tut HONE Y-BE FE. asé 
thave already obferved that the firft of thefe nations call 
bees and wafps by the fame name. It is probable that 
this is alfo the cafe among the Mohegans. If fo, it 
would feem likely, that from the refemblance between the 
bee and: fome fpecies of our native wafps, it was not 
thought neceflary to impofe a new name upon the honey- 
bee after it became a.denizen of our woods. But this, it 
will be faid, is treading on the ground of hypothefis, I 
fhall, therefore, relinquifh it. 
The Mohegans, Ihave juft faid, call honey awm waw 
web focat. ‘Vhis is, undoubtedly, an Indian word. But 
let us analyfe its precife, fpecific fignification. The real 
meaning of the word /ocat is fugar, or fweet. Long be- 
fore the nations of America-had any intercourfe with the 
Europeans, they made fugar from the Acer /accharinum, or 
Sugar-maple, and from fome fpecies of the genus Fuglans,or 
Walnut. An appropriate word for this agreeable fubftance, 
of courfe, exifted in their languages... When the honey 
of the bee was firft examined by them, they could’ not 
fail to remark that its moft ftriking property was its fweet 
tafte. An aflemblage of words: was now formed for the 
newly-introduced fubftance.. This affemblage, in the 
Mohegan tongue, reads thus, /weet or fugar of bees for 
the word. we fignifies of. In like manner, the real mean= 
ing of pe mey is greafe, fat, ortallow. Allthefe are fubftances 
with which favages are but-too familiar... When the Mo- 
hegans became acquainted with the wax of the bee, obfer~ 
ving its refemblance to the different: fubftances juft men- 
tioned, they feem-.to have thought it unneceflary to create 
a new word exclufively charaCteriftic of it. The frit 
meaning of the word aum waw weh pe mey is greafe, fat, 
or tallow, of bee. 
I am confirmed in my opinions on this part of my 
queftion by finding that the. Natics, or Nahantics, had no 
words 
