History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 8

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

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3 Wolley, 52 ; Abbott's Primitive Industry, passim.

4 Morgan says tbese beads came nearer to a currency than any other species of property among the Indians, and that their use as such reacb- es back to a remote period on this continent.

5 Van der Donck, as cited, 206; Roger Williams's "Key," 130; A Brief Description of New York, etc., by Daniel Denton, London [1701], re- printed, New York, 1845, p. 8. On pp. 42-7 of the reprint is an excellent note on wampum, by Gabriel Furman. Daniel Denton was in New York in 1670.

6 Campanius, 132.

7 Van der Donck, 206; Wolley, 32; Denton, 8; Loskiel, 27; Roger Williams, 128 ; The Breeden Raedt (printed in 1649), reprinted in N. Y. Doc. Hist., IV., 82. [This last-named work was reprinted also in 1854, for Mr. James Lenox, in connection with tlie Vertoogh (Remonstrance or Representation) of New Netherland, both being translated for the purpose by Henry C. Murphy. His translation of the Breeden Raedt is (1893) in the possession of the writer hereof].

8 Roger Williams, 130.

1 Gabriel Furman, in note to Denton, as above, p. 42.

2 A Summary, Historical and Political, of tbe * * British Settle- tlements in Nortb-America, by William Douglass, Boston, Printed : London, re-printed, 1755, I., 177; History of New England, by John Gorbam Palfrey, Boston, 1859, Vol. I., 31. " Peag" doubtless means a fathom. "Piuckquat being sixtie pence, they call Nquittompeg, or Nquitnishcausu, that is, one fathom, 5 shillings."-Roger Williams, as cited, 129. The Cree for fathom is peyakonisk, the first syllable being pronounced very much the same as peag.

3 Wolley, 32. " The greatest part of the wampum, for which the furs are traded, is manufactured there [on Long Island Sound], by the Natives," wrote Cornelis van Tienhoven in 1650 .- N. Y. Col. Docs., I., 360.

4 Remonstrance of New Netherland, 13 ; Roger Williams, 131.

5 Wampum circulated among tbe wbites in New England as early as 1630. See Second Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1880-81, p. 236.

6 Lindstrom, quoted by Campanius, 131.

7 N. Y. Col. Docs., I., 87. See also ib., 303, 336, 425.

8 Laws and Ordinances of New Netherland, as cited, 26.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

though many of the beads were imperfect, broken or un- pierced ;1 it kept on depreciating in quality and value till 1650, when beads of stone, bone, glass, mussel-shells, horn and even of wood were in circulation. The authorities thereupon prohibited the use of loose wampum unless strung on a cord, and fixed the value of the good article at six white and three black for a stuyver, while the "poor strung" was rated at eight white and four black per stuyver, and "there being at present no other currency," wampum was made legal tender to the value of twelve guilders-about five dollars-the bakers, tapsters and laboring men having re- fused to take it in pay.2 By 1657 it depreciated to one bead to the farthing, or eight per stuyver, and in 1658 it was still lower, and the shopkeepers were loth to take it at all. But Director General Petrus Stuyvesant and his Council or- dained that half a gallon of beer must be sold for six stuy- vers in silver, nine stuyvers in beaver, and twelve in wam- pum ; a coarse wheaten loaf of eight pounds, at fourteen stuyvers in wampum; a rye loaf of the same weight at twelve stuyvers in wampum, and a white loaf of two pounds at eight stuyvers in wampum. 3 Athough wampum con- tinued to depreciate in value, it was in quite general use as a currency for a century longer.

