208 TRIBES AND DIALECTS OF CONNECTICUT 



[ETH. ANN. 43 



mented the numbers and power of the Mohegan to such an extent 

 tliat in speaking of the language and ethnology of the tribe it seems 

 proper to adopt the hyphenated term Mohegan-Pequot. So far as 

 information is available we have no means of estimating the actual 

 proportion of Pequot blood prior to 1861. In that year, however, a 

 body of commissioners published a report on the land holdings of 

 the tribe and submitted a census of the individuals, with the state- 

 ment of their tribal ancestry evidently based on information given 

 by the Indians themselves. Among the 79 individuals listed as 

 Mohegan, 16 asserted themselves to be of Pequot descent, rang- 

 ing from one-half to one-eighth.^ It should be recalled that two 

 bands of Pequot were established in Connecticut in colonial times 

 just across the Thames Kiver, not much more than 12 miles distant 

 from the Mohegan village. Nevertheless, the intermarriages between 

 the two people in recent times have amounted to nothing, owing to 

 a traditional dislike between them arising from the part played by 

 the Mohegan in aiding the English to effect their downfall. The 

 Pequot, for their part, have continued a separate existence on their 

 side of the river to this day.' 



It may be worth while adding a word or two in corroboration of 

 historical testimony as to the linguistic and ethnological affinity of 

 the two groups. A comparison of two modern Mohegan glossaries 

 with the actual Pequot terms collected by President Stiles at Groton, 

 Conn., more than a century and a half ago,* shows the two to have 

 been as close in phonetics and lexicon as, one might say, British and 

 American; a comparison which seems to hold in many respects 

 between the people in general with almost amusing consistency. 

 The linked cultural identity of the real Pequot and the Mohegan- 

 Pequot permits us from the standpoint of our Mohegan information 

 to assign classification to a rather wide area in eastern Connecticut, 

 a considerable help in filling up the gaps in the culture areas of this 

 little-known region. 



The Mohegan-Pequot have undoubtedly assimilated some Narra- 

 gansett blood, but to what extent it would be impossible to say 

 beyond quoting the previously mentioned report of 1861, which 

 designated Narragansett descent to three individuals among the 

 Mohegan at that time. Among the present-day members of the 



^ I have included under this listing four whose Pequot ancestry was not specified, though it should have 

 been, since their parents were so designated. 



' An old original Peiiuot wooden com mortar (pi. 16, b) obtained in 1920 from Nathaniel Latham, of 

 Stonington, shows the characteristic scalloped base which appears as a feature in the mortar construction 

 of this immediate group of tribes. This elaborated feature does not occur in the mortars of the Massa- 

 chusetts bands. The latter have plain straight sides. 



' This vocabulary w;is taken down in 1764. The forms recorded therein show practically no deviation 

 from the Mohegan given here, even after the wide lapse of 158 years; rather remarkable nonchangeability 

 for languages which have lived only in oral form. 



