III.
1. Wittank talli: in the MS. these words are first translated "dwelling town there," but the last two words are erased and "of Talli" substituted. This is one of a number of instances where Rafinesque altered his first translations, which is further evidence that he did not manufacture the text. In this instance, as frequently, he altered it for the worse. Wittank is from witen, to go with or be with, Zeis., and talli is the adverb "there."
3. Meshautang, "many deer" (see Vocabulary), translated by Rafinesque, "game."
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.
20. Shiwaking, "the place of spruce firs" (see Vocab). They crossed in mid-winter a broad stream, rich in fish and shell-fish, and arrived at a land covered with forests of spruce. For a long time this appears to have remained their home.