Religion and ceremonies of the Lenape

by M. R. Harrington

ORIGIN OF THE MASK, AND OF THE BIG HOUSE

This is the way the Lenape found out that there is a living Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn above us. Many years ago, when the Delawares lived in the East, there were three boys who were not treated very well. Their relatives did not take care of them, and it seemed as if it made no difference whether the children died or not. These boys were out in the woods thinking about their troubles, when they saw the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn or Living Solid Face. He came and spoke to them, and gave them strength so that nothing could hurt them again. To one of these boys he said, “You come along with me and I will show you the country I come from.” So he took the boy up in the air to the place whence he came, which is rocky mountains above us, reaching out from the north and extending toward the south. It is not the place where people go when they die, for it is not very far from this earth. A long time ago people could see this country of Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, but none can see it now.

While he was showing the boy his country, the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn promised him that he would become stout and strong, and would have the power to get anything he wished. Then he brought the boy back.

Afterward, when the boy grew up and went hunting, he used to see the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn riding a buck around among the other deer, herding them together. Thus it happened that there were three men in the tribe, who knew that there is a Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, because they had seen him with their own eyes.

The Delawares had always kept a Big House (xiʹngwikan) to worship in, but in those days it was built entirely of bark and had no faces of the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ carved upon the posts as it has now. Here they used to sing about their dreams (visions of power); but some time after the three boys talked with the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, the people gave up this worship, and for ten years had none. Then there came a great earthquake, which lasted twelve months and gave great trouble to the Lenape. It came because they had abandoned the worship their fathers had taught them. In those times the tribe lived in towns, not scattered about the country as they are now, and in one of these towns a chief had a big bark house, and here the people met to worship, hoping to stop the earthquake, while they were building a new Big House. When it was finished, they began to worship there, and sang and prayed all winter for relief. After spring came, they were holding a meeting one night when they heard the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn making a noise, “Hoⁿ-hoⁿ-hoⁿ,” right east of the Big House. The chief, who did not know what was making the noise, called for somebody to go and see what it was. Then these three men offered to go, because, as they said, they knew what was making the noise and could find out what he wanted. So they went out and found Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, and asked him what he wanted. He answered:

“Go back and tell the others to stop holding meetings and attend to their crops. Do not meet again until fall, when I will come and live with you, and help in the Big House. You must take wood and carve a face (Mĭsiʹngʷ‛) just like mine, painted half black and half red, as mine is, and I will put my power in it, so that it will do what you ask. When the man who takes my part puts the face on, I will be there, and this is how I will live among you. This man must carry a turtle rattle and a stick, just as I do now.” Then he told them how to fix the twelve carved faces on the posts of the Big House, and the faces on the drumsticks, and taught them how to hold the ceremony.

Then he said:

“You must also give me hominy every year in the spring. I take care of the deer and other game, that is what I am for. Wherever you build the Big House, I will keep the deer close by, so that you can get them when you need them.