influence resided in every animal, tree, rock or other object which the lively fancy or the fears of the savage endowed with supernatural power over his fortunes. According to Wassenaer, 8 their "fore- fathers for many thousand moons" had told them of good and evil spirits, to whose honor, he supposed, they burned fires or sacrifices, as they wished to stand well with the good spirits. Biörck gives an amusing account of how they viewed their manitos : As for their religion, if religion it can be called," says he, "they acknowledge two Gods or spirits, which they call Manetto's. One they call the ruler of celestial affairs, the other of terrestrial. The former, because he is good, they neither worship nor fear ; but the

1 From the root tschitsch, indicating repetition, or a man's double, or sbadow.

2 Brainerd, as cited, 346. Cf. William Penn, as cited, 101 ; Loskiel, 36. 3 Ib., 346.

4 Powell, in Seventh Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1891, XXXVII, XXXVIII.

5 Pronounced mah-nee-to, the accent on the second syllable.

6 Heckewelder MSS., cited in Brinton's Lenâpé, 219.

7 Dorman, as cited, 226.

8 Op. cit., 19.

THE INDIAN AND HIS MANITO.

latter, because he is evil, they perversely esteem to be both feared and adored."1 The testimony of Van der Donck tends to corroborate this account of the politic conduct of the wily Indian. God, they said, " will not punish or do any injury to any person, and therefore takes no concern to himself in the common affairs of the world, nor does he meddle with the same, except that he has ordered the devil to take care of those matters." Hence, they were "·obliged to fear the devil, and try to preserve his friendship, even by sometimes casting a piece to him in the fire.2 There is a touch of human nature in this frank philosophy that shows the rude savage to be akin to his white brother of the nineteenth century. As David Brainerd observed, there was no appearance of reverence and devotion in the worship of these invisible powers, and "what they do of this nature, seems to be done only to appease the supposed anger of their deities, to engage them to be placable to themselves, and do them no hurt, or at most, only to invite these powers to succeed [prosper] them in those en- terprises they are engaged in respecting the present life. So that in offering these sacrifices, they seem to have no refer- ence to a future state, but only to present comfort."3 Some further particulars concerning the manito are given by Loskiel : "They understand by the word manitto, every being, to which an offering is made, especially all good spirits. They also look upon the elements, almost all animals, and even some plants, as spirits, one [no one ?] ex- ceeding the other in dignity and power. * *

* The manittos are also considered as tutelary spirits. Every Indian has one or more," revealed to him in a dream. 4

From the various accounts which have come down to us, and from what we now know of the laws governing human development, it is evident that the Indian's conception of manito was simply that of a mysterious influence, in general, whether for good or evil, manifesting itself through a thou- sand instrumentalities. The definite conception of a Great Spirit (Kitschi Manito) or of an Evil Spirit was undoubtedly derived from the whites.

Every Indian carried about with him as an amulet or charm a figure of the animal or object which represented his particular manito-a figure of the sun or moon or other object, or a mask of a human face, carved in wood or stone or bone ; this was tied upin a bag and hung about his neck 5 -a custom that prevails among most nations to-day.

The manner of worship of the Indians horrified the early missionaries, who forgot the descriptions in Hebrew and

classical lore of the sacred and festive dances among the peoples of Europe and Asia. Brainerd was intensely grieved one Sunday morning when he tried to get the Indians to- gether that he might instruct them from the fascinating pages of the Shorter Catechism, "but soon found they had something else to do, for near noon they gathered together all their powows, or conjurers, and set about half a dozen of them playing their juggling tricks, and setting their frantic distracted postures, in order to find out why they were then so sickly. *

* In this exercise they were engaged for sev- eral hours, making all the wild, ridiculous and distracted motions imaginable ; sometimes singing ; sometimes howl- ing ; sometimes extending their hands to the utmost stretch, and spreading all their fingers, -they seemed to push with them as if they designed to push something away, or at least keep it off at arm's-end ; sometimes stroking their faces with their hands, then spurting water fine as mist ; sometimes sit- ting flat on the earth, then bowing down their faces to the ground ; then wringing their sides as if in pain and anguish, twisting their faces, turning up their eyes, grunting, puffing, &c." To the saintly young missionary all this savored only of the devil, and he became so impressed with the weird spectacle that he really began to half expect Satan himself. to appear ; so, he says-and there is a queer pathos in his naive confession : "I sat at a small distance, not more than thirty feet from them, though undiscovered, with my bible in my hand, resolving, if possible, to spoil their sport, and prevent their receiving any answers from the infernal world. They continued their hideous charms and incantations for more than three hours, until they had all wearied themselves out ; although they had in that space of time taken several inter- vals of rest, and at length broke up, I apprehended, without receiving any answer at all."1

