Just click on the bookcover or title for ordering information. Thank you for your support!

This is one version of the legend of the Doll Being, Ohtas. The legend says that Ohtas first came to the people when a girl made a cornhusk doll. The children were playing, making dolls out of rags they had been given. One of the girls saw a little stick and thought it was shaped like a human being. She took the stick, thinking she would make the best doll of all, better than the other girls. She dressed the stick up with the rags and it looked very much like a human. The girl treated the doll so much like a human and spent so much time with it that her parents worried.

The elders saw the girl's doll. They told her that it looked too human and reminded her that she had been given rags to make dolls. They told her this "human" doll might harm her sometime and she should throw it away. So the girl threw the doll away.

But the doll appeared as a living spirit to the girl while she was asleep, threatening and annoying her. It grabbed at the girl's throat as if trying to strangle her. Because of this, the little girl became sick. The doctors came to see her. They knew that the doll was the cause of the girl being sick. They told the girl's parents that they would have to make another doll that resembled a human being. They instructed the parents to keep the doll safe. When the girl got better, it was decided that the doll possessed great healing powers.

The people came to use the doll in ceremonial dance. Lenape families carved wooden Ohtas and held Doll Dances yearly to honor the Doll Being and bring prosperity and good health to the people.