Part 2

1. The Massachusetts OHKE (Narr. auke; Delaware, hacki; Chip. ahke; Abnaki, 'ki;) signifies LAND, and in local names, PLACE or COUNTRY. The final vowel is sometimes lost in composition. With the locative suffix, it becomes ohkit (Del. hacking; Chip. ahki; Abn. kik;) at or in a place or country.

To the Narragansetts proper, the country east of Narragansett Bay and Providence River was wapan-auke, 'east land;' and its people were called by the Dutch explorers, Wapenokis, and by the English, Wampanoags. The tribes of the upper St. Lawrence taught the French, and tribes south of the Piscataqua taught the English, to give the name of East-landers--Abenaquis, or Abinakis--to the Indians of Maine. The country of the Delawares was 'east land,' Wapanachki, to Algonkin nations of the west.

The 'Chawwonock,' or 'Chawonocke,' of Capt. John Smith,--on what is now known as Chowan River, in Virginia and North Carolina,--was, to the Powhattans and other Virginian tribes, the 'south country,' or sowan-ohke, as Eliot wrote it, in Gen. xxiv. 62.

With the adjectival sucki, 'dark-colored,' 'blackish,' we have the aboriginal name of the South Meadow in Hartford,--sucki-ohke, (written Sicaiook, Suckiaug, &c.), 'black earth.'

Wuskowhanan-auk-it, 'at the pigeon country,' was the name (as given by Roger Williams) of a "place where these fowl breed abundantly,"--in the northern part of the Nipmuck country (now in Worcester county, Mass.).

'Kiskatamenakook,' the name of a brook (but originally, of some locality near the brook) in Catskill, N.Y., is kiskato-minak-auke, 'place of thin-shelled nuts' (or shag-bark hickory nuts).

2. RIVER. Seip or sepu (Del. sipo; Chip. s[=e]p[=e]; Abn. sip;) the Algonkin word for 'river' is derived from a root that means 'stretched out,' 'extended,' 'become long,' and corresponds nearly to the English 'stream.' This word rarely, if ever, enters into the composition of local names, and, so far as I know, it does not make a part of the name of any river in New England. Mississippi is missi-sipu, 'great river;' Kitchi-sipi, 'chief river' or 'greatest river,' was the Montagnais name of the St. Lawrence; and Miste-shipu is their modern name for the Moise or 'Great River' which flows from the lakes of the Labrador peninsula into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Near the Atlantic seaboard, the most common substantival components of river names are (1) -tuk and (2) -hanne, -han, or -huan. Neither of these is an independent word. They are inseparable nouns-generic, or generic affixes.

-TUK (Abn. -tege; Del. -ittuk;) denotes a river whose waters are driven in waves, by tides or wind. It is found in names of tidal rivers and estuaries; less frequently, in names of broad and deep streams, not affected by tides. With the adjectival missi, 'great,' it forms missi-tuk,--now written Mystic,--the name of 'the great river' of Boston bay, and of another wide-mouthed tidal river in the Pequot country, which now divides the towns of Stonington and Groton.

Near the eastern boundary of the Pequot country, was the river which the Narragansetts called Paquat-tuk, sometimes written Paquetock, now Pawcatuck, 'Pequot river,'--the present eastern boundary of Connecticut. Another adjectival prefix, pohki or pahke, 'pure,' 'clear,' found in the name of several tidal streams, is hardly distinguishable from the former, in the modern forms of Pacatock, Paucatuck, &c.

Quinni-tuk is the 'long tidal-river.' With the locative affix, Quinni-tuk-ut, 'on long river,'--now Connecticut,--was the name of the valley, or lands both sides of the river. In one early deed (1636), I find the name written Quinetucquet; in another, of the same year, Quenticutt. Roger Williams (1643) has Qunnihticut, and calls the Indians of this region Quintik-oock, i.e. 'the long river people.' The c in the second syllable of the modern name has no business there, and it is difficult to find a reason for its intrusion.

'Lenapewihittuck' was the Delaware name of 'the river of the Lenape,' and 'Mohicannittuck,' of 'the river of the Mohicans' (Hudson River).

