May 6, 1891.] 



Garden and Forest. 



207 



marble. The late superintendent chose for his own monu- 

 ment an isolated moss-grown boulder, upon which an inscrip- 

 tion, will be placed, but nothing else will be changed about it. 



I spent an hour in the more cultivated parts of the cemetery 

 a few days ago, and was particularly interested in studying the 

 blooming plants there. Mountain View, as I have already 

 said, is one of the most sheltered nooks in the region of San 

 Francisco Bay, and the climate is surprisingly mild. The 

 Orange and Lemon grow and fruit there, and Roses bloom 

 earlier there than anywhere else in the district. On the 20th 

 of March there were Apple, Peach, Plum, Almond and Cherry 

 in the old orchard ; long rows of English Laurel ; about thirty 

 kinds of Roses, with Japan Quinces, Spireas, Acacias, with 

 immense clumps of Irises, and white and rose-colored Peonies 

 on the hill-side. Nasturtiums, self-sown last autumn, and 

 seedling French Marigolds mingled with wild Poppies and 

 early Lupines, and in many a nook the native flowers of the 

 coast range still hold their own, while the slopes beyond 

 are splendid with spring annuals in full bloom. This is the 

 cemetery of which the lamented E. R. Sill wrote in his poem 

 entitled " Home" : 



There lies a little city in the hills ; 

 White are its roofs, dim is each dwelling's door, 

 And peace with perfect rest its bosom fills. 

 There the June mist, the pity of the sea, 

 Comes as a white, soft hand and reaches o'er 

 And touches its still face most tenderly. 

 Unstirred and calm, amid our shifting years, 

 Lo ! where it lies, far from the clash and roar, 

 With quiet distance blurred as if thro' tears. 



Such is the spirit of the place, and, as time goes by, that 

 spirit will ripen as its trees grow old and all its bare rocks 

 become more weather-stained and moss-grown. 

 Nile? Cat Charles Howard Shinn. 



The Sap and Sugar of the Maple-tree. — III. 



THE linguistic evidence of the Anthropologist, introduced by 

 Mr. Henshaw and continued by Mr. Chamberlain, is 

 interesting as" well as comprehensive, and not only valid, but 

 perhaps as convincing as the narrations of history. 



It reaches back far beyond the advent of that class of Euro- 

 pean travelers who are said to tell stories by inclination and 

 truth by accident. It is independent of the romances of dis- 

 coverers and of the neglect of historians. It draws out the 

 history of the Sugar Maple and its products from the very 

 elements of the Indian language. It also takes account, as it 

 should, of their myths and legends, and especially of their 

 solemn rites and celebrations as illustrating past events in 

 ceremonies and figures as by a sign language, through which 

 preceding ages are yet telling events which transpired in their 

 times. This argument from language, in its simplest form, as 

 stated by Mr. Henshaw, is essentially this — namely, "That if in- 

 vestigation shows that the Indian name for European sugar is 

 the same as, or a derivative from, the Indian name for maple- 

 sugar, and especially if the name of maple-sugar is'derived 

 from the Maple-tree, we can hardly expect to find better evi- 

 dence of the fact that maple-sugar was truly an aboriginal 

 production." 



For if sugar had been introduced to the Indians by Euro- 

 peans, the Indians would naturally have adopted the name or 

 sounds under which the new article came to them, as nearly 

 as their word sounds would allow, as is found to have been 

 quite a constant result in respect to various new objects intro- 

 duced to them under foreign names, of which many illustra- 

 tions might be given. The exceptions to this rule seem to be 

 in the case of novel animate objects, impressive at first sight, 

 to which they sometimes give a name of their own coining, 

 compounded from the name of a familiar object with a new and 

 characteristic affix. 



A few of the facts brought out in the articles referred to, as 

 to the legends and sacred rites of the Indians and the signifi- 

 cation of the names relating to the Maple-tree, have been se- 

 lected for notice here as illustrating more clearly the way in 

 which the investigation has been commenced, and the method 

 in which it will be carried on. 



We are told that among the Algonquian tribes there were 

 many myths and legends relating to the Maple-tree. 



For the Chippewas, an "Ovid"-like "metamorphosis" of 

 Nishosha, the magician, took place, and in a few seconds he 

 stood a tall and stiff Maple-tree. 



Then, too, a certain month of the year was called by some 

 Indians the "Sugar Month," or " Sugar Moon," which could 

 hardly have been unless sugar-making were aboriginal. 



Others believed that the snow which melted in the spring 

 furnished the trees with sap — the snow being only "the drip- 

 ping oil " of the celestial bear slain by the hunters in the win- 

 ter-time. 



