HARRINGTON] PLACE-NAMES 163 



<po 'water', pi 'to issue'; pohti <po 'water', kwi unex- 

 plained). With the use of the ahsohite form of the color adjec- 

 tive in this name — that is, of posl instead of posiwi'^, posiwitjf — ■ 

 compare ppq 'pinkness' 'pink' in the name [4:1] instead of 

 ppqwi'', pP<lwi>j,f and Ao 'g^rayness' 'gray' in the name [6:21] 

 instead of /ion>P^, howiyf. As to the forms posi, ppq, and ho see 

 [6:21] above. iThe etymology of po-^i (pox>'vj>y, posiwiyf) is un- 

 known to the modern Tewa, but it mnj be that it was origi- 

 nally compounded of po 'water' and si 'to stink', which ap- 

 pears, for instance, in ?iqsisy, 'it stinks' («g 'it'; si 'to stink' 

 prepound; sii 'to smell' intransitive, said of agreeable or dis- 

 agreeable smells), and that posi originally referred to stinking 

 water, which frequently has a moss-green color. This is, of 

 course, only a conjecture, and in the absence of records of 

 ancient Tewa language can not be proved. -At the pi'esent 

 time 'stinking water' is rendered in Tewa by posisy/ i''^ (po 

 'water'; s/syT' 'stinking' <si 'to stink,' which appears only 

 prepounded to certain verbs, sy, 'to smell', intransitive, said of 

 agreeal)le or disagreeable smells; 'i'' locative and adjective- 

 forming postlix), and the -sy- of this expression can not be 

 omitted. The reason why this name posi 'moss-greenness' was 

 applied to Ojo Caliente hot springs by the ancient Tewa is easily 

 discovered. "On account of the high temperature of the water 

 of the stream, and o/* the Ivot springs issuing from the naked roch 

 and covering them loith an emerald-gi'cen stain, they were not 

 only objects of curiosity to the native, but, like everything he 

 does not comprehend, objects of veneration, of worship." ' 



The italics are the writer's. The green stain mentioned may still 

 be seen where the hot mineral water oozes from the ground on 

 the banks of the little arroyo just west of the bathhouse. 

 The sacred old green-edged pool has been changed and obscured 

 by building the bathhouse over it. Bandelier and Hewett ha\e 

 recorded a number of times, in Bandelier's spelling, the name of 

 the pueblo ruin [6:25], which is derived from that of the springs; 

 see under [6:25]. None of the other place-names beginning with 

 posi- have, so far as is known, been recorded or published, nor has 

 the etymology of Posi been ascertained or published. Bande- 

 lier has "Pose" or "P'ho-se" in all of his forms (see under [6:25]), 

 the e of which can be explained only as a result of defective 

 hearing or of confusion of this name with the name of the culture 

 hero Posejemu, Bandelier's "Pose-yemo", etc. It is needless to 

 say that the place-names beginning with Posi- and the name of 

 the mvthical person Posejemu, alias Poseqicehli, have nothing in 

 common except tliat they happen to begin with the word po 



1 Bandelier, Final Report, pt. ii, pp. 46-47, 1892. 



