LIBRARY 0FC0N6RESS. 
 
 F 2> V o, , „ 
 
 Chiip. Copyright No.. 
 
 ShelU_M-Sa 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
FROM PHOTO. 
 
 MSHVILLE, TENN., 
 
 JUNE, 1897. 
 
 MARTIN V. MOORE. 
 
^ 3tr a: THE RHYME OF THE 
 SOUTHERN RIVERS. ^ ^ ^ 
 
 WITH NOTES HISTORICAL, TRADITIONAL, 
 GEOGRAPHICAL, ETYMOLOGICAL, ETC. 
 a; a; for the use of teachers, schools, 
 
 AND GENERAL READERS. a: A: A) a: 
 
 BY MARTIN V. MOORE, 
 
 Author of ' ' Recollections of a Grey Jacket; " " Glimpses of Many Lands , 
 ' ' Plantation Philosophy, or Idle Hours in a Darkey Cabin ; ' ' 
 " 77?^ Christianity of the First Napoleon;'' etc. 
 
 PUBLISHING HOUSE M. E. CHURCH, SOUTH, 
 Barbee & Smith, Agents, a Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 (o^-b'^ 
 
 10 \J 
 
T&io 
 
 2124 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S97, 
 
 By Martin V. Moore, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 

 THIS BOOK IS AFFECTION A TBLY DEDICA TED 
 
 by the author 
 
 TO THE GENIUS AND LOVE OF 
 
 HIS DEVOTED WIFE, 
 
 who, as 
 
 "BETSY HAMILTON," 
 
 has entered the Temple of Fame through the 
 
 Hearts of Millions 
 made happy by her Inimitable Literary Art. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Rhyme of the Southern Rivers, without 
 Note or Introductory, was originally published in Ha?-- 
 per's Magazine in February, 1883. As printed there, 
 the Verses were imperfect and defective in some fea- 
 tures considered essential. The aim of the author was 
 to present in the Rhyme the correct name of every 
 stream locally known as a " river " in the Southern 
 states named. It was the purpose to give also, by 
 means of the measure in the verse, the correct pronun- 
 ciations of the respective appellations. The general 
 directions and the chief characteristics of some of the 
 waters were also introduced in the Verse. 
 
 Since the date of the original publication, in exten- 
 sive personal travels all over the South, I have learned 
 the further fact that there were also omissions of im- 
 portant character in the matter appearing in the maga- 
 zine. The present writing embraces — with possibly a 
 few minor exceptions — the names of every watercourse 
 in the respective Southern states locally called " river." 
 It includes also about fifty names which do not appear 
 on the ordinary maps of the country. The pronuncia- 
 tions indicated in the revised forms agree substantially 
 with the local expressions of the words. 
 
 The facts given in the Notes have been obtained 
 after many years of careful research and inquiry. Dur- 
 ing the period covered by the labor on the work, I have 
 not only visited in person every section of the Amer- 
 
6 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 ican Union, going from ocean to ocean, and from 
 gulf to lakes, gathering material bearing upon the 
 native and prehistoric nomenclature of the continent, 
 gaining in the mean time all the information now pos- 
 sible from the aborigines, the " red men " of the West, 
 and elsewhere ; but I have consulted every recognized 
 authority to be found in the public libraries of Wash- 
 ington and other great cities. 
 