Certain sacrifices were held at stated periods. A family feast was held once in two years, to which all the relatives and neighbors were invited. After dinner the men and women engaged in a solemn dance, while a singer walked up and down, rattling a small tortoise-shell filled with peb- bles, and chanting an appropriate recital. At another feast, ten or more old men or women wrapped themselves in tan- ned deer-skins, and with faces turned toward the east ut- tered prayers.2 The festival in honor of fire has been de- scribed. They also had sacrificial dances in honor of the first-fruits (the green-corn dance), hunting, fishing, and other special occasions.3 The earliest description we have of any of these sacrifices is found in Biorck's little book, which is so rare, and has been so seldom (if ever) referred to by other writers on the American Indians, that some extracts may be worth giving :

"A hut having been constructed, with due ceremony, and covered with bark and skins, is surrounded by several persons. The priest places some tobacco on stones, heated with fire, and directly another follows and pours water on them. Whereupon, as the vapor ascends on high, the priest

1 Biörck, as cited, 27. The author gives a hideous woodcut of a " Manetto Indianorum"-a nondescript creature with a body like a liz- ard, two fore-legs with distended claws, and a head something like a horse's, breathing forth volumes of vapor or smoke.

2 Van der Donck, as cited, 216.

3 Brainerd, 347.

4 Loskiel, 39-40; Dorman, 22 ; Biörck, 27 ; Roger Williams, Kcy, 110.

5 Loskiel, 39 ; Biörck, 27-28. Pictures of two of these mask manitos or charms worn by Minsi or Muncey Indians arc given opposite page 83 of the " History of the Ojebway Indians; with especial reference to their conversion to Christianity." By Rev. Peter Jones, (Kahkewaquonaby,) Indian Missionary, etc. London : 1861. One of sandstone, found at Trenton, is pictured in Abbott's Primitive Industry, P. 394.

1 Brainerd, 235-6.

2 Loskiel, 40-41 ; Ettwein, 36.

8 Biörck, 28.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

cries with a loud voice, Kännäka, kännäka, or sometimes hoo, hoo, and turns his face toward the east. While some are silent during the sacrifice, certain make a ridiculous speech, while others imitate the cock, the squirrel and other animals, and make all kinds of noises. During the shout- ing, two roasted deer are distributed, one with bread from maize, cooked by the magicians, called by them Kankis. 1 But the sacrificing priest eats nothing." So much for the hunting or deer sacrifice.

The first-fruits sacrifice he describes as witnessed by the Rev. Andrew Hesselius :? "The families gather the first- fruits of roots, which grow in swamps, not unlike nuts, called Tachis, or by the English, hopnuts. These are first dried in a pot in the sun, or placed over the fire in a copper vessel, and cooked during the day. While this cooking is going on, and some are dancing in a circle, an Indian woman advances, her hair streaming down upon her shoulders, and with a spoon (or tortoise shell) stirs up the mass repeatedly, and throws a certain portion into the fire, which act is greeted with a shout by the approving dancers circling about. Piece by piece they devour the food thus prepared for them on this occasion."3

The same author adds that "this and other sacrifices of the Americans they call, from a native word of their own, Kinticka, i. e., a festive gathering, or a wedding." Every important event in the life-or death-of the Indian was celebrated with dance and song. "The Cantico," says Penn, "is performed by round Dances, sometimes Words, sometimes Songs, then Shouts ; two being in the middle that begin, and by singing and drumming on a Board, direct the Chorus ; their Postures in the Dance are very antick and differing, but all keep measure. This is done with equal earnestness and labour, but great appearance of Joy." 4 When a young Indian warrior was being butchered by inches by the Dutch soldiers in Fort Amsterdam, in 1644, with

revolting cruelties which caused the squaws to cry shame ! he "desired them to permit him to dance the Kinte kaye, a religious use observed by them before death," and con- tinued to dance and chant his death-song till he dropped dead under the knives of his inhuman captors. 1 A pleasanter picture is that given by Van der Donck, in 1653, who says : " Feast days are concluded by old and middle aged with sinoking, by the young with a kintecaw, singing and danc- ing."2 In 1663, during the war between the Dutch and the Esopus Indians, we are told that the latter "kintecoyed and deliberated" how they might best attack New Amster- dam, 3 and that they "made a great uproar every night, firing guns and kintekaying."4 As the surest way to get the Indians together, it was proposed by one of their own tribe in 1671 to "cause a kinticoy to be held."5 In 1675 the Indian sachems of New Jersey were highly pleased with the promises and presents of Gov. Andros, and "they return thanks and fall a kintacoying with expressions of thanks,. singing kenon, kenon."6 No doubt the gestures of the partici- pants in these ceremonial dances, though "antic" and "ridiculous" to the white spectators, had a conventional symbolic significance perfectly understood by the Indians.

