Del. _namai-s_) is restricted by northern and western tribes to a
single species, the sturgeon (Chip. _namai´_,) as _the_ fish, par
excellence. _Attuk_, in Massachusetts was the common fallow-deer,--in
Canada and the north-west the caribou or reindeer. The Abnaki Indian
called his _dog_ (_atié_) by a name which the Chippewa gives his
_horse_ (_oti-un_; _n'di_, my horse).[100] The most common
noun-generic of river names in New England (_-tuk_, 'tidal river')
occurs rarely in those of Pennsylvania and Virginia, where it is
replaced by _-hanne_ ('rapid stream'), and is unknown to western
Algonkin tribes whose streams are undisturbed by tides. The analysis
of a geographical name must be sought in the language spoken by the
name-givers. The correct translation of a Connecticut or Narragansett
name is not likely to be attained by searching for its several
components in a Chippewa vocabulary; or of the name of a locality near
Hudson's River, by deriving its prefix from an Abnaki adverb and its
ground-word from a Chippewa participle,--as was actually done in a
recently published list of Indian names.

[Footnote 100: Both words have the same meaning,--that of 'a domestic
animal,' or literally, 'animate property;' 'he who _belongs_ to
me.']




INDIAN NAMES.


Abagadusset, Abequaduset, 39