Wampum had another and very important function. Doubtless by means of some conventional arrangement of the beads, the significance of which is not now under- stood, strings of wampum served a mnemonic purpose. The messenger from one tribe to another, or from the Indians to the whites, would sometimes carry as many as thirty strings of wampum, which he would lay down one after another as he delivered the respective points of his message. Arranged in belts, the black and white sometimes forming pictures or figures, they conveyed a meaning per-

fectly comprehensible to the Indian. As Montcalm wrote in 1757 : "These Belts and Strings of Wampum are the universal agent among Indians, serving as money, jewelry, ornaments, annals, and for registers ; 'tis the bond of nations and individuals ; an inviolable and sacred pledge which guarantees messages, promises and treaties. As writing is not in use among them, they make a local memoir by means of these belts, each of which signifies a particular affair, or a circumstance of affairs. The Chiefs of the villages are the depositaries of them, and communi- cate them to the young people, who thus learn the history and engagements of their Nations. * * * Their length, width and color are in proportion to the importance of the affair to be negotiated. Ordinary Belts consist of twelve rows of 180 beads each."4 A belt of white wampum, with

1 Ib., 80.

2 Ib., 115; Records of the City of New Amsterdam in New Nether- land, edited by Henry B. Dawson, Morrisania, N. Y., 1867, Vol. I., 37-8 ; The Dutch Records of New York, printed in Old New York, Vol. II. (March, 1891), 469-70.

3 Laws and Ordinances, etc., as cited, 359.

4 N. Y. Col. Docs., Vol. X., 556. One of the helts kept hy the Onondagas contains 10,000 heads .- Second Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethno- logy, 1880-81, p. 232. This and other wampum helts are illustrated in this report. The helt given by the Indians to William Penn at the famous treaty at Shackamaxon in 1682 is in the possession of the

two hands joined, in black, was a signal of peace and unity ; if of black, it meant a warning or reproof ; if black, marked with red, it was a declaration of war. When the Senecas wished the Delawares to join them in fighting the French, they sent a belt of wampum expressing their desire. The Delawares, after due deliberation, returned the belt, there- by declining the invitation. 1

The exceeding fondness of the Indians for wampum made its manufacture a profitable industry down to within a few years, and less than half a century ago many a family in Bergen county earned a livelihood by making wampum for the traders on the frontiers. 2

In their family relations the Delaware Indians seem to have been happier than the Iroquois and many other tribes. 3 · They married very young-the girls at thirteen or fourteen, and the lads when seventeen or eighteen.4 Exogamy was the rule among all the North American Indians, as is and has been the case among nearly all peoples in a state of bar- barism.5 No young brave was permitted under any cir- cumstances to marry a dusky maiden of his own sub-tribe. "According to their own account, the Indian nations were di- vided into tribes, for no other purpose, than that no one might ever, either through temptation or mistake, marry a near relation, which at present is scarcely possible."6 The young women inclining to marriage would wear a headdress indicative of the fact, as they sat by the pathway, usually covering the face and often the whole body, so that they could not be recognized,? until the favored suitor appeared. The negotiations for the maiden's hand were carried on with her nearest relations, to whom the suitor would send a

Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and is depicted with the utmost exactness in the Memoirs of that Society, Vol. VI., Philadelphia, 1858, at p. 207. The belt is 26 inches long and nine inches broad, consisting of 18 rows of beads, 166 beads in each row, or about 3,000 in all. "Ac- cording to an Indian conception, these belts can tell, by means of an interpreter, the exact rule, provision or transaction talked into them at the time, and of which they were the exclusive record. A strand of wampum consisting of strings of purple and white shell beads, or a helt woven with figures formed by heads of different colors, operated on the principle of associating a particular fact with a particular string or figure ; thus giving a serial arrangement to the facts as well as fidelity to the memory."-Ancient Society, by Lewis H. Morgan, New York, 1878, p. 143. Among the Iroquois (and probably among other tribes) there were trained interpreters, called "Keepers of the Wampum," whose business it was to explain the meaning of these belts .- Ib.

I Loskiel, 27, 28.

2 A description of the process as carried on in Bergen county in 1845 is given in Historical Collections of the State of New Jersey, etc., by John W. Barber and Henry Howe, New York, 1845, P. 72. It is there said that females made from five to ten strings of wampum, a foot long, in a day, which they sold readily to the country merchants for 12% cents a string.