The serpent, with other animals, was held in reverence by the aborigines,? and naturally its mysterious movements and fatal bite caused it to be regarded with peculiar awe. That it was worshiped by the Americans in general is certain, but the only testimony regarding the attitude of the Lenape toward it is the vague account of Wassenaer, who describes the Kitzinacka (Big-Snake) as a priest who had no house of his own, but lodged where he pleased, or where he last officiated ; was a celibate, and ate food pre- pared only by a maiden or an old woman.8 He tells else- where how the Indians placed a kettle full of all sorts of articles in a hole in a hill. "When there is a great quantity collected, a snake comes in, then they all depart, and the Manittou, that is the Devil, comes in the night and takes the kettle away, according to the statement of the Koutsinacka, or Devil hunter, who presides over the cere- mony."9

1 " Inter vocifirendum bospitibus distributi sunt 2 cervi cocti, una cum pane ex frumentum, (quod nos vulgo vocamus triticum Turcicum) Majis pisto, illis Kankis nominato."

2 Andrew Hesselius, Master of Philosophy, was commissioned in 1711 by Charles XII., King of Sweden, to be a missionary to New Sweden, to succeed Pastor Eric Björck, and was in charge of the church at Chris- tina from 1713 until 1723, when be returned to Sweden. He labored earn- estly for the conversion of the Indians, though without success. In 1725 he published "A Short Relation of the present condition of the Swedish Church in America." A letter written by him in excellent English to Tobias Biörck occupies three pages of the latter's little book. He died in 1733 .- Acrelius, 272-4; Jehu Curtis Clay, as cited, 94, 102-3, 112-13, 152; Benjamin Ferris, as cited, 179-181. While in this country he fre- quently preached in the vacant English churches, " fluently and with good success."-Hist. Coll. Am.Col. Ch. in Penn., as cited, 123-4, 128-9, 132.

3 Biörck, 29. Cf. Ettwein, 36-37; Roger Williams, 111-112 ; Hist. Ojebway Indians, as cited, 95-96; Thomas, Pennsylvania, 2 ; William Penn, as cited, 101 ; Brainerd, 235; Wassenaer, 20, 29. The Rev. Charles Beatty, in bis " Journal of a Two-Months' Tour " among the Delaware and Shawnee Indians west of tbe Allegheny mountains, London, 1768, and Edinburgb, 1798 (the latter edition being published as an appendix to Brainerd's Journal), describes tbese several festivals quite minutely.

4 William Penn, as cited, 101; also in " The Life of William Penn ; witb selections from his correspondence and auto-biography," by Samuel M. Janney, Philadelphia, 1852, p. 233 ; also in Penn. Archives, I., 69.

1 N. Y. Doc. Hist., IV., 67.

2 Van der Donck, as cited, 203 ; Cf. Denton, II.

3 N. Y. Col. Docs., XIII., 299.

4 N. Y. Doc. Hist., IV., 43 ; N. Y. Col. Docs., XIII., 334.

5 N. Y. Col. Docs., XII., 485.

6 N. Y. Col. Docs., XII., 524; 2 Penn. Archives, VII., 769. In Zeisberger's dictionary he gives the word gentgeen, to dance (gintkaan, in the Lenâpé-English dictionary) ; géntge, a dance, gentgaat, a dancer. Tbis would seen to be the origin of the word. But in the Lexique de la Langue Algonquine, by J. A. Cuoq, Montreal, 1886, we have the root kinda-, qui enfonce, who breaks open, thrusts, routs ; whence kindaacka, wbich would convey the idea of violent pushing and jostling in the wild dance. Not unlike this is the root kinika-, pell-mell, also suggestive of the characteristics of the kintacoy. Dr. Brinton (Lenâpe, p. 72) thinks the word is derived from a verbal found in most Algonkin dialects with tbe primary meaning to sing.

7 Biörck, 27.

8 Wassenaer, as cited, 20.

9 Wassenaer, 29. Tbis custom is attributed by Wassenaer to the Sickenanes, wbo were an Algonkin tribe near or upon the Connecticut river .- N. Y. Col. Docs., II., 139.

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 11

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914 Publication date: 1901 Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 466

Author: Nelson, William, 1847-1914
Publication date: 1901
Publisher: Paterson : Press Printing and Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 466