III. · Section 2

III.

1. _Wittank talli_: in the MS. these words are first translated "dwelling town there," but the last two words are erased and "of Talli" substituted. This is one of a number of instances where Rafinesque altered his first translations, which is further evidence that he did not manufacture the text. In this instance, as frequently, he altered it for the worse. _Wittank_ is from _witen_, to go with or be with, Zeis., and _talli_ is the adverb "there."

3. _Meshautang_, "many deer" (see Vocabulary), translated by Rafinesque, "game."

_Siliewak_, rendered by Rafinesque _sili_, cattle, _ewak_, they go. The _wak_ is the terminal "and" (see notes to I. v. 10). The word _sisile_, in modern Delaware _sizil'ia_ (Whipple's Vocabulary), means "buffalo." Its older form is seen in the MS. vocab. of the New Jersey Indians, 1792, where it is _sisiliamuus_. This is a compound of the generic termination _muus_, Cree, _mustus_ (whence our word "moose"), meaning any large quadruped, and probably the prefix _tschilani_ strong powerful with an intensive reduplication

4. _Powalessin_ from the same root as _powwow_ (see page 70). The course of thought was that the dreamer (_powwow_) became wise beyond his followers and hence obtained power and riches though not of a martial character.

_Elowichil_ hunters _allowin_ to hunt, doubtless connected with _alluns_ an arrow.

5, 6. A note in the MS states that the symbols of these two verses were united together in the original drawings.

7. In this verse the pre-eminence of the Turtle sub-tribe the Unami is asserted to have obtained from the most ancient times.

8. The verses 8, 9, 10 are referred in Rafinesque's free translation to the Snake people. They seem to me to be descriptive of the grief of the Lenape on leaving their ancient home.

12. _Pokhapokhapek_, Gaping Sea, Raf. Both this and the preceding word are descriptive of the sea referred to as offering means of subsistence _namaes_ fish _pocqueu_ muscles or clams being the two main food products of the water for the Indians.

The location of this productive spot I leave for future investigators to determine. The Detroit River and the Thousand Isles in the St. Lawrence are the most appropriate localities to my mind.

13. The last word of the line is given in the MS. both as _menakinep_ and _akomenep_ the latter a later interlineation. I prefer the former.

_Wapasinep_, may mean 'at the East' as well as 'in the light.' The latter is a metaphor, common in the native tongues for prosperity.

Verses 13 to 20 inclusive were printed by Rafinesque in the original and called by him, the poem on the passage to America, as he understood this narrative to refer to the period when the ancestors of the Lenape crossed Behring straits from Asia to America on the ice.

17. _Kitahican_, This is the term given by Zeisberger to the Ocean. The prefix _Kit_ is "great" and the termination _hican_ appears to have been confined to tidal waters (see above p. 21). Elsewhere this termination signifies an instrument. Probably it was applicable to all large bodies of water. On _pokhakhopek_, doubtless a carelessness for _pokhapokhapek_, line 12, see note to the latter.

18. Squier does not give the numerals, but says simply "in vast numbers." No doubt this is the intention of the expression.

20. _Shiwaking_, "the place of spruce firs" (see Vocab). They crossed in mid-winter a broad stream, rich in fish and shell-fish, and arrived at a land covered with forests of spruce. For a long time this appears to have remained their home.