Another evidence of the antiquity of their sugar-making is 

 in their ancient religious festivals instituted to the Maple, as 

 the Maple Dance, and the sugar festival in the spring, when 

 the old sugar and the new are mingled by the medicine-man 

 and the aid of the Great Spirit is invoked. Such a conclusion 

 is fully sanctioned by A. de Candolle, who says : " Rien ne 

 montre mieux l'antiquite et la ge'ne'ralite', que cette fusion 

 intime avec les usages religieux d'anciens habitants."* 



By way of word illustration, it is stated that the Ojibwa word 

 for maple-sugar is " Zeence-zee-bah-quod," which is pronounced 

 Sen-se-pah-qwot. Derivation : Zeence-zee, drawn from ; bah- 

 quod, wood or stick, referring to the sap drawn from the tree. 



Enin-ah-tig weesh-ko-bun is also employed. Derivation : 

 Enin, man ; ah-tig, wood or stick [tree] ; weesh-ko-bun, sugar 

 — hence, man-stick-sugar. 



"The etymology here," Mr. Henshaw states, "contains a 

 metaphorical reference to the manner in which the sap flows 

 from the tree, as curious as suggestive." 



The name so well accords with the natural growth and poly- 

 synthetical character of Indian words, and is so paralleled by 

 names of water-falls in foreign countries and languages that 

 it carries in itself the evidence of its origin. 



The far-extended Algonquians have corresponding names 

 whose origin seems to have been similarly derived, as Hard 

 Maple, An-in-a-tik ; Sugar, Si-si-pak-wat ; Maple-sugar, An- 

 in-a-tik si-si-pak-wat. 



The Ojibwa form for Sugar Maple, Nin-au-tik, seems with- 

 out doubt to be the same as Enin-ah-tig, "e" being dropped for 

 easy pronunciation, and to mean not, as Tanner suggests, 

 "our tree," but simply, Enin, man ; ah-tig, tree, stick; hence 

 Nin-au-tik, man-tree, again. 



No doubt, as Mr. Henshaw suggests is probable, " Tanner's 

 etymology is faulty " in this case. The only other etymology 

 which Mr. Chamberlain considers of any weight here is that 

 of Cuoq, who explains in-in-a-tik as meaning " the tree" par 

 excellence. Yet in this he defers quite too much to Cuoq's 

 authority, and has to regret that the doing so " seems to cast 

 little light on the real question." 



If Mr. Chamberlain, to use his own language, " would make 

 the word in question signify 'man-tree,' either from a concep- 

 tion of the tree as man-like (with respect to the sap probably) 

 or from some myth such as that noted above," it seems as if 

 his path here would be full of light. With all respect for the 

 lexicography of Cuoq, the question here is one in which con- 

 siderations of anthropology are paramount to those of a 

 doubtful etymology. 



But whatever may be obscure or uncertain in minor details 

 of the various words of the many divisions of the Indian race, 

 still, as a rule, in the long list of names for the Maple-tree, 

 Sugar-tree, maple-sugar and for sugar per se, not a name (with 

 a single exception) as yet is found which resembles, or has re- 

 lation to, any European name for sugar. The single exception 

 in the case of the Cree language establishes the general rule, 

 from the fact that it is to white (French) sugar only that they 

 give a special name — So-kaw — evidently their adoption into 

 their own tongue of the French word Su-cre by its nearest 

 kindred sound. 



To place the subject more clearly before the eye of the 

 reader, a few of the names in question taken from the 

 Anthropologist, and as used by different families or tribes, are 

 here annexed : 



Indians. 



Ontarios 



Two Moun- 

 tains 



Another 

 settlement 



In Cree 



Ojibwa 



Omaha and 

 Ponka. . . . 



Winnebago. 



Tuscarora . 



Hard Maple. 



Sugar. 



Maple-Sugar. 



An-in-a-tik. 



Man-tree. 

 In-in-a-tik. 



Man-tree. 



Nin-a-tik. 



Man-tree. 



Sisi-bask-wat-at-tik. 



Maple-tree. 



Si-si-pak-wat. 

 Sin zi-pak-wat. 

 Sinz-hab-ak-ivat . 

 Sis-i-bask-uuat. 



Ja-ni-Jii. 

 Wood — sap — tree. 



Jan-ni. 



Wood — sap. 



Ta-ni-ju ra 



Tree-water, or rain. 



U-ren na-kri. 



Tree — sap. 



An-in-a-tik Si-si-pak-wat. 

 Man — tree — sugar. 



Sin -zi-pak-ivai. 



Nin-a-tik Sinz-hab ak-ivat 

 Man — tree — sugar. 



Sis-i-ba sk-wat. 



Zeence-zce-bah-qjtod, 

 pronounced 

 Sense-pah -qivot. 

 Expressed from tree. 



* L'Origine des Plantes cultivees,.p. 315. Paris, 1883. 