 The Notes are intended to throw some light upon 
 the primitive tongue of the continent, and especially 
 as it relates to the prehistoric names of the rivers of 
 America. Thorough investigation of the subject has 
 revealed the fact that the great majority of the original 
 names of our waters now regarded as " Indian " ap- 
 pellations were not the coinage of the rude savages 
 found here in the discoveries of the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. The words appear to be survivals 
 from a remote period. They appear also to belong 
 distinctly to the tongue of the primitive peoples who 
 first colonized the continent in the prehistoric civiliza- 
 tion known to have once existed here, just as the riv- 
 er names of the Old World are the coinage mainly of 
 the earliest colonists in the respective regions. The 
 river nomenclature of the aborigines of America holds 
 but little in common with the crude dialects of the mod- 
 ern natives. While the tongue of the historic In- 
 dian shows many hundreds of dialects without a well- 
 defined maternity or unity, the river nomenclature of 
 the primitive colonists — from one end of the continent 
 to the other — quite distinctly reveals a common ances- 
 try. And what is still more noteworthy is the further 
 fact that this ancestry appears to have been coeval with 
 various tongues of antiquity in the Old World. In- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 numerable striking likenesses exist in the prehistoric 
 river names of America and those of prehistoric Eu- 
 rope and Asia. There is, indeed, a very long list of 
 words that are recognized as native " Indian," of 
 American birth, but w^hich have accurate prototypes, 
 and in identical connections, in the ancient languages of 
 the Old World. Scores of the prehistoric river names 
 of both Europe and Asia are reproduced in the prehis- 
 toric " Indian " appellations of America with such ex- 
 actness and startling similitude every way as to forbid 
 the acceptance of any theory which places the results 
 in the domain of accidency. Some of the facts will be 
 briefly referred to in the Notes of this work. The 
 subject, however, is too profound and vast for full 
 treatment in so unpretentious a volume as this is de- 
 signed to be. " The gentle reader " who prefers to read 
 only the Rhyme can quite easily skip the references 
 to these Notes, while those who have no use for the 
 mere verses may find much to interest and instruct in 
 the prose of the appendages. 
 
 While I have endeavored to make the Verse attract- 
 ive and entertaining, the obvious difiiculties surround- 
 ing the subject should afford some shield in the matter 
 of criticism. The work should not be judged by the 
 usual canons of the art poetic. As the Notes are 
 designed to represent historic truth in one special 
 light, these — far above the Verse— have consumed my 
 purpose and time most liberally in the writing. But it 
 is through both Verse and Notes that I hope interest- 
 ing and valuable results are to come to the reader. 
 
 The work is not offered to the public in any spirit of 
 sectionalism; it is not the outgrowth of any mere sec- 
 tional zeal or pride. Primarily, the idea of the book 
 
8 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 was of accidental parentage. In geographical studies, 
 and in crossing numerous waters of the continent, 
 years ago, I was impressed not only by the musical syl- 
 labication of the old " Indian " names ; but there were 
 constantly recurring terms or features in the native 
 words which, in their common purposes, naturally sug- 
 gested the common origin. This led to an investiga- 
 tion of the history of the words — an investigation 
 which, as I have just observed, I have pursued with 
 every possible advantage that could be obtained. 
 While the work is purely original in its conception, as 
 well as unique in its relation to American lore, I have 
 not been alone in my theories in connection with the 
 subject. One hundred years ago, nearly, that profound 
 scholar and student Thomas Jefferson, in his book 
 " Notes on Virginia," said : "A study of the native 
 appellations of the aborigines of America will afford 
 the best methods of arriving at the origin of that por- 
 tion of the human race." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's conclusions give the true key-note in 
 the solution of one of the difficult problems connected 
 with prehistoric America. The efforts of this volume 
 can give but a glimpse of the subject. When we look 
 for the " native appellations of the aborigines," we 
 find them mainly, if not solely, in the ancient names of 
 the waters of the continent. This statement is made in 
 the conviction that analogous laws apply to the history 
 of the human tongue in every part of the world alike. 
 Most assuredly the very oldest evidences of the art and 
 science of word-coinage come to us in river names. 
 The first illustrations of this truth are seen in the 
 names of the garden of Eden. These words still sur- 
 vive, while all other testimonials of the Adamic tongue 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 9 
 
