The character of the Delawares was estimated very differently. The missionaries were severe upon them. One said they were unspeakably indolent and slothful, had little or no ambition, not one in a thousand had the spirit of a man. Another spoke of their alleged bravery with the utmost contempt, and characterized them as the most ordinary and the vilest of savages. Yet, still another missionary wrote that he did not believe that there were any people on the earth more attached to their relatives and friends than were the Indians. For more than forty years after the founding of Pennsylvania there was not a murder of a settler committed by an Indian. And General William H. Harrison wrote that a long and intimate knowledge of the Delawares, in peace and war, as friends and enemies, had left upon his mind the most favorable impressions of their character for bravery, generosity, and fidelity to their engagements. The religious beliefs of the Delawares resembled closely those of the other Indian nations. They were the worship of Light, especially in its concrete manifestations of fire and sun; of the four winds, as the rain bringers; and of the Totemic animals. The idea of a bad spirit, a devil, appears to have been wholly unknown to the Indians until instilled into their minds by the whites, as already remarked. They had a general belief in the soul or spiritual part of man. Their doctrine was that after death the soul went South where it would enjoy a happy life for a certain time and would then return and be born again into the world. An important class among the Indians were those who were by the whites called “medicine men,” who were really the native priests. They were of two schools, one devoting themselves to divination, the other to healing. The title of the former among the Delawares was “powwow,” meaning dreamer. They claimed the power of dreaming truthfully of the future, and were the interpreters of the dreams of others. Of course they were fakirs, though palpably so only to themselves and not at all to their followers. The other school of the priestly class was called “medeu,” meaning conjurer. Some of them professed great austerity of life, had no fixed abode, exorcised sickness and officiated at funeral rites. When the white settlers first came to New Jersey the Lenape had not reached the stage of progress where the office of priest had been separated from that of physician. Nor was the “profession” at all exclusive. Anyone was eligible to enter it. The Lenape were tolerant of the religious beliefs of others, although some of the medicine men tried to incite their dupes to massacre certain missionaries. The Grand Council of the Delawares in 1775 decreed religious liberty.