8 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



to the body of the word. De is equivalent and is quite as often 

 used. The interchangeable sounds of several letters must be borne 

 in mind. 



On another point Cadwallader Golden had some excellent obser- 

 vations in his New York land report of 1732. In that he said: 



There being no previous survey of the grants, their boundaries 

 are generally expressed with much uncertainty, by the Indian names 

 of brooks, rivulets, hills, ponds, falls of water, etc., which were 

 and still are known to very few Christians ; and what adds to their 

 uncertainty is that such names as are in these grants taken to be 

 the proper name of a brook, hill, or a fall of water, etc., in the 

 Indian language signify only a large brook, or broad brook, or 

 small brook, or high hills, or only a hill, or fall of water in general, 

 so that the Indians show many such places by the same name. 

 Brooks and rivers have different names with the Indians at differ- 

 ent places, and often change their names, they taking the name often 

 from the abode of some Indian near the place where it is so called. 

 O'Callaghan, 1 1375 



This last seems oftener the case with Iroquois than with Algon- 

 quin names, the latter being usually descriptive of the place, and the 

 former often referring to some person or local incident, but the 

 statement is true of both. With both there is little appearance of 

 poetic fancy. Names were a convenience, and but little more. Mr 

 Morgan's words follow : 



The method of bestowing names was peculiar. It frequently 

 happened that the same lake or river was recognized by them 

 under several different names. This was eminently the case with 

 the larger lakes. It was customary to give to them the name of 

 some village or locality upon their borders. The Seneca word 

 Te-car-ne-o-di means something more than " lake." It inclt'des 

 the idea of nearness, literally " the lake at." Hence, if a Seneca 

 were asked the name of Lake Ontario, he would answer, Ne-ah-ga 

 Te-car-ne-o-di ; " the lake at Ne-ah-ga." This was a Seneca village 

 at the mouth of the Niagara river. If an Onondaga were asked the 

 same question, he would prefix Swa-geh to the word lake, literally 

 " the lake of Oswego." The same multiplicity of names frequently 

 arose in relation to the principal rivers where they passed through 

 the territories of more than one nation. It was not, however, the 

 case with villages and other localities; Morgan, p. 413 