 have disappeared forever save as they were absorbed 
 in the Biblical nomenclature and in the " confused " 
 language of the post-Babel dispersion. The history of 
 River Names shows that titles once properly applied to 
 a water rarely ever perish. The river, or the water, 
 has in all ages of the world been the boundary-line be- 
 tween nation and nation, and between man and man. 
 The title at once became among the nations of antiquity 
 a common heritage, a feature of the landmark as it 
 were, which was to be inviolate — never to be removed. 
 Hence the survival of the old names, until modern 
 times, when in the vandalisms of civilized nations, 
 many of the old words have been supplanted in order 
 to give place to the " honorary " title. Many of the 
 ancient appellations of America have been thus sup- 
 planted ; but among those that remain there are hun- 
 dreds which evidently represent the tongue of the first 
 colonists w ho coined and applied the words to the vari- 
 ous vs^aters of the continent. 
 
 A very large and valuable collection of the old and 
 native names of America comes originally from the 
 Southern states. This fact is due to several causes. In 
 the first place, the rivers here are very numerous — more 
 so than in any other portion of the continent. I think 
 I may safely say that three of the Southern states herein 
 referred to contain more streams having the prehistoric 
 name still known than any other similar area in the 
 known world. Then, again, there are evidences of more 
 thorough or perfect preservation of the aboriginal title 
 than is seen elsewhere. This section of country appears 
 to have been more thoroughly explored by thoughtful, 
 unimaginative persons, whose journals of travel show 
 clearly the native words, than were other portions. Nor 
 
10 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 were the ancient titles here subjected to that system of 
 mutilation and suppression which has robbed our lan- 
 guage of so many heritages of the aboriginal tongue of 
 the new world. A few of the old native words come to 
 us in the habiliments of poetic fancies. Many doubtless 
 are lost forever. But the great majority of the primi- 
 tive names of the waters of the South still survive in 
 garbs which indicate substantially their once pure and 
 native expressions. Many of the words now have 
 forms that are known to be simply conjectural, and 
 forms given without regard to any laws of uniformity 
 in writing syllabic sounds. 
 
 In view of all these facts, this work is committed to 
 the public not only as a study in geography and hy- 
 drography, but also as a contribution to philological 
 science as this relates to the history of the aboriginal 
 civilized man of America. Martin V. Moore. 
 
 Auburn, Ala. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Title-Page / 
 
 Dedication 3 
 
 Introductory 5 
 
 Where and How — Proem 13 
 
 The Rivers of Virginia 15 
 
 Notes on, Page 17. 
 
 The Rivers of West Virginia 23 
 
 Notes on, Page 24. 
 
 The Rivers of North Carolina 26 
 
 Notes on, Page 29. 
 
 The Rivers of South Carolina 39 
 
 Notes on. Page 41. 
 
 The Rivers of Georgia 47 
 
 Notes on, page 49. 
 
 The Rivers of Florida 53 
 
 Notes on. Page 57. 
 
 The Rivers of Alabama 61 
 
 Notes on. Page 63. 
 
 The Rivers of Mississippi 67 
 
 Notes on. Page 69. 
 
 The Rivers of Louisiana 72 
 
 Notes on. Page 74. 
 
 The Rivers of Texas 78 
 
 Notes on. Page Si. 
 
 The Rivers of Tennessee 84 
 
 Notes on. Page S7. 
 
 The River Name : Its Origin and History 96 
 
WHERE AND HOW. 
 
 Where are all the rhythmic rivers of our sunny 
 
 Southern clime, 
 Rivers named in Indian legend or in tongue of later 
 
 time ; — 
 Rivers quaint, or rivers mighty, rivers grand, or rivers 
 
 w^ee ; — 
 From the trickling o'er the pebbles, to the sound or 
 gulf or sea? 
 
