The only domestic animal they possessed was a small species of dogs with pointed ears. These were called allum, and were preserved less for protection or for use in hunting than for food, and especially for ceremonial purposes.[91]
Interments.
The custom of common ossuaries for each gens appears to have prevailed among the Lenape. Gabriel Thomas states that: "If a person of Note dies very far away from his place of residence, they will convey his Bones home some considerable Time after, to be buried there."[92] Bishop Ettwein speaks of mounds for common burial, though he appears to limit their use to times of war.[93]
One of these communal graveyards of the Minsis covers an area of six acres on the Neversink creek,[94] while, according to tradition, another of great antiquity and extent was located on the islands in the Delaware river, above the Water-Gap.[95]
Computation of Time.
The accuracy with which the natives computed time becomes a subject of prime consideration in a study of their annals. It would appear that the Eastern Algonkins were not deficient in astronomical knowledge. Roger Williams remarks, "they much observe the Starres, and their very children can give names to many of them;"[96] and the same testimony is borne by Wassenaer. The latter, speaking of the tribes around New York Harbor, in 1630, says that their year began with the first moon after the February moon; and that the time for planting was calculated by the rising of the constellation Taurus in a certain quarter. They named this constellation the horned head of some great fictitious animal.[97]
Zeisberger observes that, in his day, the Lenape did not have a fixed beginning to their year, but reckoned from one seeding time to another, or from when the corn was ripe, etc.[98] Nevertheless, they had a word for year, gachtin, and counted their ages and the sequence of events by yearly periods. The Chipeways count by winters (pipun-agak, in which the first word means winter, and the second is a plural form similar to the Del. gachtin); but the Lenape did not apparently follow them in this. They recognized only twelve moons in the year and not thirteen, as did the New England nations; at least, the names of but twelve months have been preserved.[99] The day periods were reckoned usually by nights, but it was not improper to count by "suns" or days.
Pictographic Signs.
The picture writing of the Delawares has been quite fully described by Zeisberger, Loskiel and Heckewelder. It was scratched upon stone (Loskiel), or more frequently cut in or painted upon the bark of trees or pieces of wood. The colors were chiefly black and red. The system was highly conventionalized, so that it could readily be understood by all their tribes, and also by others with whom they came in contact, the Shawnees, Wyandots, Chipeways, etc.
The subjects had reference not merely to matters of present interest, but to the former history of their nation, and were directed "to the preservation of the memory of famous men, and to the recollection of events and actions of note." Therefore, their Agamemnons felt no anxiety for the absence of a Homer, but "confidently reckoned that their noble deeds would be held in memory long after their bodies had perished."[100]