Fig. 17.—Flint and steel used in the Otter Rite. (Length of a, 3 in.)
It will be observed that the otter-skin has a slit down the middle of the neck, through which the owner thrust his head in such manner that the otter’s nose lay under the wearer’s chin, while its body and tail hung down his back. Wearing the skin in this manner ([fig. 16, b]), himself impersonating the original otter, the owner would open the ceremony by walking about the fire, chanting and shaking the turtle rattle ([fig. 18]), which resembles those used in the Big House, while the audience kept time to his song by uttering “Hu-hu-hu-hu!” The nature of the song the writer was unable to learn, but, like the chants of the Bear Ceremony, it probably was concerned with the singer’s “dream helper.” When he had finished, another man put on the skin and took up the chant, and so on until noon the next day, when the ceremony was brought to a close and all joined in the feast. At this time the skin is told, “We will feed you again in two years.”
Fig. 18.—Rattle of land-tortoise shell used in the Otter Rite. (Length, 3.9 in.)
BUFFALO DANCE
Such was the list of native Lenape ceremonies furnished by our informants; but Adams[58] mentions several more, for which the writer was unable to procure much in the way of data. One of these was the Buffalo dance, which the writer feels should be included with the Otter and Bear ceremonies, although Adams calls it a “pleasure dance.” He admits, it will be observed, that it usually took place before hunters started on the chase. His account follows:
“The Buffalo dance is a pleasure dance and always begins in the morning and lasts all day. The ground is made clean in a circle large enough to dance on, and in the center a fire is built and a fork driven into the ground on each side, and a pole placed across the fire east and west. On each side of the fire is a large brass kettle hanging across the pole with hominy in it, and when the dance is nearly over, the dancers eat the hominy, dipping their hands in the kettle. The singers are outside of the ring and beat on a dried deer hide stretched over poles. They do not use the same step in the dance, but gallop like buffaloes and bellow like them, also have horns on their heads and occasionally hook at each other. The dance is usually given before starting on a chase.”
IMPORTED CEREMONIES
Skeleton Dance
The preceding ceremonies have all been, ostensibly at least, of native Lenape origin, but we now come to several whose outside origin is admitted by the Indians themselves. The most ancient of these is the “Human Skeleton Dance,” mentioned by Adams.[59] He calls it a rite belonging to the Wolf clan or phratry of the Delawares, but the writer’s informants say that it is not true Lenape at all, but a Nanticoke (On‛ʹtko) ceremony introduced among the Lenape by the survivors of that tribe who had joined forces with them. Adams’ account, which is better than any the writer was able to obtain, is as follows: