ABORIGINAL PLACE NAMES OF NEW YORK I47 



Na-ta'-dunk, pine tree broken, with top hanging down, is his name 

 for Syracuse. Clark gives a fuller form of the last, saying : " The 

 estuary of the creek and neighborhood of Syracuse, was formerly 

 Oh-na-ta-toonk, among the pines." It was given to me as Tu-na- 

 ten-tonk, a hanging pine. 



Oh-nen-ta-ha, a present Indian name for Onondaga lake, already 

 mentioned. 



"Ohsahaunytah-Seughkah — literally ivhere the waters run out of 

 Oneida lake," is Clark's name for Brewerton. In this case Seughkah 

 is the name of the lake. 



Oneida lake and river had their name from the people of the 

 stone. 



Onida-hogo is the name of this lake in Capt. Thomas Mackay's 

 journal of 1779. Onida-hogu is mwiy stones, but may also be de- 

 fined Oneida lake. 



• 



On-on-da'-ga, on the mountain, and thence people of the mountain 

 or great hill. To express people in full Rbnon was formerly added. 

 Among themselves the Indians now pronounce is On-on-dah'-ka, 

 but in talking to white people they usually give the long instead of 

 the broad sound to the third vowel. The name was first known to 

 the whites in 1634. The Relation of 1656 says that "Onontae', or, 

 as other pronounce it, Onontague, is the principal dwelling of the 

 Onontaeronons." In the Relation of 1658 is an explicit and correct 

 definition : " The word Onnonta, which signifies a mountain in the 

 Iroquois tongue, has given name to the town called Onnontae', or, 

 as others call it, Onnontaghe, because it is on a mountain, and the 

 people who dwell there call themselves Onnontaeronnons from this, 

 or Onnontagheronnons." 



In his Essay of an Onondaga Grammar Zeisberger uses gachera 

 for on or upon, and gives ononta for a hill, or mountain, and 

 onontachera as upon- the hill. The latter meaning he gives to 

 onontacta. Spafford said : "Onondaga is purely an Indian word, 

 signifying a swamp under or at the foot of a hill or mountain." 

 This is erroneous, but he added: "Onondagahara, a place between 

 the hills. I wish the people of Onondaga Hollow would take a 

 hint from this, and let their village be 'Onondagahara,' and that 

 on the hill ' Onondaga,' the capital of the county of Onondaga." 

 In the earlier edition he said: "Onondaga on the autlinrity of Mr 



