“There can be no doubt in this case concerning the identity of this specimen with the one illustrated in the book quoted. It will be noticed however by those who are familiar with Peter Jones’ illustration that Nahneetis, like many humans, has lost her hair in her old age. An interesting feature of the specimen is the primitive skirt, which is made apparently by belting a blanket-like bit of cloth, bound at the edges, around Nahneetis’ waist. A vestige of this method of making a skirt survives, I think, in the form of the beaded strip running up one of the vertical seams of the more modern Indian skirt, among both the Delawares and the Iroquois.”
The writer afterward found such skirts still in use among the Lenape in Oklahoma ([pl. I, b]).
An Early Account of Naniʹtĭs.—Another early account of the Naniʹtĭs among the Minsi may be found in the Wisconsin Historical Collections, among the documents relating to the Stockbridge Mission, written by the Rev. Cutting Marsh.[56] It reads as follows:
“Nov. 6th [1839]. A Munsee Indian who came to this place over a year previous from Canada called upon me with an interpreter in order to give up a family idol. This man whose name is Big-Deer is upwards of 50 years of age, and since removing to this place, thro’ the influence of this family above mentioned has attended meetings constantly and gives some evidence of a change of heart.
“The history of this idol was very interesting. He said that his mother gave it to him before her death which occurred about 29 years ago, and that he had worshipped it until within a few years when he heard about Jesus Christ, but had never given it up before. ‘Now he says I wish to give it up and follow the Lord Jesus Christ, and I give this idol to you and you may do what you are a mind to with it.’ It was indeed not only a ‘shameful thing,’ but a horribly looking object about the size of a common doll; fantastically arrayed in Indian costume and nearly covered with silver broaches and trinkets; and whilst retained as an object of worship was kept wrapped up in some 20 envelopments of broad-cloth trimmed with scarlet ribbon. They called it their ‘Mother,’ it is more than a hundred years old, and its late possessor was the fourth generation which had worshipped it. The season for worshipping it was in the fall after a hunt when they made a feast to it and danced around it. ‘If they did not do this every fall they said, that is, make the feast &c. it would be angry and destroy them by some dreadful sickness.’ It was therefore an object of fear or dread with them, but not one of love and compassion.”
BEAR CEREMONY
We will now consider two ceremonies of the Unami which are based on animal cults which show a considerable similarity not only in their traditional origin, but also in their ritual.
The more important seems to be the one called Papasokwit‛ʹlŭn, which, although no part of a bear appears in its rites as practised within recent years, was evidently a Bear ceremony in the days when these animals were abundant. It also exhibits some features suggesting the Annual Ceremony before described, but there is no Mĭsiʹngʷ‛ and there are many other important differences.