o 
278 National Geographic Magazine. 
hot-soid-be-azh-e Cafion” (pronounce it as you please or can) 
sandwiched between “Gothic Wash” and “Gypsum Valley ”— 
one hardly knows which to prefer, Indian or English. 
Cation del Muerto ”—the Cafion of the Dead—so named from 
the discovery of mummified or rather dessicated Indian bodies in 
its cliffs—seems very appropriate, but its brother cahon—“ Cafion 
de Chelly,” pronounced Cafion de Shay, will be neither spoken nor 
written correctly. 
On this same map are shown two small mesas, crowned with 
forests and standing beautiful and symmetric in the landscape. 
They attract attention at once and the Indian, with a fine sense of 
appropriateness, names them “ Son-sa-la”—the ‘“‘ Twin Stars” ; 
another name well worthy of being retained. Some patriotic 
American has named the deep gorge separating the “Stars” 
“Washington Pass,” a good example of the right name in a 
wrong place. 
The sense of broad humor that often characterizes the Indian 
leads him to sometimes give the inquirer a name expressive of . 
contempt or bearing a meaning hardly translatable to ears polite 
—‘ Nic-doit-so-e Peak” is an example—and I confess, with con- 
siderable humiliation, that I was the victim in this case. 
I present these instances, Mr. Chairman, to emphasize the 
necessity of adopting some guiding: principles to aid us in the 
selection of geographic names. 
