SOME INDIAN WORDS. 145 



Trumbull says " Petaupauk," and other similar forms literally means, 

 *'a place into which the foot sinks," represented by the Chippeway- 

 petobeg, and the Abnaki-potepaug, a bog or marsh. 



QuosoPANAGON, a meadow in Groton, " on the other side of the 

 river." In my notes referring to the name Quasaponikin, made in 

 1905, I find the following: "A hill in the N. E. part of Lancaster, 

 also the same name given to a meadow and brook in the early records 

 of the town. A village in Lancaster is now called Ponikin. I believe 

 this name applied first to a shallow part of the river near where the 

 brook enters the Nashua. The northern Indians have the word 

 Poonichuan, "where the current stops." The Natick dialect has 

 Ponquag, " a ford," also Penaekinnu, " it spreads," and Josiah Cotton 

 gives Pongqui as " shallow," in his vocabulary. Dr. Trumbull says in 

 his definition of Quassapaug, K'chepaug, " greatest pond," a name 

 easily corrupted to Quassapaug. (Trumbull, Indian Names of Con- 

 necticut, p. 59.) Quassaponikin corrupted, from k'che-ponquag- 

 in, would mean, *'at the greatest fording place." Probably the 

 same name in Groton would signify a fording place, although the name 

 m Groton is spelled Quosopanagon. 



Shabikin, Shabokin, Chaboken, etc., early name of a tract of land 

 in the northwest part of Harvard, formerly a part of Stow Leg. I 

 believe this name must have been originally Chepiohkin. ''Chep- 

 iohke," the Indian name for "hell," "the place apart," " the place of 

 separation," with the locative suffix in or en. A curious indication 

 that this was the original signification is the fact that the pond in this 

 tract of land has always been called " Hell Pond." " Shabikin " seems 

 to have been the original designation of that part of Stow Leg which 

 includes Hell Pond. (Nourse, History of Harvard, p. 72.) "The 

 pioneers always called it Hell Pond, and so it is recorded in the worn 

 and yellow documents of their day that have come down to us." 

 (Ibid. p. 66.) 



Squannacook, a river in the western part of Groton, rises in the 

 northern part of Townsend, forms the boundary between Shirley and 

 Groton, and flows into the Nashua. Possibly the name is a corrup- 

 tion of Squamicuk, which would mean salmon place, m'squamaug, 

 "salmon," and auke, " place," or with ut would signify the "place 

 for taking salmon." We know from early records there were many 

 salmon in these rivers, however this is not a satisfactory explanation. 

 It is also the name of a village in western part of Groton. A very 

 similar name is found in Rhode Island. Squannakonk is the name 

 of a swamp in Rehoboth, where Annawon was captured by Captain 



