The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the MammothMercer, Henry C.
History
The Lenape Stone; or, The Indian and the Mammoth
Mercer, Henry C.
Delaware Indians; Mammoths; Picture-writing, Indian
It seems highly probable, in fact, that the solemn songs above, as well
as most of the important historical narratives of the Indian tribes,
have been repeatedly and variously recorded in eye-catching pictures
of men, animals, and natural objects, intended to refresh or jog the
memory of the singer or speaker, in his lengthy recitations to the
assembled tribe. And such a pictured song-chart, or reference-table we
may perhaps consider the carving on the reverse of the Lenape stone
(fig. 16), which, should it be, as we have supposed, a production
of the Lenni Lenape, would not unnaturally refer to the well-known
historical legend of that ancient people.
[Illustration: FIG. 16.]
This tradition of the Delawares, more interesting and suggestive
probably than any of these long-overlooked records of ancient North
America, has once at least, been recorded by Indians in pictographic
symbols; fortunately it has been preserved to us in full, and we can
compare it with the carving on the reverse of the Lenape stone (fig.
16), which we may suppose suggested to the mind of the Indian singer
versed in the art of picture-writing some at least of the events
remembered in his tradition.
Two versions of this wonderful Indian chronicle have been rescued from
oblivion. The first, far less complete than the other, was collected
from the Indians themselves by the Moravian missionary Heckewelder,
about 1800. It reads as follows: "The Lenni Lenape (according to
the traditions handed down to them by their ancestors) resided many
hundred years ago in a very distant country, in the western part of
the American continent. For some reason which I do not find accounted
for, they determined on migrating to the eastward, and accordingly set
out together in a body. After a very long journey, and many nights'
encampments by the way, they at length arrived at the Namaesi Sipu, or
River of Fish (from _namaes_, a fish, and _sipu_, a river)."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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