 How do all their w^aters flow. 
 From their fountains gushing, through the mountains 
 rushing 
 
 Past the mosses and the ferns ; 
 Then, with tireless toil and turns. 
 Dashing deftly, splashing swiftly ; 
 Over cascades curling, in the pastures purling ; — 
 Round through rugged rocky caverns whirling ; 
 Over ledges lightly leaping, through the valleys softly 
 sweeping 
 
 Gracefully and slow ; — 
 By the busy cities creeping, in the murky marshes 
 sleeping 
 
 Peacefully, dreamily and low ; — 
 How through forest and the bayou wending. 
 With the Ocean and its myriads blending ; — 
 From the mosses and the ferns. 
 How with ceaseless, tireless toil and turns 
 Then do all these rivers flow 
 To their sea-home 
 With the sea- foam? 
 Where are heard their noisy numbers? 
 Where are kept their restless slumbers? — 
 
 =— Listen how these rivers go. 
 
Note. — The names of rivers are printed in Capitals. The 
 figures given elsewhere refer to corresponding numbers in the 
 Notes accompanying. Correct pronunciations are indicated by 
 the measure of the verse. 
 
THE RIVERS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Old Virginia north and eastward has Potomac bhie 
 
 and w^ide ; 
 Northw^ard lovely Shenandoah through the Valley 
 
 pours her tide. 
 Southward sweep the dark Black Water, deep 
 
 Meherrin, Nottoway. 
 Eastward ripples Rappahannock, spreading into 
 
 placid bay, 
 With a Bach and York historic, and the slow Pian- 
 
 katank. 
 Here are Hazel, and Pamunkey with its dank and 
 
 slippery bank. 
 Quaint Occoquan and Opequan, and Machodac, 
 
 Yeocomico, 
 Robertson and Nassowaddock, Rock Fish and 
 
 the Buffalo. 
 Here New, Holston, Clinch, and Powell wind in 
 
 meadows of the west ; 
 Mingling in their merry music comes the welcomed 
 
 mountain Guest. 
 Here Elizabeth comes kissing Nansamond and 
 
 sisters Anna, 
 Rapidan and Mattipony, and the rollicking Riv- 
 
 ANNA. 
 
16 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Pedler's here with Slate and Hardware ; and, 
 still playing thus on names, 
 
 Let's go down the Jackson, finding green Cow Pas- 
 ture in the James ; 
 
 Chickahominy there meeting Appomattox with 
 their fames. 
 
 Finding North and South united ; here with sighing 
 Tye they blend. 
 
 PiNEY, WiLEis from its willows, and Calf Pasture 
 all here wend. 
 
 Here in Roanoke gather Stanton, Dan, and moun- 
 tainbright Black Water, 
 
 Banister and Smith and Mayo and Hycootee, 
 Pig and Otter. — 
 
 Noble rivers ! noble country ! noble peoples ! No- 
 bler ones 
 
 Ne'er hath known the darkening shadows nor the light 
 of circling suns ! 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Potomac I 
 
 Shenandoah 2 
 
 Rappahannock 3 
 
 Bach 4 
 
 Piankatank 5 
 
 Occoquan 6 
 
 Robertson 3 
 
 Holston 151 
 
 Clinch 167 
 
 See Note 
 
 Anna 7 
 
 Rapidan 3, 12 
 
 Mattipony S 
 
 James 9 
 
 Tye 10 
 
 Roanoke 11 
 
 Dan 12 
 
 Hycootee 13 
 
 1. Potomac. This word is variously written in old chroni- 
 cles. It is found as Patowmek, Patomeka, Potomaque, and 
 otherwise similarly. Many of the native Indian names now 
 written with the final in "ac," "oc," " ock," and " uck " had 
 originally an ending in a vowel sound similar to that heard in 
 the pronunciation of " ee " or "A." As the final vowel sound 
 was supposed by our forefathers to be merely the superfluous 
 guttural of the savage tongue, it was in most instances sup- 
 pressed or eliminated in the English writings of the words. 
 The word Potomac shows striking analogy to the Greek term 
 for river written fotamos. This shows origin in the Sanskrit 
 word for water, " Pa," and the Hebrew term for deep, "Te-ma," 
 abbreviated from Te-homa. There are a number of the Indian 
 names having prototypes in the Greek. See notes 45 and 103. 
 
