something which stands for 'lake' or 'pond.' The Indians had not our
fashion of speech which permits Hudson's River to be called 'the
Hudson,' drops the word 'lake' from 'Champlain' or 'Erie,' and makes
"the Alleghanies" a geographical name. This difference must not be
lost sight of, in analysis or translation. _Agawam_ or _Auguan_ (a
name given to several localities in New England where there are low
flat meadows or marshes,) cannot be the equivalent of the Abnaki
_ag[oo]a[n]n_, which means 'a smoke-dried fish,'[96]--though
_ag[oo]a[n]na-ki_ or something like it (if such a name should be
found), might mean 'smoked-fish place.' _Chickahominy_ does not stand
for 'great corn,' nor _Pawcatuck_ for 'much or many deer;'[97] because
neither 'corn' nor 'deer' designates _place_ or implies fixed
location, and therefore neither can be made the ground-word of a
place-name. _Androscoggin_ or _Amoscoggin_ is not from the Abnaki
'_amaskohegan_, fish-spearing,'[98] for a similar reason (and
moreover, because the termination _-h[=e]gan_ denotes always an
_instrument_, never an _action_ or a _place_; it may belong to 'a
fish-spear,' but not to 'fish spearing' nor to the locality 'where
fish are speared.')

[Footnote 96: It was so interpreted in the Historical Magazine for
May, 1865 (p. 90).]

[Footnote 97: Ibid. To this interpretation of _Pawcatuck_ there is the
more obvious objection that a prefix signifying 'much or many' should
be followed not by _ahtuk_ or _attuk_, 'a deer,' but by the plural
_ahtukquog_.]

[Footnote 98: Etymological Vocabulary of Geographical Names, appended
to the last edition of Webster's Dictionary (1864). It may be proper