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CHAPTER VI.—Myths and Traditions of the Lenape

130  Cosmogonical and Culture Myths.—The Culture-hero,
   Michabo.—Myths from Lindstrom, Ettwein, Jasper
   Donkers, Zeisberger.—Native Symbolism—The Saturnian
   Age.—Mohegan Cosmogony and Migration Myth.    National Traditions.—Beatty's Account.—The Number Seven.—
   Heckewelder's Account.—Prehistoric Migrations.—Shawnee
   Legend.—Lenape Legend of the Naked Bear.
CHAPTER VII.—The Walam Olum:
Its Origin, Authenticity and Contents
148  Biographical Sketch of Rafinesque.—Value of his Writings.—
   His account of the Walum Olum.—Was it a Forgery?—
   Rafinesque's Character.—The Text Pronounced Genuine
   by Native Delawares.—Conclusion Reached.    Phonetic System of the Walum Olum.—Metrical Form.—
   Pictographic System—Derivation and Precise Meaning
   of Walum Olum.—The MS of the Walum Olum.—General
   Synopsis of the Walum Olum—Synopsis of its Parts.
THE WALUM OLUM.—Original Text and Translation
169
Notes
219 Vocabulary 233 Appendix 255 Index of Authors 257 Index of Subjects 259

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THE LENAPE AND THEIR LEGENDS.

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CHAPTER I.

§ 1. The Algonkin Stock.

Scheme of its Dialects—Probable Primitive Location

§ 2. The Iroquis Stock.

The Susquehannocks—The Hurons—The Cherokees

§ 1. The Algonkin Stock.

About the period 1500-1600, those related tribes whom we now know by the name of Algonkins were at the height of their prosperity. They occupied the Atlantic coast from the Savannah river on the south to the strait of Belle Isle on the north. The whole of Newfoundland was in their possession; in Labrador they were neighbors to the Eskimos; their northernmost branch, the Crees, dwelt along the southern shores of Hudson Bay, and followed the streams which flow into it from the west, until they met the Chipeways, closely akin to themselves, who roamed over the water shed of Lake Superior. The Blackfeet carried a remote dialect of their tongue quite to the Rocky Mountains; while the fertile prairies of Illinois and Indiana were the homes of the Miamis. The area of Ohio and Kentucky was very thinly peopled by a few of their roving bands; but east of the Alleghanies, in the valleys of the Delaware, the Potomac and the Hudson, over the barren hills of New England and Nova Scotia, and throughout the swamps and forests of Virginia and the Carolinas, their osier cabins and palisadoed strongholds, their maize fields and workshops of stone implements, were numerously located.

It is needless for my purpose to enumerate the many small tribes which made up this great group. The more prominent were the Micmacs of Nova Scotia, the Abnakis of Maine, the Pequots and Narragansets, in New England, the Mohegans of the Hudson, the Lenape on the Delaware, the Nanticokes around Chesapeake Bay, the Pascataway on the Potomac, and the Powhatans and Shawnees further south; while between the Great Lakes and the Ohio river were the Ottawas, the Illinois, the Pottawatomies, the Kikapoos, Piankishaws, etc.

The dialects of all these were related, and evidently at some distant day had been derived from the same primitive tongue. Which of them had preserved the ancient forms most closely, it may be premature to decide positively, but the tendency of modern studies has been to assign that place to the Cree—the northernmost of all.

We cannot erect a genealogical tree of these dialects. It is not probable that they branched off, one after another, from a common stock. The ancient tribes each took their several ways from a common centre, and formed nuclei for subsequent development. We may, however, group them in such a manner as roughly to indicate their relationship. This I do on the following page:—

 Cree,
 Old Algonkin,
 Montagnais.
Chipeway,
Ottawa,
Pottawattomie,
Miami,
Peoria,
Pea,
Piankishaw,
Kaskaskia,
Menominee,
Sac,
Fox,
Kikapoo.
Sheshatapoosh,
Secoffee,
Micmac,
Melisceet,
Etchemin,
Abnaki.
Mohegan,
Massachusetts,
Shawnee,
Minsi,       }
Unami,        }
Unalachtigo,}
Nanticoke,
Powhatan,
Pampticoke.
Blackfoot,
Gros Ventre,
Sheyenne.