8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 94 



been revealed to the English by the Indians after the encounter below 

 the falls. The names were undoubtedly recorded by the English as 

 giA^en them by their Algonquian guide and interpreter, Mosco. 



As yet it has not been possible to translate the names as given by 

 Smith or Strachey. They were undoubtedly in some Siouan dialect 

 and were told to the English by an Algonquian Indian. The latter 

 appears to have attempted to translate the Siouan word into his own 

 language, and this resulted in the names as recorded by the English 

 being a combination of Siouan and Algonquian, making it difficult, 

 if not impossible, ever to learn their true meaning. 



Traces of many native settlements have been discovered on the 

 banks of the Rapidan and the Rappahannock above the falls, some of 

 which were undoubtedly occupied in 1608, but it will probably never 

 be possible to determine the exact position of any one of the eight 

 villages that were mentioned in the early narratives. 



MAHASKAHOD 



Mahaskahod was the name applied to a camp, possibly of a tem- 

 porary nature as distinguished from a permanent settlement. It was 

 described as " a hunting Towne ", where several hundred Indians 

 from four or more distant villages of the Manahoac were gathered 

 in August 1608. 



This large encampment, if it really existed as described at the time 

 of the first visit of the English to the region, must have stood on the 

 banks of the Rappahannock some distance above the upper end of 

 the large island. The colonists, as suggested by the position of the 

 small cross placed at that point on the 1624 map, reached a locality 

 on the right bank of the river opposite the island. They probably 

 ascended the cliff that rises from the river bank at the end of the 

 dam just above the island, from w^hich they would have had a view 

 up the valley. This point is clearly shown in plate 2. But the narra- 

 tive did not mention an Indian encampment in the vicinity, nor did 

 the English encounter any natives at that time. 



HASSUIUGA 



The position of Hassuiuga can be identified with a greater degree 

 of certainty than any other site on either the Rapidan or the Rappa- 

 hannock. It evidently occupied the banks of the Rappahannock a 

 short distance above the mouth of the Rapidan, at a crossing of the 

 river now known as Richards Ford, where traces of a native village 

 occur, and where, according to local tradition, an Indian town once 

 stood. This corresponds with the position of the name on the 1624 

 map. 



