30 [62] TRANS. SI . LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



being made by fire, etc., these noises are uncommon, unaccount- 

 able, though distinctly audible, and generally of short or limited 

 duration ; therefore they must be of supernatural origin, and a 

 spirit is thought to be their author ; he has to be '' interviewed'* 

 about the matter, and, if possible, propitiated. The ancients held 

 that Fauns, Satyrs and Pan produced noises in the woods, or in 

 the atmosphere, and that they had to be propitiated by sacrifice. 

 In this country several rivers and large springs of Northern Flo- 

 rida are believed to produce noises at night ; they are hence re- 

 garded with superstitious awe by a part of the population. The 

 howling storms at the entrance of Yaquina Bay, Oregon, were 

 thought by the Indians of that coast to be the plaintive voice of 

 the spirits which had fled from the corpses of Indians disposed 

 of in canoes or rafts and driven out to sea. Manitoba is origin- 

 ally the name of an island in a lake of the Manitoba country, near 

 which the noise of a manitn or spirit was frequently heard ; the 

 name being an abbreviation of manito;wapan, which is inter- 

 preted by divine sounds supernatural water-passage. 



In the East, the Machemoodus or Moodus noises have attracted 

 the notice of the public and writers have discussed their origin. 

 Machemoodus is East Haddam, Connecticut, particularly the 

 northwestern part of the town, near "Mount Tom" ; abbreviated 

 into Moodus, it designates a branch of Salmon river, and a manu- 

 facturing village. Matche;madose means, * there is a bad noise" ; 

 with locative affix, M atche^madoset, " at the place of bad noises."* 



The great-grandfather of the celebrated Sac chief Black Hawk, 

 Nanamaki or Thunder^ was born in the vicinity of Montreal, 

 where the Great Spirit is said to have placed the Sac Indians 

 first. About the year 1833 Black Hawk, when giving an account 

 of his eventful life, mentioned the following experience of Nana- 

 maki : 



The Great Spirit announced to him, that, after the lapse of four years, 

 he would meet a white man, who would be a father to him. To prepare 

 for his appearance, Nanamaki blackened his face, and ate but once a day, 

 at sunset, during three years, a practice which caused him to dream con- 

 tinually at night. With his two brothers he then went east for five days ; 



* J. H. Trumbull, "Indian Names in Connecticut," p. i8 (iSSi), who quotes concerning- 

 the " M. noises," Trumbull's Hist, of Conn. ii. 91^ 92, and Barber's Hist. Collect. 525-527. 



