From another source Mr. Beatty obtained the traditions of the Nanticokes,âpé which is apparently a version of that of their relatives, the Delawares. It ran to this effect: At some remote age, while on their way to their present homes, "They came to a great water. One of the Indians that went before them tried the depth of it by a long pole or reed, which he had in his hand, and found it too deep for them to wade. Upon their being non-plussed, and not knowing how to get over it, their God made a bridge over the water in one night, and the next morning, after they were all over, God took away the bridge."[235]
A curious addition to this story is mentioned by Loskiel.[236] The number of the mythical ancestors of their race who thus were left on the shore of the great water was _seven_. This at once recalls the seven caves (_Chicomoztoc_) or primitive stirpes of the Mexican tribes, the seven clans (_vuk amag_) of the Cakchiquels, the seven ancestors of the Qquechuas, etc., and strongly intimates that there must be some common natural occurrence to give rise to this widespread legend.[237]
Some peculiar sacredness must have attached to this number among the Delawares also, as we are informed that the period of isolation of their women at the catamenial period was seven days.[238]
The lunar month of 28 days, if divided and assigned equally to each of the four cardinal points, would give a week of seven days to each. Something of this kind seems to have been done by another Algonkin tribe, the Ottawas, who declared that the winds are caused (alternately?) by seven genii or gods who dwelt in the air.[239]
The seven day period is also a natural, physical one, whose influence is felt widely by vertebrate and invertebrate animals, as Darwin has pointed out,[240] and hence its appearance among these people, who lived entirely subject to the operation of their physical surroundings, is not so surprising.
The most complete account of the Delaware tradition is that preserved by Heckewelder. In his pages it appears, not as a reminiscence of tribal history, but as the tradition of the whole eastern Algonkin race, and it claims for the three Delaware tribes an antiquity of organization surpassing that of any of their neighbors.