LETTER VII.
MR. HECKEWELDER TO MR. DUPONCEAU.
Bethlehem, 27th May, 1816.
Dear Sir.—I was this morning favoured with a letter from my friend Dr. Wistar, inclosing some questions which you wish me to answer. I lose no time in complying with your desire.
Your first question is, “what name the French did give to the Delaware nation?”
I believe the Baron de La Hontan meant them when he spoke of the Algonkins, whom he describes as a people whose language was understood by many nations or tribes. So is certainly that of the Delawares.
While I was residing on the Muskingum, between the years 1773 and 1781, I cannot precisely remember the year, there came a French gentleman who was travelling on some business among the different Indian tribes, and could speak more or less of several Indian languages, among which was that of the Delawares. I had much conversation with him respecting the Indians, and observed that he called the Delawares les Lenopes, (a word evidently derived from their real name Lenni Lenape.) He told me that the language of that nation had a wide range, and that by the help of it, he had travelled more than a thousand miles among different Indian nations, by all of whom he was understood. He added, that the Baron La Hontan, when speaking of the Algonkins, must either have alluded to that nation, or to some one descended from them. In other instances, in the course of the four years that I resided in Upper Canada, I generally heard the French Canadians call them Lénôpé, while the English called them Delawares. Nevertheless, I do not doubt but that they have been called by different names by the French and other travellers, and if my memory serves me, some of the French people called them les Loups, a name probably derived from one of their tribes called the Wolf, if it is not a corruption of Lenape or Lenope.
Your next question is, “whether the Delaware word gischuch, signifies the sun or moon, or both together?” The Indian name “gischuch,” is common to “the two great luminaries which send down light from above.” The moon is called “nipawi gischuch,” as it were “the sun which gives light in the night.” It is also called in one word “nipahum.” “Gischuch,” singly, is often used for the moon; the Indian year is divided into thirteen lunar months, and in this sense, the word “gischuch,” is used; as for instance, “schawanáki[275] gischuch” or, in the Minsi or Monsey dialect, “chwani[276] gischuch” the shad moon, answering to the month which we call March, at which time the fish called “shad” passes from the sea into the fresh water rivers. The inferior “stars” have a different name; they are called in the singular alank; plural, alankewak, and by contraction, alanquak.
Lastly, you ask whether the Delawares have a word answering to the English personal pronoun “she,” and what it is? I beg leave to answer you somewhat in detail.
In the Indian languages, those discriminating words or inflections which we call genders, are not, as with us, in general, intended to distinguish between male and female beings, but between animate and inanimate things or substances. Trees and plants (annual plants and grasses excepted) are included within the generic class of animated beings. Hence the personal pronoun has only two modes, if I can so express myself, one applicable to the animate, and the other to the inanimate gender; “nekama” is the personal pronominal form which answers to “he” and “she” in English. If you wish to distinguish between the sexes, you must add to it the word “man” or “woman.” Thus “nekama lenno,” means “he” or “this man;” “nekama ochqueu,” “she” or “this woman.” This may appear strange to a person exclusively accustomed to our forms of speech, but I assure you that the Indians have no difficulty in understanding each other.
Nor must you imagine that their languages are poor. See how the Delaware idiom discriminates between the different ages of man and woman!