 2. Shenandoah. This is really the Shannon - Doah, or 
 Shannon - Toah, the final term " Toah " a well-known Indian 
 word for river. The word has three forms in different dialects : 
 It is found as " Taquah," as " Toah," and more briefly as " Tau." * 
 The writing as "Ta-ho" is precisely the same original word. 
 It shows origin in the germ-words " Te " and " owa," or "au," 
 water, its literal significance that of deep water.| All the differ- 
 ent forms are found in the names of deep waters in various parts 
 of the world. As Ta-ho, it is the native name of a deep lake in 
 California. In Spain there is a deep river having the prehistoric 
 
 * See Note 20 for " Tau," f See paragraph 4, page 99, for " Te." 
 
 2 
 
18 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 title Ta-ho, the word appearing in the modern Spanish idiom 
 as Tagus. In China the writing in English letters is Tai. The 
 oldest form of the word is in the Hebrew in the writing Toah, 
 in the name of a water, Neph-Toah. A term for water simply 
 is found in many languages in the English writings " Owa," 
 '* Oah," " Owee," "Au-wa," and "A-haw." The old Teutonic 
 form of the word is "A-wa," or in the Roman idiom "A-qua." 
 This, in a composite with the root-word for the deep " Te," gives 
 the form of the term as " Taqua " seen in the native names of 
 many of the deep waters of America. Other forms of this 
 word will be referred to in Note 6i. The term " Shannon " in 
 the Virginia name appears to be of more modern origin. It 
 corresponds to the old Irish word Shannon, the name of a river 
 in Ireland. Another old German word is reproduced in the 
 name Bach. Note 4. 
 
 3. Rappahannock. The term "Hannock" is found in an- 
 other native name of Virginia, Tappa-hannock. Tappahannock 
 is supposed to have been the old Indian appellation of the 
 river now known as the Robertson. " Hannock," as a native 
 term for river, was found in the dialects of both Virginia and 
 California. The term " Rappa," seen also in the name Rappa- 
 dan, or Rapi-dan, is supposed to be identical with the word 
 seen as ripa in the Latin, the equivalent of riva. The term 
 " Tappa" in the name Tappahannock, is referred to more fully 
 in Note 116. 
 
 4. Bach. This is given as a native Indian appellation. It 
 is curious that both Bach and Beck, seen in the aboriginal 
 names of America, are also ancient Teutonic words for stream, 
 the synonyms of brouk, or English brook. The Indian words 
 are frequently seen in the writings Bog, Bogue, Boga, or 
 Pogue, and Boca, these given by our authorities as native terms 
 for stream or pond of water. See Notes 40 and 102. 
 
 5. PiANKATANK. Old writings give this name as Pyanke- 
 tanke, with the final vowel sounded. The suffix "Tanka " or 
 "Tanga" is a term found in the prehistoric names of waters in 
 many parts of the world. An ancient Oriental form of the 
 word as " Tong-ee " (written from the Turkish in English letters 
 as Tengheez) is a term for lake. Mr. Stanley says that Tanga- 
 ni-ka in the Central African dialects denotes great lake. We 
 find the term in the North Carolina name Pasquo-tank, and in 
 
THE RIVERS OF VIRGINIA. 19 
 
 the Louisiana name Tang-apahaw. A brief form of the term 
 is in our English word Tank, which denotes a deep enclosure 
 of water. The remote origin of the term lies in a composite 
 of the germ-word "Te," the deep, and the Oriental term for 
 fountain, "Ain," in the strong nasal (French and Oriental) sound 
 as "Ang" or *' Ong," a sound heard also in the guttural form 
 of the w ord as Kanga and Ganga and Congo. See Note 47. 
 