Of Pawtucket and Pawtuxet, the composition is less obvious; but we have reliable Indian testimony that these names mean, respectively, 'at the falls' and 'at the little falls.' Pequot and Narragansett interpreters, in 1679, declared that Blackstone's River, was "called in Indian Pautuck (which signifies, a Fall), because there the fresh water falls into the salt water." So, the upper falls of the Quinebaug river (at Danielsonville, Conn.) were called "Powntuck, which is a general name for all Falls," as Indians of that region testified. There was another Pautucket, 'at the falls' of the Merrimac (now Lowell); and another on Westfield River, Mass. Pawtuxet, i.e. pau't-tuk-es-it, is the regularly formed diminutive of paut-tuk-it. The village of Pawtuxet, four miles south of Providence, R.I., is "at the little falls" of the river to which their name has been transferred. The first settlers of Plymouth were informed by Samoset, that the place which they had chosen for their plantation was called 'Patuxet,'--probably because of some 'little falls' on Town Brook. There was another 'Pautuxet,' or 'Powtuxet,' on the Quinebaug, at the lower falls; and a river 'Patuxet' (Patuxent), in Maryland. The same name is ingeniously disguised by Campanius, as 'Poaetquessing,' which he mentions as one of the principal towns of the Indians on the Delaware, just below the lower falls of that river at Trenton; and 'Poutaxat' was understood by the Swedes to be the Indian name both of the river and bay. The adjectival pawt- or pauat- seems to be derived from a root meaning 'to make a loud noise.' It is found in many, perhaps in all Algonkin languages. 'Pawating,' as Schoolcraft wrote it, was the Chippewa name of the Sault Ste. Marie, or Falls of St. Mary's River,--pronounced pou-at-ing', or pau-at-u, the last syllable representing the locative affix,--"at the Falls." The same name is found in Virginia, under a disguise which has hitherto prevented its recognition. Capt. John Smith informs us that the "place of which their great Emperor taketh his name" of Powhatan, or Pawatan, was near "the Falls" of James River, where is now the city of Richmond. 'Powatan' is pauat-hanne, or 'falls on a rapid stream.'

Acawme or Ogkome (Chip. agami; Abn. agami; Del. achgameu;) means 'on the other side,' 'over against,' 'beyond.' As an adjectival, it is found in Acawm-auke, the modern 'Accomac,' a peninsula east of Chesapeake Bay, which was 'other-side land' to the Powhatans of Virginia. The site of Plymouth, Mass., was called 'Accomack' by Capt. John Smith,--a name given not by the Indians who occupied it but by those, probably, who lived farther north, 'on the other side' of Plymouth Bay. The countries of Europe were called 'other-side lands,'--Narr. acawmen-oaki; Abn. agamen-ki. With -tuk, it forms acawmen-tuk (Abn. agamen-teg), 'other-side river,' or, its diminutive, acawmen-tuk-es (Abn. agamen-tegess), 'the small other-side river,'--a name first given (as Agamenticus or Accomenticus) to York, Me., from the 'small tidal-river beyond' the Piscataqua, on which that town was planted.

Peske-tuk (Abn. peske-tege) denotes a 'divided river,' or a river which another cleaves. It is not generally (if ever) applied to one of the 'forks' which unite to form the main stream, but to some considerable tributary received by the main stream, or to the division of the stream by some obstacle, near its mouth, which makes of it a 'double river.' The primary meaning of the (adjectival) root is 'to divide in two,' and the secondary, 'to split,' 'to divide forcibly, or abruptly.' These shades of meaning are not likely to be detected under the disguises in which river-names come down to our time. Rale translates ne-peske, "je vas dans le chemin qui en coupe un autre:" peskahakn, "branche."

Piscataqua, Pascataqua, &c., represent the Abn. peske-tege, 'divided tidal-river.' The word for 'place' (ohke, Abn. 'ki,) being added, gives the form Piscataquak or -quog. There is another Piscataway, in New Jersey,--not far below the junction of the north and south branches of the Raritan,--and a Piscataway river in Maryland, which empties into the Potomac; a Piscataquog river, tributary to the Merrimac, in New Hampshire; a Piscataquis (diminutive) in Maine, which empties into the Penobscot. Pasquotank, the name of an arm of Albemarle Sound and of a small river which flows into it, in North Carolina, has probably the same origin.

