SOME INDIAN WORDS. 141 



If, at any time, you wish to use any of these translations in your 

 writings about Groton you are at perfect liberty to do so, with no 

 obligation to give any credit to me. Some time, if I ever publish 

 another monograph on Indian names, I might possibly use them. 



I only hope that although my possible solutions may not prove 

 satisfactory to you, that you will believe that I have given my best 

 knowledge and my best guessing. 



Very truly yours, 



Lincoln N. Kinnicuit. 



Babittasset, " name of a village in Pepperell." This is a most 

 interesting name, and I have not given up all hope of a solution ; but 

 at present I will not venture to make a suggestion. 



Baddacook or Badacock, as spelled in the land grant to Nicholas 

 Cady the third of eleventh month 1669, a pond in the eastern part of 

 Groton. The Natick word Padtohquohhan, used as a verb, means, 

 " to thunder," from a verb which signifies, to hear, to be heard. The 

 Quiripi has the word, padak, he heareth. 'I'he termination, ock, is 

 found in many Indian place names (" from ' ohke,' variations auke, 

 aug, ag, ac, oche, ock, og, oc, uc, Ogue, signifying ground, land, place 

 not limited or enclosed." — Trumbull). I think that the original sig- 

 nification of the word may have been, a place where one hears, or 

 echo place. It would be very interesting to know if at the present 

 day there is any spot near this pond where there is a noticeable echo 

 but of course the destruction of the woods may have destroyed it, 

 even if any ever existed. Also another translation may be the, " place 

 where it thunders," signifying a locality where severe thunder storms 

 were frequent. It must always be borne in mind that the spelling of 

 Indian names was only as they sounded to the individual writer and 

 it is for this reason so many different forms are given for the same 

 word. The letter " B " is seldom used as an initial letter in the Na- 

 tick tongue and from an examination of various names about Groton 

 I believe there was a mixture of dialects of the Algonkin language. 

 Indian tribes living within fifty miles of each other in New England 

 had individual differences in the sound and use of certain letters. On 

 the borders of Rhode Island and Gonnecticut there were four or five 

 different dialects with very marked differences in the sounds of the 

 letters and in the names of objects. 



Cataconamog, Catecunemaug, or Cateconimoug, Catacoona- 

 MUG, a pond in the southeast part of Lunenburg, and southwest part 