 6. OccoQUAN. The aboriginal river nomenclature of 
 America contains a term that has been variously rendered in 
 our modern writings in such conjectural expressions as " Occo," 
 "Aqua," "Auga," "Oga," "Ogee," " Uga," " Ouga," " Uckee," 
 and otherwise similarly. The term is not confined to any par- 
 ticular section of the continent, nor to particular dialects of the 
 natives. It has been found in widely separated regions, and in 
 old dialects that had no known connections. In the Sioux, the 
 term is given by authorities in the writing as "Au-gee," a word 
 for river. As " Uckee," it is a Chickasaw term for water. In 
 the sibilant form, as " Su-cah " and " Shoo-kah," it is found as a 
 term for water and river in the dialects of both Virginia and 
 California. See ako Note 43. In the ancient Oneida tongue 
 of New York, the word for w^ater was written in English 
 Oghua-canno. This expression may be regarded as precisely 
 the same word which is seen in the writing of the Virginia 
 name Occoquan, with its final vowel sound suppressed. An- 
 other native name in which the initial term " Occo " appears, 
 and where its origin can be more clearly traced, is in the Geor- 
 gia and Carolina appellation Occonee, in Note 25. The term 
 appears as a parallel with similar words denoting water or 
 river, and given in the English transcripts as " Ogha," from the 
 Sanskrit; as "Accho," from the Hebrew; " Hugra," from the 
 Greek; and as "Aqua," in the Latin, and "Acha," in the Celtic. 
 These words, all appearing to have a common origin, are found 
 in different forms reproduced in the native Indian names of 
 America. 
 
 7. Anna. This name does not owe its origin to that of the 
 English Queen Anna, as has been supposed by many persons. 
 It is a native Indian expression. It appears to be identical with 
 the Hebrew and Persian term "Au-na," to which I have referred 
 in the " River Name," paragraph 13. It is in various corruptions 
 in all parts of the American continent. It is found most fre- 
 
20 ■ SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 quentlj on the Atlantic coast, in such names as Riv-anna, Fluv- 
 anna, Susqueh-anna, Lacka-wauna. The form as '* Wau-nee," 
 seen in the Pennsylvania name given, and the Florida appellation 
 Suwannee, is in the South American name Cari-wauna. South 
 America has the name also in the corruption Una, there being 
 four rivers there with this name; one also named Una-Ri. In 
 Turkey the writing is both Una and in the aspirate as Hanna. 
 The aspirate form occurs also in the Spanish names Hain and 
 Haina. The Russian symbols expressing the word in that lan- 
 guage are rendered Yanna, lanna, or Jana, and also Ona or 
 Una, rivers of Russia. Mr. Stanley gives the form of the 
 word Yeon as the name of a Central African river. The old- 
 est form of the term comes to us in the Hebrew of two of the 
 names of the rivers of Eden, Pash-au-na (Pison of the Angli- 
 cism in the Scriptures), and Gah-auna, or Gihon. The latter is 
 seen in the French idiom as Guiana. Our Indian name Chey. 
 enne appears to be identically the same word, this also in the 
 French idiom. 
 
 8. Mattipony. This word gives the combined appellations 
 of four small streams known respectively as the Mat, the Tye, 
 the Po, and the Ny. 
 
 9. James. This title was in honor of the English King 
 James. Capt. John Smith, the early English explorer of Vir- 
 ginia, gives the nat'.ve name of the river as Powhat-anna, the 
 final term "Anna" referred to above in Note 7. The follow- 
 ing are other native Indian names of Virginia rivers referred 
 to in the journals of Capt. Smith and others; the identity 
 of the respective streams now not positively known: Occam, 
 Occobannock (bannock?), Namapona, Fluvanna. 
 
