Some peculiar sacredness must have attached to this number among the Delawares also, as we are informed that the period of isolation of their women at the catamenial period was seven days.[238]
The lunar month of 28 days, if divided and assigned equally to each of the four cardinal points, would give a week of seven days to each. Something of this kind seems to have been done by another Algonkin tribe, the Ottawas, who declared that the winds are caused (alternately?) by seven genii or gods who dwelt in the air.[239]
The seven day period is also a natural, physical one, whose influence is felt widely by vertebrate and invertebrate animals, as Darwin has pointed out,[240] and hence its appearance among these people, who lived entirely subject to the operation of their physical surroundings, is not so surprising.
The most complete account of the Delaware tradition is that preserved by Heckewelder. In his pages it appears, not as a reminiscence of tribal history, but as the tradition of the whole eastern Algonkin race, and it claims for the three Delaware tribes an antiquity of organization surpassing that of any of their neighbors.
It holds such an important place that I quote all the essential passages:—
"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 on the Namoesi Sipu, where they fell in with the Mengwe, who had likewise emigrated from a distant country, and had struck upon this river somewhat higher up. Their object was the same with that of the Delawares; they were proceeding on to the eastward, until they should find a country that pleased them. The spies which the Lenape had sent forward for the purpose of reconnoitring, had long before their arrival discovered that the country east of the Mississippi was inhabited by a very powerful nation, who had many large towns built on the great rivers flowing through their land. Those people (as I was told) called themselves Talligeu or Talligewi. Colonel John Gibson, however, a gentleman who has a thorough knowledge of the Indians, and speaks several of their languages, is of opinion that they were not called Talligewi, but Alligewi. * * *
"Many wonderful things are told of this famous people. They are said to have been remarkably tall, and stout, and there is a tradition that there were giants among them, people of a much larger size than the tallest of the Lenape. It is related that they had built to themselves regular fortifications or entrenchments, from whence they would sally out, but were generally repulsed. * * *
"When the Lenape arrived on the banks of the Mississippi, they sent a message to the Alligewi to request permission to settle themselves in their neighbourhood. This was refused them, but they obtained leave to pass through the country and seek a settlement farther to the eastward. They accordingly began to cross the Namaesi Sipu, when the Alligewi, seeing that their numbers were so very great, and in fact they consisted of many thousands, made a furious attack on those who had crossed, threatening them all with destruction, if they dared to persist in coming over to their side of the river. * * *
"Having united their forces, the Lenape and Mengwe declared war against the Alligewi, and great battles were fought, in which many warriors fell on both sides. The enemy fortified their large towns and erected fortifications, especially on large rivers and near lakes, where they were successively attacked and sometimes stormed by the allies. An engagement took place in which hundreds fell, who were afterwards buried in holes or laid together in heaps and covered over with earth. No quarter was given, so that the Alligewi, at last, finding that their destruction was inevitable if they persisted in their obstinacy, abandoned the country to the conquerors, and fled down the Mississippi river, from whence they never returned. * * *
"In the end the conquerors divided the country between themselves; the Mengwe made choice of the lands in the vicinity of the great lakes and on their tributary streams, and the Lenape took possession of the country to the south. For a long period of time—some say many hundred years—the two nations resided peaceably in this country, and increased very fast; some of their most enterprising huntsmen and warriors crossed the great swamps, and falling on streams running to the eastward, followed them down to the great Bay river, thence into the Bay itself, which we call Chesapeak. As they pursued their travels, partly by land and partly by water, sometimes near and at other times on the great Salt-water Lake, as they call the sea, they discovered the great river, which we call the Delaware; and thence exploring still eastward, the Scheyichbi country, now named New Jersey, they arrived at another great stream, that which we call the Hudson or North river. * * *