History of the Walam Olum.
Rafinesque's account of the origin of the The Walam Olum may be introduced by a passage in the last work he published, "The Good Book." In that erratic volume he tells us that he had long been collecting the signs and pictographs current among the North American Indians, and adds:—
"Of these I have now 60 used by the Southern or Floridian Tribes of Louisiana to Florida, based upon their language of Signs—40 used by the Osages and Arkanzas, based on the same—74 used by the Lenàpian (Delaware and akin) tribes in their The Walamolum or Records—besides 30 simple signs that can be traced out of the Neobagun or Delineation of the Chipwas or Ninniwas, a branch of the last."[248]
In these lines Rafinesque makes an important statement, which has been amply verified by the investigations of Col. Garrick Mallery, Dr. W. J. Hoffman and Capt. W. P. Clark, within the last decade, and that is, that the Indian pictographic system was based on their gesture speech.
So far as I remember, he was the first to perceive this suggestive fact; and he had announced it some time before 1840. Already, in "The American Nations" (1836), he wrote, "the Graphic Signs correspond to these Manual Signs."[249]
Here he anticipates a leading result of the latest archaeological research; and I give his words the greater prominence, because they seem to have been overlooked by all the recent writers on Indian Gesture-speech and Sign-language.
The Neobagun, the Chipeway medicine song to which he alludes, is likewise spoken of in "The American Nations," where he says: "The Ninniwas or Chipiwas * * have such painted tales or annals, called Neobagun (male tool) by the former."[250] I suspect he derived his knowledge of this from the Shawnee "Song for Medicine Hunting," called "Nah-o-bah-e-gun-num," or, The Four Sticks, the words and figures of which were appended by Dr. James to Tanner's Narrative, published in 1830.[251]
Discovery of the Walam Olum.
As for the Lenape records, he gives this not very clear account of his acquisition of them:—
"Having obtained, through the late Dr. Ward, of Indiana, some of the original Wallam-Olum (painted record) of the Linàpi Tribe of Wapihani or White River, the translation will be given of the songs annexed to each."[252]