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
_Siliewak_, rendered by Rafinesque _sili_, cattle, _ewak_, they go. The
_wak_ is the terminal "and" (see notes to I. v. 10). The word _sisile_,
in modern Delaware _sizil'ia_ (Whipple's Vocabulary), means "buffalo."
Its older form is seen in the MS. vocab. of the New Jersey Indians,
1792, where it is _sisiliamuus_. This is a compound of the generic
termination _muus_, Cree, _mustus_ (whence our word "moose"), meaning
any large quadruped, and probably the prefix _tschilani_ strong
powerful with an intensive reduplication
4. _Powalessin_ from the same root as _powwow_ (see page 70). The course
of thought was that the dreamer (_powwow_) became wise beyond his
followers and hence obtained power and riches though not of a martial
character.
_Elowichil_ hunters _allowin_ to hunt, doubtless connected with
_alluns_ an arrow.
5, 6. A note in the MS states that the symbols of these two verses were
united together in the original drawings.
7. In this verse the pre-eminence of the Turtle sub-tribe the Unami is
asserted to have obtained from the most ancient times.
8. The verses 8, 9, 10 are referred in Rafinesque's free translation to
the Snake people. They seem to me to be descriptive of the grief of the
Lenape on leaving their ancient home.
12. _Pokhapokhapek_, Gaping Sea, Raf. Both this and the preceding word
are descriptive of the sea referred to as offering means of subsistence
_namaes_ fish _pocqueu_ muscles or clams being the two main food
products of the water for the Indians.
The location of this productive spot I leave for future investigators
to determine. The Detroit River and the Thousand Isles in the St.
Lawrence are the most appropriate localities to my mind.
13. The last word of the line is given in the MS. both as _menakinep_
and _akomenep_ the latter a later interlineation. I prefer the former.
_Wapasinep_, may mean 'at the East' as well as 'in the light.' The
latter is a metaphor, common in the native tongues for prosperity.
Verses 13 to 20 inclusive were printed by Rafinesque in the original and
called by him, the poem on the passage to America, as he understood
this narrative to refer to the period when the ancestors of the Lenape
crossed Behring straits from Asia to America on the ice.
17. _Kitahican_, This is the term given by Zeisberger to the Ocean.
The prefix _Kit_ is "great" and the termination _hican_ appears to
have been confined to tidal waters (see above p. 21). Elsewhere this
termination signifies an instrument. Probably it was applicable to all
large bodies of water. On _pokhakhopek_, doubtless a carelessness for
_pokhapokhapek_, line 12, see note to the latter.
18. Squier does not give the numerals, but says simply "in vast
numbers." No doubt this is the intention of the expression.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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