170 WAWENOCK MYTH TEXTS FROM MAINE (eth. asn. 43 



Notwithstanding the fact that we have nowhere any definite 

 information on the exact boundaries of the Wawenoclv in their old 

 home, it is evident from Penobscot sources that the Wawenock ter- 

 ritory began where the Penobscot family claims ^ ended, a short 

 distance west of the waters of Penobscot Bay. This would give the 

 Wawenock the environs of St. George's Harbor and Eiver, and all 

 the intervening coast as far as the mouth of Kennebec River, since 

 the latter is mentioned as their western boundary. A difficulty con- 

 fronts us, however, when we try to determine how far northward into 

 the interior the Wawenock claims extended. From geographical 

 considerations, since the region which is typical of the coast extends 

 inland about 30 or 40 miles, we might infer that the hunting grounds 

 of the tribe extended at least as far. The additional fact that the 

 Penobscot territory spread out westward as we go toward the interior, 

 and that they knew the Norridgewock and Aroosaguntacook as their 

 immediate western neighbors, would then leave the general tract 

 from the headwaters of St. Georges, Medomac, Damariscotta and 

 Sheepscot Rivers and Togus Stream, all east of the Kennebec River, 

 and southward to the coast, to be regarded as Wawenock territory. 

 The Wawenock have been already definitely assigned to the Sheep- 

 scot and Pemacjuid,^ which would seem to have been at about the 

 center of their habitat. That their territory was also knowai as 

 Sagadahock(Sar|kade'lak, Penobscot) is shown by a statement giving 

 different local names to parts of the Kennebec River — names which 

 corresponded more or less to the names of local bands — as follows: 

 "Aransoak, Orantsoak,^ Kennebec River from the lake (Moosehead 

 Lake) to Norridgewock. Below Skowhegan it was called Canebas or 

 Kenebas ° to Merrymeeting Bay, thence to the sea, Sagadahock." '^ 



' These were the Penobscot families of Mitchell (Lobster) and Susup (Crab), who held the immediate 

 shores and surroundings of Penobscot Bay. 



5 Maine Historical Society Collections. Vol. IV, p. 96, 1858. " The Abuaquies occupied country between 

 Penobscot Bay and Piscataquis River and were divided into four principal tribes, viz, (1) the Sokokis on 

 the Saco River, (2) the Anasagunticook on the .Vndroscoggin, (3) the Carribas or Kenabes on the Kennebec, 

 (4) the Wawenocks on the Sheepscot, Pemaquid, etc." 



' Norridgewock, Xala'djawak," Rapids up the river" (Penobscot); Nawadzwa'ki (St. Francis Abenaki); 

 Nawi'djawak (Malecite), Nashwaak River, N. B.; and also what may be evidently another form of the 

 name Newichewanock in New Hampshire. The proper name for the bandisNaladjwa'kiak (Penobscot), 

 Nawadzawakia'k (St. Francis). A. E. Kendall (Travels through the Northern Partsof the United States 

 in 1807-8. Vol. ni, N. Y., 1809) gives the term as "Nanrantawacs" (p. 52), which he says implies "still 

 water between two places at which the current is rapid." J. D. Prince (Some Passamaquoddy Docu- 

 ments, Annals New York Academy of Science, XI, no. 15, 1898, p. 376) translates nanrantsouack as 

 "stretch of still water." 



» Kwunibeg" "Long water" (Penobscot). The form of the proper name would be Kwun'i'begwiak 

 " people of the long water," but we do not encounter this in the documents. Maurault (op. cit., p. iv and 

 89) has an interesting and very probable opinion on this term. He suggests as an origin Kanibosek, "qui 

 conduit au lac," chaque annSe au temps de lagrande chasse de I'hiver lesCanibasserendaient en grando 

 nombre au "lac a I'original" (Moosehead Lake) en suivant la riviere Ken6bec. C'est pour cela qu'ils 

 appelaient cette riviere "le ehemin qui conduit au lac." 



•Saijkade'lak, "where the river flows out" (Penobscot). See also Father Easles (Jesuit Relations, 

 1716-27, vol. 67, p. 197), Sankderank. Kendall, who traveled this country in 1807 (E. A. Kendall, op. cit., 

 pp. 143-144), gives the same names Schunkadarunk and Zaughe'darankiac and translates them correctly 

 as "mouth of the river" and "people of the mouth of the river." Maurault (op. cit., p. 77) differs from 

 others in giving the form "sakkadaguk" a I'endroit ou le terrain est plat et uni." The proper name 

 Saijkadelawiak, "people of where the river flows out," is known among the Penobscot to-day and has 

 been frequently used by authors in referring to Indians at the mouth of the Kennebec and Androscoggin 

 Rivers, or better, as Kendall states, to "the people of the conmion mouth of Kennebec and .\mariscoggin, 

 that is the Sagahoc of the early colonists." (Kendall, op. cit., vol. in, p. 144.) 



