hed to its
uttermost.

But the root also developed in a nobler direction. Add to _ni'hillan_
the termination _ape_, which means a male, and you have _nihillape_,
literally, "I, it is true, a man," which, as an adjective, means free,
independent, one's own master, "I am my own man." From this are derived
the noun, _nihillapewit_, a freeman; the verb, _nihillapewin_, to be
free; and the abstract, _nihillasowagan_, freedom, liberty,
independence. These are glorious words; but I can go even farther. From
this same theme is derived the verb _nihillape-wheu_, to set free, to
liberate, to redeem; and from this the missionaries framed the word
_nihillape-whoalid_, the Redeemer, the Saviour.

Here is an unexpected antithesis, the words for a murderer and the
Saviour both from one root! It illustrates how strange is the
concatenation of human thoughts.

These are by no means all the derivatives from the root _ni_, I.

When reduplicated as _n[)e]n[)e]_, it has a plural and strengthened
form, like "our own." With a pardonable and well-nigh universal
weakness, which we share with them, the nation who spoke that language
believed themselves the first created of mortals and the most favored by
the Creator. Hence whatever they designated as "ours" was both older and
better than others of its kind. Hence _nenni_ came to mean ancient,
primordial, indigenous, and as such it is a frequent prefix in the
Delaware language. Again, as they considered themselves the first and
only true men, others being barbarians, enemies, or strangers, _nenno_
was understood to be one of us, a man like ourselves, of our nation.

In their different dialects the sounds of _n_, _l_, and _r_ were
alternated, so that while Thomas Campanius, who translated the Catechism
into Delaware about 1645, wrote that word _rhennus_, later writers have
given it _lenno_, and translate it "man." This is the word which we find
in the name Lenni Lenape, which, by its derivation, means "we, we men."
The antecedent _lenni_ is superfluous. The proper name of the Delaware
nation was and still is _Len ape_, "we men," or "our men," and those
critics who have maintained that this was a misnomer, introduced by Mr.
Heckewelder, have been mistaken in their facts.

I have not done with the root _n[)e]_. I might go on and show you how it
is at the base of the demonstrative pronouns, this, that, those, in
Delaware; how it is the radical of the words for thinking, reflecting,
and meditat