The Lenâpé and Their Legends: With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticityBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
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The Lenâpé and Their Legends: With the complete text and symbols of the Walam olum, a new translation, and an inquiry into its authenticity
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Delaware Indians; Delaware language -- Texts; Picture-writing, Indian
10. Raf. and Squier absurdly translate _angelatawiwak_, angels.
It is from a familiar Del. verb, _angeln_, to die. Compare Abnaki
_8anangmes8ak_, "revenants," Rasles, and _w'tanglowagan_, his death,
Zeis. The form in the text, according to Mr. Anthony, has the sense,
"things destined to die," mortal, perishable. He gives the line in
Minsi as follows:--
_Aweniwak_ _angelatawawak_ _wtschitsch'wankwak_ _wemiwak_,
Beings mortals souls and all
The _wak_ of the last word is not the plural but the conjunction "and;"
as in the Latin, _omniaque_.
11. Raf. translates _jinwis_ as "man-being," and Squier thinks it the
Chipeway _inini_, men; but it appears to be the adverb _janwi_, ever,
always. The symbol is apparently that of birth, or being born. Compare
Tanner, _Narr._, p. 351, fig. 1, with that meaning, an armless figure
with wide spread legs.
12. The pictograph is a woman, with breasts, but armless. The
"first mother" here represented was an important personage in the
mythology of the Chipeways and neighboring tribes. She was called
"the grandmother of mankind" (_Me-suk-kum-me-go-kwa_, in Dr. James'
orthography), and it was to her that Nanabush (Manibozho), imparted the
secrets of all roots, herbs and plants. Hence, the medicine men direct
their songs and addresses to her whenever they take anything from the
earth which is to be used as a medicine. Tanner's _Narrative_, p. 355.
13. The figure of a square, the world, with the four varieties of
animals named.
14. The bad spirit was, in Algonkin mythology, the water god, and
was represented as a serpent-like figure. See Copway, pp. 134, 135.
Schoolcraft, _Synopsis_, figs. 93, 100.
_Amangamek_, plural form of the compound _amangi_, great; _namaes_
fish; but _amangi_ has the associate idea of terrifying, frightful,
hence the reference is to some mythical water monster (Cree, _am_,
faire peur, Lacombe).
Raf. translates both _nakowak_ in this line, and _nakowa_, in II, 6, as
"black snake." They can have no such meaning, black, in Lenape, being
_suckeu_, and in none of the Algonkin dialects does _nak_ mean black.
16. The figure represents the earth-plain under the form of the
area of a lodge, with central fire and the people in it, typifying
friendliness. Comp. Tanner, _Narr._, p. 348, fig. I.
V. 16 pursues the topic of v. 13, and it looks as if v. 14 and 15
should be transposed to follow v. 20.
17. The former renderings are.--
"Thou being Kiwis, good God Wunand, and the good makers were
such."--_Rafinesque._
"There being a good god, all spirits were good."--_Squier._
Rafinesque mistook the adverb _kiwis_ for a proper name.
18. Raf. translates _nijini_, the Jins, and _nantinewak_, fairies,
and Squier follows him in the latter, but could not go as far as the
former! As seen in the vocabulary, I attach wholly different notions
to these words. The two figures united refer to the sexual relation.
Compare Tanner, _Narr._, pp. 371, figs. 8, 9.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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