Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/474

(New Hampshire), 'river branching off,' from ancient Abn. pske + teg8e, the termination for 'river' (mod. pāskā + tĕkw). The separate word for 'river' is sībō. To this same stem belong anc. peskua'tek8n, 'branch of a tree,' and the modern verbs poskwenômuk, 'break with the hands;' poskwkawômuk, 'break with the feet;' poskwzômuk, 'cut with a knife,' and poskwtahômuk, 'cut with an axe.' The verb pask- hômuk, 'shoot' (pask-higan, 'gun'), is undoubtedly a variant of the same root.

The name Pāskāngā'māk is peculiarly appropriate to the geo- graphic position of Tupper Lake, which flows into the Racquette River between Long Lake, where the river begins its course, and Racquette Pond. Tupper Lake thus appeared to the Indians to be a branch of the river. It is really, however, the last of a chain which commences with the series of ponds just north of Little Forked Lake in Hamilton County. The lake now known as Little Tupper was called by the Abenakis Pāskāngā'māsĭk, the regular diminutive of Pāskāngā'māk.

The name Long Lake, now given to the narrow river-like body of water, thirteen miles in length, which is the source of the Rac- quette River, is probably, as Sabattis states, a translation of the Abenaki Kwĕnōgā'māk, from kwĕnō, 'long,' +gā'māk. The root kwĕnō appears in Kwĕnī'tĕgok, e. g. kwĕnī, ' long,' + tĕkw, ending meaning 'river,' + ŏk, the locative termination. The name Connecti- cut is a corruption of the allied Massachusetts term, which differed only in having the -t locative termination. The same root kwĕnī-, 'long' appears also in Kwĕnbāāk, 'Long Pond,' kwĕnākuēsō, ' he is tall,' kwĕnī, 'during, while,' etc.

Forked Lake, not far from Blue Mountain Lake, was named in Abenaki Nīgītāwôgā'māk, evidently with the same meaning as the English term, which is probably a translation from the Indian. As O'Brien points out, the stem here is undoubtedly the same as that seen in Niketous, used to denote the confluence of two branches of the Penobscot. In old Abenaki I find from the same stem nike- ta8teg8e, 'rivière qui fourche' (Rasle, Dict. p. 523). O'Brien gives the same word from Aubèry as nik8da8atteg8c, 'confluent de deux rivières.' That this stem niketa or nik8da8 is identical with that seen in Sabattis's form Nīgītā-wô-gā'māk is evident.

The Abenaki name for Mt. Marcy, which probably included its neighboring peaks, was Wawôbadenik, literally, ' white mountains' from wawôbi-, reduplication (pl.) of wôbi, 'white,' + aden, the ter- mination for 'mountain,' + the locative -ik. The separate word for mountain is wajo (see below). It is interesting to note in this connection that Wawôbadenik is also the Abenaki term for the White Mountains of New Hampshire.