3 Loskiel, 60.

4 William Penn, as cited, 98.

5 Primitive Marriage, by J. F. Mc Lennan, passim.

€ Loskiel, 56. " When a lad courts a girl he huys her generally in a neighboring village .- Wassenaer, as cited, 230.

7 William Penn, as cited, 97-8; Journal of New Netherland, 1641-7, re- printed in N. Y. Doc. Hist., IV., 81.

INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

present, 1 sometimes supplemented by a gift of wampum to the girl.2 If the relatives were unfavorable, they returned the gifts, but if agreeable, the maiden was led to the young brave's hut without further ceremony, and her friends would march in solemn procession to the dwelling of the young couple, with presents of Indian corn, beans, kettles, dishes, baskets, hatchets, etc.3 These unions, generally formed merely from inclination or convenience, were seldom lasting, and the man and woman would separate on slight provoca- tion, and enter into new relations.4 Instances, however, are recorded where there were the sincerest attachments ; men and women would carry besons (love-philtres), to pre- serve the affection of one they loved5 ; and when this affec- tion was lost they would take poison to destroy the life no longer brightened by the light of love. 6 In cases of separa- tion, the children followed the mother, as they were always considered as belonging to her tribe.7 Although a plural- ity of wives was permissible, it was not commonly indulged in by the Delawares. 8 Loskiel ungallantly says this was because "their love of ease rendered domestic peace a most valuable treasure."9 It is very evident, however, that in such a crude stage of existence few men were able to sup- port more than one family, which fact would be sufficient explanation of the non-prevalence of the custom. 10

The women bore children easily.11 They immediately washed them, and "Having wrapt them in a Clout, they lay them on a strait thin Board, a little more than the length & breadth of the Child, and swaddle it fast upon the Board, to make it streight ; wherefore all Indians have flat Heads ; and thus they carry them at their Backs" ;12 but when engaged in household work, the mother would

1 Loskiel, 57.

2 WVolley, 49.

3 Loskiel, 57 ; Wassenaer, 20.

4 Loskiel, 58; Journal of New Netherland, as cited, 81 ; Heckewelder, 154. Tbe advantages of this system were thus expounded (in 1770) by an aged Indian who had lived much in Pennsylvania and New Jersey : " White man court, court-may be one whole year !- may be two year before he marry !- well !- may be then got very good wife-but may be not-may be very cross ! Well, now, suppose cross !- scold so soon as get awake in the morning ! scold all day ! scold until sleep ! all one; be must keep her. White people bave law forbidding throwing away wife, be she ever so cross; must keep her always. Well, bow does Indian do? Indian when he see industrious squaw, which be like, he go to her, place his two forefingers close aside each other, make two look like one -look squaw in the face-see her smile-which is all one she say, Yes ! so he take her home-no danger she be cross; no, no! Squaw know too well wbat Indian do if she cross-throw her away and take another! Squaw love to eat meat ! no husband, no meat! Squaw do everything to please husband; he do same to please squaw. Live happy !"- Heckewelder, 162.

5 Loskiel, 58.

6 William Penn, as cited, 99 ; Heckewelder, 259-60 ; Loskiel, 58.

7 Journal of New Netherland, as cited, 81 ; Heckewelder, 259; Los- kiel, 61.

8 Campanius, 126; Loskiel, 58.

9 Loskiel, 58.

10 Morgan's Ancient Society, 160.

11 William Penn, as cited, 97 ; Loskiel, 61.

12 William Penn, 97. Tbe reference to Flat Heads was more applic- able to the Iroquois.

"hang this rude cradle upon some peg, or branch of a tree."1 In order to make the infants rugged, they were frequently plunged into cold water, especially in severe weather .? A name was given to the child in his sixth or seventh year, by the father, with much ceremony3 ; when he attained to manhood he was given another name, from some incident of his prowess, or other circumstance. 4 There was a superstitious reluctance among them to have their names uttered aloud, and they were usually spoken of by indirection. This is one reason why they preferred, in their intercourse with the whites, to use a name given by the latter. The name of a dead Indian was never mentioned. 5