The adjectival peske, or piske, is found in many other compound names besides those which are formed with -tuk or -hanne: as in Pascoag, for peske-auke, in Burrilville, R.I., 'the dividing place' of two branches of Blackstone's River; and Pesquamscot, in South Kingston, R.I., which (if the name is rightly given) is "at the divided (or cleft) rock,"--peske-ompsk-ut,--perhaps some ancient land-mark, on or near the margin of Worden's Pond.

Noeu-tuk (Noahtuk, Eliot), 'in the middle of the river,' may be, as Mr. Judd and others have supposed, the name which has been variously corrupted to Norwottock, Nonotuck, Noatucke, Nawottok, &c. If so, it probably belonged, originally to one of the necks or peninsulas of meadow, near Northampton,--such as that at Hockanum, which, by a change in the course of the river at that point, has now become an island.

Tetiquet or Titicut, which passes for the Indian name of Taunton, and of a fishing place on Taunton River in the north-west part of Middleborough, Mass., shows how effectually such names may be disguised by phonetic corruption and mutilation. Kehte-tuk-ut (or as Eliot wrote it in Genesis xv. 18, Kehteihtukqut) means 'on the great river.' In the Plymouth Colony Records we find the forms 'Cauteeticutt' and 'Coteticutt,' and elsewhere, Kehtehticut,--the latter, in 1698, as the name of a place on the great river, "between Taunton and Bridgewater." Hence, 'Teghtacutt,' 'Teightaquid,' 'Tetiquet,' &c.

(2). The other substantival component of river-names, -HANNE or -HAN (Abn. -tsan or -tan; Mass. -tchuan;) denotes 'a rapid stream' or 'current;' primarily, 'flowing water.' In the Massachusetts and Abnaki, it occurs in such compounds as anu-tchuan (Abn. ari'tsan), 'it over-flows:' kussi-tchuan (Abn. kesi'tsan), 'it swift flows,' &c.

In Pennsylvania and Virginia, where the streams which rise in the highlands flow down rapidly descending slopes, -hanne is more common than -tuk or sepu in river names. Keht-hanne (kittan, Zeisb.; kithanne, Hkw.) was a name given to the Delaware River as 'the principal or greatest stream' of that region: and by the western Delawares, to the Ohio. With the locative termination, Kittanning (Penn.) is a place 'on the greatest stream.' The Schuylkill was Ganshow-hanne, 'noisy stream;' the Lackawanna, Lechau-hanne, 'forked stream' or 'stream that forks:' with affix, Lechauhannak or Lechauwahannak, 'at the river-fork,'--for which Hendrick Aupamut, a Muhhekan, wrote (with dialectic exchange of n for Delaware l) 'Naukhuwwhnauk,' 'The Forks' of the Miami. The same name is found in New England, disguised as Newichawanock, Nuchawanack, &c., as near Berwick, Me., 'at the fork' or confluence of Cocheco and Salmon Fall rivers,--the 'Neghechewanck' of Wood's Map (1634). Powhatan, for Pauat-hanne, 'at the Falls on a rapid stream,' has been previously noticed.

