370 KANSAS CITY JREVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



word, a name which applies yet to a tributary of the great river. This corrup- 

 tion is the word "Mohawk." Other corruptions of the ancient names exist in 

 "Mohegan" and "Mohican" (which are identical, illustrating an outgrowth 

 from the primal word, and illustrating also the kinship between the terms Ogha, 

 Acha and Aqua.) 



The name Mahaqua is pure Latin — acknowledging the prefix "Mah" to be 

 but the Latin abbreviation (Sanscrit root) of the word magnus. We have not 

 space in this magazine for analyses of all the native Indian names showing the 

 abbreviations of the Latin magnus. There is one illustration, however, we can- 

 not omit in this paper. The early explorers of the coast lands of North Carolina 

 and Virginia found the natives almost everywhere in their discoveries using the 

 term "Occam" (or aquam?) in referring to large bodies of water. (See Hawks' 

 History of N. C.) A large Carolina lake is now known as Waccamaw {Aqua- 

 mah). 



. The word "Occam" illustrates a distinct Latin idiom — the Latin being one 

 of the few dead languages that allows the terminal in a consonant : the Greek 

 forbids it. There are many Latin idioms illustrated curiously in the Indian 

 names. We shall cite some interesting examples before closing this paper. Be- 

 fore proceeding with them we desire to notice a group of names revealing a de- 

 scriptive about which there can be no question as to its legitimate location in the 

 Latin language, if comparative illustrations and analyses can demonstrate truth. 



In some of our northwestern States the term ^' Minne" is often found in the 

 the native Indian names of waters — as Minnesota, Minneoah, Minnewaukin, 

 Minnetonqua, Minnehaha, etc. It is evident that there was some conspicuous 

 natural fact which gave birth to the expression "Minne" in the mind of the 

 early aborigines. 



What was this fact ? Science, with its many voices, gives utterance to elo- 

 quent truths in our behalf. Geology and physiography enfold their testimonies. 

 The blunt, plain English pioneer of modern times pushes into that same north- 

 western country, and everywhere the same suggestive natural facts present them- 

 selves, and they are marked down on our maps in the terse, and vigorous ex- 

 pression of ^?V vernacular — simply the Red, or the Vermillion; — and if we look 

 into the geographical literature of the country there, we shall find "the Great 

 Red River" (of the North), "Vermillion Lake," "Red Lake," etc. Underly- 

 ing the country are vast deposits of red clay, red sandstone, and ver?nillion earth. 

 Many of the waters there have in consequence the reddish tinge. These are the 

 natural facts so prominent and suggestive there. They were equally impressive 

 upon the mind of early pioneers whether in the few decades ago or in the far 

 centuries gone by. Each of these pioneers took from his vernacular its most 

 expressive word, and left it as a perpetual memorial of birth and origin. And if 

 we open our authorities on language, we find in the Indian " minne " merely the 

 Latin minio, which in plain English means precisely the red, or the red vermilUon 

 clay. • 



It would be difficult to find verbal testimonies more conclusive than in those 



