V. PLACE-NAMES 



IXTKODUCTION 



The Tewa have a marked fondness for geog-raphical conversation, 

 and the number of place-names known to each individual is very large. 

 Many a Tewa is acquainted with all or nearly all the place-names in 

 localities in which he has lived or worked. A Tewa is almost certain 

 to know most of the names of places about his village current in the 

 dialect of the village. He is especially' familiar with names of places 

 near his field or fields. Of places situated about other Tewa villages 

 he usually knows but few names. Shepherds and hunters are best 

 informed about places lying in the hills or mountains remote from the 

 villages. The Tewa do not travel much outside their own country. 

 A few occasionally attend festivals at Taos, Picuris, Cochiti, or Santo 

 Domingo. They frequently go shopping to Espanola or to Santa Fe. 

 Hardly any of the places with Tewa names lying outside the Tewa 

 country are ever visited or seen by the persons who use the names in 

 daily speech. No one Tewa knows more than a fraction of the total 

 number of place-names presented in this paper. The number of place- 

 names known to an individual depends on environment, interest, and 

 memory. 



The use of place-names by the Tewa befoi'e the introduction of Euro- 

 pean culture was doubtless very much the same as it is to-day. As 

 man}' places outside the Tewa countrj' were known to the Tewa, and as 

 few visited, as at present. 



Each Tewa pueblo has about it an area thickly strewn with place- 

 names well known to its inhabitants and in their peculiar dialect. It is 

 probable that these areas correspond closely with those formerly oc- 

 cupied by the settlements of the clans which have united to form the 

 present villages. The Tewa's knowledge of geographical details fades 

 rapidly when one passes beyond the sphere of place-names of his 

 village. 



The majority of the names are descriptive terras denoting land con- 

 figuration. Elements denoting animal or vegetal life or things or 

 events at the place are frequently prepounded. It requires but little 

 use to make a descriptive name a fixed, definite label. It is said 

 that no more flaking-stone is found at Flaking-stone Mountain than at 

 other mountains of the western range, and jet the label is Flaking- 

 stone Mountain [2:9]. The Chania is a large river as well as the 

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