Olaus Magnus, Carta marina (detail), 1539.
"In the collections of Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, there’s a round ceramic disk, about the size and shape of a cobblestone, with the barest image of a face on it. Two eyes in a mushroom-shaped head, a mouth opened in a howl or scream of some kind. Radiocarbon dating puts its age at about seven hundred years old, which would make it one of the earliest known images of the Jersey Devil. The Lenape knew it as Mësingw, a spirit being vital to preserving the balance of the forest. Mësingw ('Living Solid Face,' 'Masked Being,' or 'Keeper of the Game'), according to Herbert C. Kraft, who devoted his life to researching and documenting Lenape culture, was of prime importance to the Lenape. ..."
The Paris Review
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