May 27. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



489 



Oanoska is a Sioux word, meaning " The Great 

 Avenue or Stretch;" but whether it applies to a 

 river I have forgotten. The quotation is from 

 Long's Expedit. to St. Peters River, vol. i. p. 339., 

 to which 1 have not access just now. Atamaska 

 and Madagaska are two names of which I can 

 give no account, for the same reason as stated 

 above at Maska. 



Arthabaska is (or was) a very swampy town- 

 ship so named, lying south of the St. Lawrence. 



Maskinonge (also the name of a fish) in which 

 the sound occurs, although not as a termination, 

 is a seigneurie on the north bank of the St. Law- 

 rence, of which the part near the river is so low 

 that it is inundated frequently. A river of the 

 same name runs through this seigneurie. Both 

 the foregoing are in the country where the Iro- 

 quois language prevailed. 



Zoraska, or Zawraska, name of a river some- 

 where between Quebec and James' Bay, of which 

 I know nothing more, having only heard it spoken 

 of by moose-hunters. Probably it is in a country 

 where the language would be the Montagnard. 



Yamaska, a river on the south side of the St. 

 Lawrence, having much marshy ground about it, 

 particularly near its junction with the Grand 

 River. 



Kamouraska, or Camouraska, islands in the St. 

 Lawrence below Quebec, taking their name from 

 a seigneurie on the mainland ; a level plain sur- 

 rounded by hills, and dotted all over with mounds. 

 Bouchette says, — 



" D'apres la position, l'apparence, et l'exacte ressem- 

 blance de ces especes d'iles en terre-firme avec celles 

 de Camouraska, entre lesquelles et le rivage le lit de la 

 riviere est presqu'a sec a la maree basse, le naturaliste 

 sera fortement porte a croire que ce qui forme a pre- 

 sent le continent eta it, a une epoque quelconque, sub- 

 merge par les vagues immenses du St. Laurent, et que 

 les elevations en question formaient des iles, ou des 

 rocbers exposes a Taction de l'eau," &c. — Description 

 de Bas- Canada, &c, p. 551. 



There can be no doubt, if aska relate to water, 

 that this district is appropriately named. 



We may presume the language prevalent here 

 to have been the Algonquin, since the inhabitants, 

 when first visited by Europeans, were either the 

 Micmac or Abenaqui, both tribes of that great 

 family. 



Still farther eastward, flowing from Lake Temis- 

 conata into the River St. John, we find the Mada- 

 waska, in a country where the language was either 

 the Abenaqui, or a dialect of the Huron, said to 

 be spoken by the Melicite Indians of the St. John. 

 Aska does not occur again in this part of North 

 America, as far as I can ascertain ; but on looking 

 southward it does so, and under similar circum- 

 stances, viz. associated with water. 



Tabasca, or Tobasco (for it is written both 

 ways), a country on the borders of Yucatan, de- 



scribed by the conquerors as difficult to march 

 through, on account of numerous pools of water 

 and extensive swamps. Clavigero says the pre- 

 sent name was given by the Spaniards ; but I 

 know of no Spanish word at all resembling it, 

 therefore presume they must have adopted the 

 native appellation. The language was, and per- 

 haps is, the Maya. 



Tarasca ; name of a people inhabiting the coun- 

 try of Mechouacan, celebrated for its numerous 

 fountains of fine water. Language appears to 

 have been Mexican. (See Clavigero, vol. i. p. 10., 

 edit. 4to., Cullen's Trans. ; and Dr. Prichard's 

 Phys. Hist, &c, vol. v. p. 340.) 



The mention of Tarasca reminds one of Taras- 

 con, also written Tarasca. Two instances occur 

 in the country of Celtic Gaul ; both on rivers : 

 the one on the Rhone, the other on the Arriege. 



Having for the present finished with America, 

 one is naturally led to inquire whether asca occurs 

 in other parts of the world, in like manner asso- 

 ciated with water. Before doing so, however, I 

 would observe that Thompson, in his Essay on 

 Etymologies, &c, p. 10., remarks that "The Gothic 

 termination sk, the origin of our ish, the Saxon 

 isk, signifying assimilated, identified, is used in all 

 dialects, to the very shores of China," &c. He in- 

 stances "Tobolsk" and "Uvalsk." If, then, it be 

 true that a and ab are primitive sounds denoting 

 water in many languages, may we not here have a 

 combination of a and sk ? 



But to proceed. Malte Brun mentions a city 

 in Arabia called "Asca," one of the places sacked 

 by the expedition under Elius Gallus {Precis de 

 la Geographie, &c, vol. i. p. 179.). Generally 

 speaking, Arabia is not abounding in waters ; but 

 that very circumstance renders celebrated, more 

 or less, every locality where they do abound and 

 are pure. The city, therefore, might have been 

 notable for its walls and fountains of pure water. 



Aska is the name of a river in Japan, remark- 

 able for its great depth, and for frequently chang- 

 ing its course (Golownin, vol. iii. p. 149.). 



In north-eastern Asia we find a river called 

 after the Tongouse, Tongousca. Query, Tungouse- 

 asca ? and, following up Thompson's examples 

 before mentioned, we may name Yakutsk, Ir- 

 kutsk, Ochotsk, Kamtchatka, &c, all intimately 

 connected with water. Then there is Kandalask, 

 a gulf of the White Sea ; Tchesk, another ; Ka- 

 niska-Zemblia, an island, &c. In Spain, Huesca 

 is on the river Barbato. The two Gradiskas in 

 Hungary, &c. are the one on the Save, the other 

 on the Lisonzo. 



Zaleski (Pereslav) is seated on a lake ; but 

 Malte-Brun says the name means " au-dela des 

 bois." This may or may not be the case. The 

 sound is here, and in connexion with water. Pul- 

 tusk is nearly surrounded by water, the Narew. 

 Askersan, in Sweden, stands on a lake. Gascon, 



