SOME INDIAN WORDS. I43 



This has been a very common usage throughout New England. I 

 am inclined to believe that the word is a corruption of Natuag, Nai- 

 yag, Noyack, meaning a point or corner of land. Eliot wrote the 

 word Naiag or Naiyag, '• a corner or angle/' and without doubt it 

 was used by the Indians as a boundary mark. Naig-og would mean 

 corner land. 



Nashoba, the old name of Litdeton now applied to a hill in that 

 town, as well as to a brook in Westford. It was the name of a small 

 tribe of Indians who lived near Nashoba Hill, and was the name also 

 of the Indian town which Daniel Gookin, writing in 1674, says was 

 the " sixth Indian Praying Village." Of course the similarity between 

 the name Nashua aud Nashoba is very striking but in its present form 

 I cannot venture a translation. Neshobe was the name of an Indian 

 scout or spy who gave valuable aid to the Green Mountain Boys, 

 1 770-1 780. He lived on the eastern shore of Lake Champlain. 

 Possibly he was a descendant from the old Nashoba tribe. An island 

 in Lake Bomeseen is now called "Neshobe." There is a tradition 

 that the word Nashoba meant " the hill that shakes," " that at times 

 certain rumbling noises were heard and vibratory motions were felt." 

 There is no trace of this signification in the word. 



Nashua, Nashaway, Nashaue, Nashawogg, a "river running 

 through Groton." These are all different forms of the same name from 

 Nashaue-ohke, "the land between." The river takes its name from 

 the land. This root occurs in a great many Indian names in various 

 localities, mutilated sometimes in many ways. Ashawog, Assawog, 

 Natchaug probably conveyed about the same idea. Shawamug meant 

 the half-way fishing place. Nasaw, "between," "in the middle of." 

 (Cuok, Langue Algonquine.) 



Naumox, the name of a district, near the Longley Monument, lying 

 west of the East Pepperell road. It may have been a place name, 

 although much corrupted and changed. The letter " x " is very sel- 

 dom found in a place name, however, as a termination, even with all 

 the corruptions and changes that such names undergo. The root, 

 I think, is aum, or om, " a fish-hook (Eliot, Indian Bible, Matt. xvii. 

 27), aumani, " he is fishing," aumanep, " a fishing line." Nawmock- 

 set would mean, in my opinion, the country (or land) near the fishing 

 place, — and this takes care of the letter "x," — set is a locative suffix 

 often used, and signified "near," or "at." 



Namucksuck was the Indian name of a place on the west side of 

 the Thames River (Miss Caulkins, New London, 123). That name 

 designated "a fishing place at the outlet," — name, "fish," auk, 



