The Composition of Indian Geographical Names | Page 4

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 poú-at-ing´, or pau-at-u[n], 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,[13] where is now the city of Richmond. 'Powatan' is pauat-hanne,
or 'falls on a rapid stream.'
[Footnote 9: Col. Records of Connecticut, 1677-89, p. 275.]
[Footnote 10: Chandler's Survey of the Mohegan country, 1705.]
[Footnote 11: See Mourt's Relation, Dexter's edition, pp. 84, 91, 99. Misled by a form of
this name, Patackosi, given in the Appendix to Savage's Winthrop (ii. 478) and elsewhere,
I suggested to Dr. Dexter another derivation. See his note 297, to Mourt, p. 84.]

[Footnote 12: Descrip. of New Sweden, b. ii. ch. 1, 2; Proud's Hist. of Pennsylvania, ii.
252.]
[Footnote 13: "True Relation of Virginia," &c. (Deane's edition, Boston, 1866), p. 7. On
Smith's map, 1606, the 'King's house,' at 'Powhatan,' is marked just below "The Fales" on
'Powhatan flu:' or James River.]
Acáwmé or Ogkomé (Chip. agami; Abn. aga[n]mi; Del. achgameu;) means 'on the other
side,' 'over against,' 'beyond.' As an adjectival, it is found in Acawm-auké, 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-óaki; Abn. aga[n]men-[oo]ki. With -tuk,
it forms acawmen-tuk (Abn. aga[n]men-teg[oo]), 'other-side river,' or, its diminutive,
acawmen-tuk-es (Abn. aga[n]men-teg[oo]éss[oo]), '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. peské-teg[oo]é) 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.
Râle translates ne-peské, "je vas dans le chemin qui en coupe un autre:" peskahak[oo]n,
"branche."
Piscataqua, Pascataqua, &c., represent the Abn. peské-teg[oo]é, '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 peské, or piské, is found in many other compound names besides those
which are formed with -tuk or -hanne: as in Pascoag, for peské-auké, 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,"--peské-ompsk-ut,--perhaps some ancient land-mark, on or near the margin of
Worden's Pond.
Nôeu-tuk (Nóahtuk, Eliot), 'in the middle of the river,' may be, as Mr. Judd[14] 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.
[Footnote 14: History of Hadley, pp. 121, 122.]
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,