Religion and ceremonies of the LenapeHarrington, M. R. (Mark Raymond)
Religion
Religion and ceremonies of the Lenape
Harrington, M. R. (Mark Raymond)
Delaware Indians -- Religion
In the ceremonies of both Unami and Minsi, however, we note other
similarities besides those first mentioned, such as the manner of prayer,
the use of a drum made of a dried deerhide beaten with flat forked
drumsticks each bearing a carved face, the fumigation and sweeping of the
Big House, the restriction against women in their menses, and the use of
twelve as a sacred number.
It therefore seems likely that the rites, in spite of the differences
noted, probably have a common origin, and hence date back to a period
before the separation of the Unami and the Minsi. Indeed we have an
historical account which seems to refer to this kind of ceremony as early
as 1683, while under date of 1779 there is a description of the rites
practically as enacted as late as 1920.
MINOR CEREMONIES
Analyzing the minor ceremonies of Lenape origin we find the cults of two
types: one founded on a beneficent spirit, a personal helper such as the
Mask Being, whose relations are friendly with mankind; the other based on
a discarded toy or pet, which makes trouble for its former owner unless
propitiated by the ceremony in question.
A good example, in fact the only one we recorded, of the first type is
the ceremony in honor of the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, or Mask Being, among the
Unami, which, however, does not find its counterpart among the Minsi, who
had a Society of Masks whose rites and functions were similar to those
of the Iroquois “False Face Company.”
The second class embraces the cults of the Doll, Bear, and Otter, all of
which must be propitiated periodically, under pain of sickness or death.
It will be observed that recitals of visions form a part of the Bear
rites, and probably also of the Otter ceremony, all of which, taken into
consideration with the preceding, gives rise to speculations concerning
the basic form of Lenape ceremonies. Perhaps originally, everyone who
had been blessed with a vision, held a periodic ceremony at which rites
appropriate to his own guardian spirit were emphasized, but at which
others so blessed could recite their own visions.
Of course ceremonies of extraneous origin, such as the Peyote rite, can
not be classified with those of true Lenape origin; and there are others
of which our accounts are so fragmentary that we can not place them, and
still others, doubtless, that have disappeared entirely.
That such may have been the case is not remarkable—not nearly so
extraordinary as the fact that the Lenape have retained so much of their
ancient beliefs and practices after three centuries of contact with
civilization.
NOTES
[1] Handbook of American Indians, _Bulletin 30, Bureau of American
Ethnology_, part I, p. 386, Washington, 1907. Indian Population in the
United States and Alaska, 1910, p. 73, Washington, 1915. Annual Report of
the Department of Indian Affairs for 1913, Ottawa, 1913.
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