A NOTE ON THE ETYMON OF ONTARIO. 505 



ail error, as the Algouquius, i.e., the Objibwas, &c-, were situated 

 farther to the North and West.) 



Lake Huron means the " Lake of the Hurons," as it figures on 

 du Creux's map — Mare Dulce sen Lacus Huronum. Mare Dulce is 

 evidently the designation given to this lake by Champlain, who, struck 

 by the purity and excellence and vast volume of its waters, called 

 it Mer Douce ; while Huronum reminds us of one of the mongrel 

 Latinized appellations to be met with in Tacitus ; for under an 

 aboriginal guise and sound the term "Huron" is in fact French, 

 being simply a sobriquet for the Wyandots, — derived from " Hure," 

 as Bressani and Hennepin rightly say — and "Hure," Boyer informs 

 us, is a term applied to a t^te cf tin sanglier, cf iin ours, cf un brocket, 

 (a great Pike) ; also he gives it as a coarse term for a tete mal peignee, 

 cheveux rudes, et mat en ordre. The Wyandots living on the eastern 

 borders of this lake, were accustomed, it appears, by way of ornament 

 to singe their hair until their heads had the bristly, unkempt aspect 

 of those prefixed to wild boars. Hence the French jestingly applied 

 to them the appellation of " Hurons," Boar-heads, above somewhat 

 amusingly Latinized into Hurones. Charlevoix calls this Lake " the 

 Lake of the Attigouotans," (Attigouotan is one of the very varied 

 forms of Wyandot) and Livingston, a United States Secretary for 

 Indian Affairs, in "Observations on a Tour to Onnondaga in 1700," 

 calls it Lake Ottawawa, and Lake Erie, Lake Sweege — examples, 

 again, probably, of local names given to lakes which also bore more 

 general appellations. 



Of Lake Superior I do not find given in the maps any specific 

 aboriginal name ; but in Baraga's Otchipwe Dictionary I find it 

 named in the usual way from the tribes inhabiting its shores : he 

 styles it Otchipwe-Kitchigami, " Sea of the Chippewas." In " Hia- 

 watha," we shall remember, this lake figures as " Gritche-Gumee," 

 conveniently, but not elegantly, translated " Big-sea-water," — another 

 of those general appellations applicable, and doubtless applied, ou 

 certain occasions, to any of the Great Lakes. Here was drowned 

 Chibiabos, the "most-beloved" of Hiawatha: Chibiabos "the sweetest 

 of all singers :" — 



"L'nktakee, the god of waters. 

 He the god of tlie Dacotahs, 

 Drowned him in the deep abysses 

 Of the Lake of Gitche-Grumee." (xv.) 



It was probably because this lake was thus haunted, that it was 