Alleghany, or as some prefer to write it, Allegheny,--the Algonkin name of the Ohio River, but now restricted to one of its branches,--is probably (Delaware) welhik-hanne or lik-hanne, 'the best (or, the fairest) river.' Welhik (as Zeisberger wrote it) is the inanimate form of the adjectival, meaning 'best,' 'most beautiful.' In his Vocabulary, Zeisberger gave this synthesis, with slight change of orthography, as "Wulach'neue" [or lakhanne, as Eliot would have written it,] with the free translation, "a fine River, without Falls." The name was indeed more likely to belong to rivers 'without falls' or other obstruction to the passage of canoes, but its literal meaning is, as its composition shows, "best rapid-stream," or "finest rapid-stream;" "La Belle Riviere" of the French, and the Oue-yo' or O hee' yo Gae-hun'-dae, "good river" or "the beautiful river," of the Senecas. For this translation of the name we have very respectable authority,--that of Christian Frederick Post, a Moravian of Pennsylvania, who lived seventeen years with the Muhhekan Indians and was twice married among them, and whose knowledge of the Indian languages enabled him to render important services to the colony, as a negotiator with the Delawares and Shawanese of the Ohio, in the French war. In his "Journal from Philadelphia to the Ohio" in 1758, after mention of the 'Alleghenny' river, he says: "The Ohio, as it is called by the Sennecas. Alleghenny is the name of the same river in the Delaware language. Both words signify the fine or fair river." La Metairie, the notary of La Salle's expedition, "calls the Ohio, the Olighinsipou, or Aleghin; evidently an Algonkin name,"--as Dr. Shea remarks. Heckewelder says that the Delawares "still call the Allegany (Ohio) river, Alligewi Sipu,"--"the river of the Alligewi" as he chooses to translate it. In one form, we have wulik-hannesipu, 'best rapid-stream long-river;' in the other, wulike-sipu, 'best long-river.' Heckewelder's derivation of the name, on the authority of a Delaware legend, from the mythic 'Alligewi' or 'Talligewi,'--"a race of Indians said to have once inhabited that country," who, after great battles fought in pre-historic times, were driven from it by the all-conquering Delawares,--is of no value, unless supported by other testimony. The identification of Alleghany with the Seneca "De o' na gae no, cold water" [or, cold spring,] proposed by a writer in the Historical Magazine (vol. iv. p. 184), though not apparent at first sight, might deserve consideration if there were any reason for believing the name of the river to be of Iroquois origin,--if it were probable that an Iroquois name would have been adopted by Algonkin nations,--or, if the word for 'water' or 'spring' could be made, in any American language, the substantival component of a river name.

La Metairie's 'Olighinsipou' suggests another possible derivation which may be worth mention. The Indian name of the Alleghanies has been said,--I do not now remember on whose authority,--to mean 'Endless Mountains.' 'Endless' cannot be more exactly expressed in any Algonkin language than by 'very long' or 'longest,'--in the Delaware, Eluwi-guneu. "The very long or longest river" would be Eluwi-guneu sipu, or, if the words were compounded in one, Eluwi-gunesipu.]

From the river, the name appears to have been transferred by the English to a range of the "Endless Mountains."

3. NIPPE, NIPI (= n'pi; Narr. nip; Muhh. nup; Abn. and Chip. nebi; Del. m'bi;) and its diminutives, nippisse and nips, were employed in compound names to denote WATER, generally, without characterizing it as 'swift flowing,' 'wave moved,' 'tidal,' or 'standing:' as, for example, in the name of a part of a river, where the stream widening with diminished current becomes lake-like, or of a stretch of tide-water inland, forming a bay or cove at a river's mouth. By the northern Algonkins, it appears to have been used for 'lake,' as in the name of Missi-nippi or Missinabe lake ('great water'), and in that of Lake Nippissing, which has the locative affix, nippis-ing, 'at the small lake' north-east of the greater Lake Huron, which gave a name to the nation of 'Nipissings,' or as the French called them, 'Nipissiriniens,'--according to Charlevoix, the true Algonkins.

Quinnipiac, regarded as the Indian name of New Haven,--also written Quinnypiock, Quinopiocke, Quillipiack, &c., and by President Stiles (on the authority of an Indian of East Haven) Quinnepyooghq,--is, probably, 'long water place,' quinni-nippe-ohke, or quin-nipi-ohke. Kennebec would seem to be another form of the same name, from the Abnaki, kne-be-ki, were it not that Rale wrote, as the name of the river, 'Aghenibekki'--suggesting a different adjectival. But Biard, in the Relation de la Nouvelle-France of 1611, has 'Kinibequi,' Champlain, Quinebequy, and Vimont, in 1640, 'Quinibequi,' so that we are justified in regarding the name as the probable equivalent of Quinni-pi-ohke.

Win-nippe-sauki (Winnipiseogee) will be noticed hereafter.

4. -PAUG, -POG, -BOG, (Abn. -bega or -begat; Del. -pecat;) an inseparable generic, denoting 'WATER AT REST,' 'standing water,' is the substantival component of names of small lakes and ponds, throughout New England. Some of the most common of these names are,--