The Composition of Indian Geographical Names | Page 8

of
land,' the descent or downward slope of a mountain, &c.
[Footnote 34: Maine Woods, pp. 145, 324.]
Keht-ompskqut, or 'Ketumpscut' as it was formerly written,[35]--'at the greatest rock,'--is
corrupted to Catumb, the name of a reef off the west end of Fisher's Island.
[Footnote 35: Pres. Stiles's Itinerary, 1761.]
Tomheganomset[36]--corrupted finally to 'Higganum,' the name of a brook and parish in
the north-east part of Haddam,--appears to have been, originally, the designation of a
locality from which the Indians procured stone suitable for making
axes,--tomhegun-ompsk-ut, 'at the tomahawk rock.' In 'Higganompos,' as the name was
sometimes written, without the locative affix, we have less difficulty in recognizing the
substantival -ompsk.
[Footnote 36: Conn. Col. Records, i. 434.]
QUSSUK, another word for 'rock' or 'stone,' used by Eliot and Roger Williams, is not
often--perhaps never found in local names. Hassun or Assun (Chip. assin´; Del. achsin;)
appears in New England names only as an adjectival (assuné, assini, 'stony'), but farther
north, it occasionally occurs as the substantival component of such names as Mistassinni,
'the Great Stone,' which gives its name to a lake in British America, to a tribe of Indians,
and to a river that flows into St. John's Lake.[37]
[Footnote 37: Hind's Exploration of Labrador, vol. ii. pp. 147, 148.]
7. WADCHU (in composition, -ADCHU) means, always, 'mountain' or 'hill.' In Wachuset,
we have it, with the locative affix -set, 'near' or 'in the vicinity of the mountain,'--a name
which has been transferred to the mountain itself. With the adjectival massa, 'great,' is
formed mass-adchu-set, 'near the great mountain,' or 'great hill country,'--now,
Massachusetts.
'Kunckquachu' and 'Quunkwattchu,' mentioned in the deeds of Hadley purchase, in

1658,[38] are forms of qunu[n]kqu-adchu, 'high mountain,'--afterwards belittled as
'Mount Toby.'
[Footnote 38: History of Hadley, 21, 22, 114.]
'Kearsarge,' the modern name of two well-known mountains in New Hampshire,
disguises k[oo]wass-adchu, 'pine mountain.' On Holland's Map, published in 1784, the
southern Kearsarge (in Merrimack county) is marked "Kyarsarga Mountain; by the
Indians, Cowissewaschook."[39] In this form,--which the termination ok (for ohke, auke,
'land,') shows to belong to the region, not exclusively to the mountain itself,--the analysis
becomes more easy. The meaning of the adjectival is perhaps not quite certain. K[oo]wa
(Abn. k[oo]é) 'a pine tree,' with its diminutive, k[oo]wasse, is a derivative,--from a root
which means 'sharp,' 'pointed.' It is possible, that in this synthesis, the root preserves its
primary signification, and that 'Kearsarge' is the 'pointed' or 'peaked mountain.'
[Footnote 39: W.F. Goodwin, in Historical Magazine, ix. 28.]
Mauch Chunk (Penn.) is from Del. machk, 'bear' and wachtschunk, 'at, or on, the
mountain,'--according to Heckewelder, who writes 'Machkschúnk,' or the Delaware name
of 'the bear's mountain.'
In the Abnaki and some other Algonkin dialects, the substantival component of mountain
names is -ÁDENÉ,--an inseparable noun-generic. Katahdin (pronounced Ktaadn by the
Indians of Maine), Abn. Ket-ádené, 'the greatest (or chief) mountain,' is the equivalent of
'Kittatinny,' the name of a ridge of the Alleghanies, in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
8. -KOMUK or KOMAKO (Del. -kamik, -kamiké; Abn. -kamighe; Cree, -gómmik;
Powhatan, -comaco;) cannot be exactly translated by any one English word. It denotes
'place,' in the sense of enclosed, limited or appropriated space. As a component of local
names, it means, generally, 'an enclosure,' natural or artificial; such as a house or other
building, a village, a planted field, a thicket or place surrounded by trees, &c. The place
of residence of the Sachem, which (says Roger Williams) was "far different from other
houses [wigwams], both in capacity, and in the fineness and quality of their mats," was
called sachimâ-komuk, or, as Edward Winslow wrote it, '
sachimo comaco,'--the
Sachem-house. Werowocomoco, Weramocomoco, &c. in Virginia, was the 'Werowance's
house,' and the name appears on Smith's map, at a place "upon the river Pamauncke [now
York River], where the great King [Powhatan] was resident."
Kuppi-komuk, 'closed place,' 'secure enclosure,' was the name of a Pequot fastness in a
swamp, in Groton, Conn. Roger Williams wrote this name "Cuppacommock," and
understood its meaning to be "a refuge, or hiding place." Eliot has kuppóhkomuk for a
planted 'grove,' in Deut. xvi. 21, and for a landing-place or safe harbor, Acts xxvii. 40.
Nashaue-komuk, 'half-way house,' was at what is now Chilmark, on Martha's Vineyard,
where there was a village of praying Indians[40] in 1698, and earlier.
[Footnote 40: About half-way from Tisbury to Gay Head.]

The Abnaki keta-kamig[oo] means, according to Râle, 'the main land,'--literally, 'greatest
place;' teteba-kamighé, 'level place,' a plain; pépam-kamighek, 'the all land,' 'l'univers.'
Néssa[oo]a-kamíghé, meaning 'double place' or 'second place,' was the name of the
Abnaki village of St. Francis de Sales, on the St. Lawrence,[41]--to which the mission
was removed about 1700, from its first station established near the Falls of the Chaudière
in 1683.[42]
[Footnote 41: Râle, s.v. VILLAGE.]
[Footnote 42: Shea's Hist.