Belief in a soul or spirit surviving the death of the body formed an integral part of Lenape philosophy. The soul is supposed to linger for eleven days after death, and is addressed and offered food by the surviving relatives, sometimes in a formal “Feast of the Dead;” but on the twelfth day, they say, it leaves the earth and finally makes its way to the twelfth or highest heaven, the home of the Great Spirit, where it leads a happy life in a land where work and worry are unknown. Some persons are thought to have the power of communicating with the departed.
CEREMONIES
Most of the beliefs summarized above were found among the descendants of both Unami and Minsi; but when we consider their great religious ceremonies, we begin to note differences. While it is true that (1) in both cases these rites are based on the recital of the visions seen by the participants, combined with thanksgiving to the Great Spirit and his helpers for past blessings and prayers for their renewal, that (2) the New Fire ceremony figures in both, and that (3) they take place in a building of special form and decoration erected for the purpose, we note that among the Unami the ceremony is conducted only once a year, and is combined to a certain extent with the cult of the Mĭsiʹngʷ‛, or Mask Being, a magnified guardian spirit or personal helper; while the Minsi have in addition to that held in the fall, a spring ceremony also, cognate with the Iroquois “Thanks for the First Fruits,” or Strawberry Dance, and masked impersonators do not appear in the Minsi ceremonial house.
In the ceremonies of both Unami and Minsi, however, we note other similarities besides those first mentioned, such as the manner of prayer, the use of a drum made of a dried deerhide beaten with flat forked drumsticks each bearing a carved face, the fumigation and sweeping of the Big House, the restriction against women in their menses, and the use of twelve as a sacred number.
It therefore seems likely that the rites, in spite of the differences noted, probably have a common origin, and hence date back to a period before the separation of the Unami and the Minsi. Indeed we have an historical account which seems to refer to this kind of ceremony as early as 1683, while under date of 1779 there is a description of the rites practically as enacted as late as 1920.
MINOR CEREMONIES
Analyzing the minor ceremonies of Lenape origin we find the cults of two types: one founded on a beneficent spirit, a personal helper such as the Mask Being, whose relations are friendly with mankind; the other based on a discarded toy or pet, which makes trouble for its former owner unless propitiated by the ceremony in question.
A good example, in fact the only one we recorded, of the first type is the ceremony in honor of the Mĭsinghâliʹkŭn, or Mask Being, among the Unami, which, however, does not find its counterpart among the Minsi, who had a Society of Masks whose rites and functions were similar to those of the Iroquois “False Face Company.”
The second class embraces the cults of the Doll, Bear, and Otter, all of which must be propitiated periodically, under pain of sickness or death.
It will be observed that recitals of visions form a part of the Bear rites, and probably also of the Otter ceremony, all of which, taken into consideration with the preceding, gives rise to speculations concerning the basic form of Lenape ceremonies. Perhaps originally, everyone who had been blessed with a vision, held a periodic ceremony at which rites appropriate to his own guardian spirit were emphasized, but at which others so blessed could recite their own visions.