Every boy was trained up in all his father's craft of field and wood and water. At the earliest age, as already remarked, he would be taught to use the bow-and-arrow, manhtat ;6 how to fish with the hook-and-line-the line, wendamakan, twisted from the strands of the wild hemp, achhallop, or of the milk-weed, pichtokenna ; the hook, aman, of bone, armed with bait, awauchkon, made of either we- cheeso, the earth-worm, or the wauk-chelachees, the grass- hopper.7 He likewise acquired the art of spearing fish with a forked, pointed pole, 8 and of trapping them by means of a brush-net, which will be described hereafter. In fishing, he learned to make and to use canoes, amochol, either the dug-out, preferably made of the sycamore, called canoe-wood, amochol-he, or of birch bark, wiqua, and hence called wiqua-amochol. As he grew older he learned to wield the stone hatchet, the t'ma-hican (from demapechen or temapechen, to cut, and hican, an implement), more familiarly known to English readers as the "tomahawk." 9 At the age of sixteen or eighteen the Indian lad under- went a trying "initiation," prefaced by a long fast and accompanied by ceremonies well calculated to test his men- tal and physical stamina. 10 Doubtless the Delawares had secret societies, such as exist among many if not most of the Indian tribes to-day, but the existence of which has only come to be known of late years.

Now he was expected to distinguish himself in the hunt, either singly, or when a large number of men gathered in the autumn to form a line and drive the deer before them, called a p'mochlapen. 11 This was regularly practised by the Indians near Paterson, who would form their line on Garret Mountain, from the river to the summit, and drive the deer

1 Loskiel, 61.

2 Campanius, 123 ; William Penn, 97.

3 Loskiel, 62.

4 Morgan, Ancient Society, 79, 80 ; Loskiel, 62.

5 Carrick Miller, on "Pictographs of the North American Indians," in Fourth Annual Report U. S. Bureau of Ethnology, 1882-3, 171 ; N. Y. Col. Docs., XII., 524 ; Thomas, West Jersey, 6 ; Denton, 9-10.

6 Lenâpé Conversations [with the Rev. Albert Seqaqkind Anthony, a highly educated Delaware Indian, in Ontario, Canada], by Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, in American Folk-Lore Journal, I., 38. " The bow-string is tschipan ; the arrow, allunth."-Ib.

7 Ib.

8 Douglass, Summary, 155.

9 Lenâpé Conversations, 38 ; Zeisberger's Dictionary, passim.

10 Heckewelder, 245 ; Loskiel, 63.

11 Lenâpé Conversations, as cited, 39.

HISTORY OF PATERSON.

northerly and eastwardly toward the Falls, where they must either submit to capture, or in their wild terror plunge over the cliffs rising above the present back-race. The narrow point of rock projectiug toward Spruce street, between the chasm and the back-race, was in the early days known by the whites as the Deer's Leap, from this ancient Indian custom.

When a mere boy the Indian lad would be permitted to sit in the village council house, and hear the assembled wis- dom of the village or his tribe discuss the affairs of state, 1 and expound the meaning of the keekq' (beads composing the wampum belts), whether the belt hauded forth at a treaty, the nochkunduworgan ("an answering)", or the belt of ratification, aptunwoagan ("the covenant").2 In this way he early acquired maturity of thought, and was taught the traditions of his people, and the course of conduct cal- culated to win him the praise of his fellows. When he got old enough to go on the war-path, he was taught the war- whoop, kowamo, and how to hurl the war-club, apech 'lit or mehittqueth,3

The American Indians were all passionately fond of games, and were mostly inveterate gamblers. Among the Lenâpé a popular fireside game was quá-quallis. A hollow bone was attached by a string to a pointed stick, which was held in the hand, and the boue was thrown up by a rapid move- ment, the game being to catch the bone, while in motion, on the pointed end of the stick. In another game, the players arranged themselves in two parallel lines, forty feet apart, each armed with a reed spear or arrow. A hoop, tautmusq, was rolled rapidly at an equal distance between the lines, and the successful player was he who hurled his spear through the hoop in such a way as to stop it. Maumun'di was a third game ; it was played with twelve flat bones, one side white, the other colored, placed in a bowl, thrown into the air and caught as they fell ; those falling with the white side uppermost were the winniug pieces. 4

"The Girls," says William Penn, ."stay with their Mothers, and help to Hoe the Ground, Plant Corn, and carry Burthens ; and they do well to use them to that Young, which they must do when they are Old; for the Wives are the true Servants of their Husbands; otherwise the Men are very affectionate to them."5

What an eloquent tribute to the character of the Lenape Pastorius gives: "They cultivate among themselves a most scrupulous honesty, are unwavering in keeping promises, insult no oue, are hospitable to strangers, and faithful even to death to their friends."6 Another witness, at a much later date, testifies : "In former times they were quite truthful, although oaths were not customary among them. But it was not so in later times, after they had more

intercourse with Christians."1 Says Thomas : "They are so punctual that if any go from their first Offer or Bargain with them, it will be very difficult for that Party to get any Dealings with them any more, or to have any farther Converse with them."2 William Penn tried the Golden Rule in his dealings with the Lenâpé, and from his practical ex- perience of its workings gave this advice : "Don't abuse them, but let them have Justice, and you win them." 3 In their primitive state, ere civilization had introduced to them a thousand comforts, conveniences and luxuries of which they had never dreamed, their wants were few, and covetousness was unknown. An Indian who heard the word for the first time asked what it meant, and when told that it signified a desire for more than a man needed, replied : "That is a strange thing."4

On the other hand, all the early records show that they never forgot and rarely forgave an injury, and imitated the wild beasts they hunted, in their cruelty and ferocity in reeking vengeance on a foe.

In other words, notwithstanding many excellent traits, in which the Lenape were superior to the Iroquois, they were still barbarians, and preserved many of the instincts that had belonged to their state of savagery. Their crude idea of justice was not unlike that which prevailed among the Hebrews in the time of Moses : " Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,"5 with a provision for adjustment on a money basis, such as was allowed by the earlier Roman law,6 and in that of England within the his- toric period.7 In short, it rested on the two-fold principle of retaliation and restitution or pecuniary compensation. 8 There was no question of ethics involved, nor had Indian society yet reached that stage where an injury done to the individual was a delict, a crime or a sin against the tribe, although there are occasional instances in the early records where the tribe felt a certain responsibility for the acts of rash members. 9 By their unwritten code, the thief was com- pelled to restore the article taken, or its value, and if he re- peated the offence too often he was stripped of all his goods. 10 Where one mau killed another, it was left to the dead man's relatives to slay the offender, 11 but unless this was done

1 Acrelius, 53.

2 Thomas's West-New Jersey, 6.

3 Richard Blome's " Present State," etc., as cited, 104.

4 The History of Pennsylvania, in North America, etc., hy Rohert Proud, Philadelphia, 1798, Vol. II., 304.

5 Exodus XXI, 24.

6 Studies in Roman Law, etc., hy Lord Mackenzie, 3d ed., Edinburgh, 1870, PP. 366, 367 ; The Pandects ; a Treatise on the Roman Law, etc., hy J. E. Goudsmit, LL. D., London, 1873, PP. 344 et seqg.

7 Kemble's " Anglo-Saxons," I., 177, quoted in Ancient Law, etc., by" Henry Sumner Maine, New York, 1877, P. 358.

8 Cf. " The Old Testament in the Jewish Church," by W. Rohertson Smith, M. A., Edinburgh, 1881, P. 336 ; Heckewelder, 329.

