Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape Book

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.
This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
M?singhÂli'k?n, Or Living Solid Face The most remarkable deity of the Lenape is the Mask Being, called by the Fig. I.-Mask of the Oklahoma Lenape. (Height, 14.5 in.) Unami M?singhâli'kun, which was interpreted as "Living Mask," or "Living Solid Face." According to the Unamithis being was made guardian by the Creator of all the wild animals of the forest, and is sometimes seen riding about on the back of a buck, herding the deer; but he lives in a range of rocky mountains above the earth. His face is large and round, theright half being painted red, the left black, while his body is covered with long dark hair like that of a bear. Unlike most of the deities in the Lenape pantheon, he is represented bya"graven image, " a huge shell used by M?si ngw'. wooden mask, (Length, 16.7 painted half red and half black (fig. I); which is left in charge of some family whowill take good care of it, and burn Indian tobacco for it from time to time. With the mask is kept a coat and leggings of bearskin to represent the being's hairy body, a peculiar rattle of turtleshell (fig. 2), a stick, and a bag made of bear-skin, all used by the man selected to impersonate M?singhâli'kun at the various ceremonies when he is supposed to appear, and which will be described later. To the back of the mask is fastened the skin of the bear's head, which effectually conceals the head and neck of the impersonator (pl. n), while the bear's ears, projecting, add to the uncanny effect. Fig. 2.—Rattle of turtle- If any Lenape had a child who was weak, sickly, or disobedient, he would send word to the keeper of the mask that he wanted MÄ­singhâli'kun to "attend his child." It is said that it did not take the impersonator long to frighten the weakness, sickness, or laziness out of the child, so t...