9 Sir Henry Sumner Maine helieves that the earliest written laws of the Romans were based on the idea of tort-a wrong done the State, which was equivalent to a sin .- Ancient Law, 363-6.

10 Wassenaer, 28.

11 Th., 28. " All through the East, there are regularly fixed tariffs for hlood-cancelling ; as if in recognition of the relative loss to a family, of

1 Loskiel, 28, 63 ; Heckewelder, 116.

2 Lenâpé Conversations, 39.

3 Ib., 39.

4 Essays of an Americanist, 186.

5 Richard Blome's " Present State," etc., as cited, 97 ; Loskiel, 62.

6 Pastorius, as cited, in Memoirs Hist. Soc. Pa., IV., Part II., p. 96 ; Heckewelder, 277.

INDIAN MEDICAL PRACTICE.

within twenty-four hours, it was usual to accept a pecuniary compensation, 1 in which case one hundred fathoms of wampum would be paid for a man, 'and twice as much for a woman, the distinction being due to the fact that she might bear children. 2

Time was divided by moons-gischuch ; they had but twelve lunar months in the year, gachtin :

Anixi gischuch (Squirrel month), January.

Tsqualli gischuch (Frog month), February. M'choamowi3 gischuch (Shad month), March. Quitauweuhewi gischuch (Spring month), April. Tauwinipen (Beginning of Summer), May.

Kitschinipen (Summer), June. Yugatamoewi gischuch, July.

Sakauweuhewi gischuch (Deer month), August.

Kitschitachquoak4 (Autumn month), September.

Pooxit (Month of vermin), October.

Wini gischuch (Snow month), November.

M'chakhocque (Cold month, when the cold makes the trees crack), December. 5

Periods less than moons or months were counted by nights or "sleeps."6 Instead of reckoning by years, they usually counted from certain seasons-as from one seeding time to the other, or "so many winters after" a particular event ;7 the time of day was calculated by the sun's height in the heavens. As the muse of Roger Williams puts it, " More particular," and very haltingly :

They bave no helpe of Clock or Watch, And Sunne they overprize. Having those artificiall belps, the Sun We unthankfully despise.8

Although, as the same writer observes, "By occasion of their frequent lying in the Fields and Woods, they much observe the Starres, and their very children can give Names to many of them, and observe their Motions,"9 we have no

one or another of its supporting members." See " Tbe Blood Covenant a primitive rite and its bearings on Scripture," by H. Clay Trumbull, D. D., London, 1887, p. 260. The person who slew the murderer was not so much an avenger, as a restorer, a balancer, of the poise between the families of the slayer and the slain. There are frequent instances in American bistory, apparently supporting tbis view, where captives bave been adopted in the place of sons slain In battle.

1 Van der Donck, 212. See Exodus xx1, 30.

2 Loskiel, 16.

3 In the Minsi or Monsey dialect, chwami .- Heckewelder, 362.

4 Big Snake month, from kitschi, big, and achgook, snake.

5 A Grammar of the Language of the Lenni Lenape, or Delaware Indians, translated from the German Manuscript of the late Rev. David Zeisberger, for the American Philosophical Society, Vol. III., New Series, Philadelphia, 1830, p. 109. Loskiel gives different names for some of the months: April, planting month; May, when the hoe is used to the corn; June, wben the deer become red ; July, the time of raising the earth about the corn; August, when the corn is in the milk; October, tbe barvest month; November, hunting montb ; December, when the bucks cast their antlers .- History of the Mission, etc., 31.

6 Loskiel, 31 ; Douglass's Summary, as cited, 157.

7 Loskiel, 31 ; Heckewelder, 307; Douglass, 157.

8 Key, 58.

9 Ib., 79.

account of their identification of any but the polar star, by which they had learned to direct their course.1 The knowl- cdge of astronomy appears to have originated with pastoral, and not withi nomadic, peoples.

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History of the city of Paterson and the County of Passaic, New Jersey, Part 8

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