 10. Sighing Tye. A remarkable physical fact is here con- 
 nected with a historical occurrence. The North and South 
 Rivers unite near Appomattox. In the combined currents the 
 waters of the sighing Tye mingle. A " tie," one freighted with 
 an immeasurable sadness, binds the two sections of our common 
 country, North and South, and taking in an event at Appo- 
 mattox, in 1865. Chickahominy and Appomattox are united in 
 fame since then. Capt. John Smith writes the latter name 
 Apamatuck. The term "Appa " or "Ap-aa " is known to have 
 been used as a word for water or river in the native dialects of 
 the continent. It remains yet in the tongue of the aborigines of 
 
THE RP/ERS OF VIRGINIA. 21 
 
 the Salt Lake basin as a term for water. Many of the old di- 
 alects had it in the corruptions " Ippe," " Epe," " Sepe," '* Sippe," 
 as well as in the modern writings in " Upa," " Oupa," and 
 *'Oppa." In the latter form it is seen in the Virginia name 
 Oppe-quan, and the Louisiana name Opalousa (Opelousas of 
 the French writing). Another reference to this ancient San- 
 skrit term Ap-aa, water, is seen in the " River Name," para- 
 graph 12, and also Note 78. The term " Chicka," seen in the 
 name of the Chickahominy , is referred to more fully in Note 164. 
 The final in this name, " Hominy," is a native Indian word. It 
 is found also as the appellation of a stream in North Carolina a 
 tributary of the French Broad, the writing " Hominy." The 
 word appears to be simply an aspirate form of the Hebrew name 
 of one of the Syrian rivers, Aa-ma-na, or Ha-ma-na, the Abana 
 of the Arabic. As Amana, the word is seen also in the name 
 of a river in South America. 
 
 11. Roanoke. This is not the true form of the native name. 
 This modern expression has been evolved from the apparently 
 doubtful writings of different early explorers who gave the 
 word as Rowinoka, Roranoke, Owanoga, Orinoka, Oranoque, 
 and otherwise similarly, in efforts to record the savage tongue. 
 The word as Oronoko still survives in the name of the famous 
 tobaccoes grown along the stream. The true prehistoric title 
 was doubtless Orien-Ogha, or Orien-Aqua. The word appears 
 to have been identical in origin with one seen as the native 
 name of a river in South America, the word now Avritten Ori- 
 noco. Identical phj'sical facts are seen in connection with the 
 two rivers: they both flow eastwardly for hundred of miles. 
 The term " Orien " is an ancient word found in the languages 
 of the Old World, and referring to the East, or to the direction 
 of the sunrise. When the current of the Roanoke River changed 
 its course, as it does in entering North Carolina, the natives no 
 longer called it by the name " Orin-oka," or " Oronoko," but it 
 was known as Mora-Tocka or the Mora-Taqua, the deep wa- 
 ters of the stream indicated by the term " Taqua," this referred 
 to more fully in Note 61. 
 
 12. Dan is a true Indian name. The word is seen in another 
 Virginia appellation, the writing Rapi-Dan. Other forms of 
 the original word are seen in such native names as Catoc-tan, 
 Yuca-tan. The history of the word has been referred to in 
 
22 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 paragraph 14, the "River Name." Dan is one of the oldest 
 river names known, it being conspicuous in Biblical annals, and 
 also in the river nomenclature of ancient Europe, where it is seen 
 as " Dan," " Don," " Doon," " Dun," and otherwise. The word is 
 in the composite Dan-ube, this appellation appearing in the dif- 
 ferent European idioms as Don-au, Duna, Tanai, etc., the final 
 syllables showing the identity of the terms for water in " Uba," 
 "Au," and "Ai." The Latin form of the European name as 
 Dan-uwa, or Danuvius, shows the German term for water writ- 
 ten atva or aha. 
 
 13. HicooTEE. The term " Cootee " is seen in a number of 
 the river names of America. It is doubtless but a guttural form 
 of the word for water or river as " Uda," referred to in Note 45. 
 The term " Hi" is a superfluous aspirate expression, seen as the 
 initial in such Indian names as Hiawassie, Hiawathie. It is 
 seen also as a superfluous feature in the Edenic river name 
 Hi-Dekel. 
 
THE RIVERS OF WEST VIRGINIA. 
 
 Daughter of the Old Dominion ! From her hills and 
 mountain chains, 
 
 Swiftly gulfward pour her waters, through her pas- 
 tures, vales, and plains. 
 
 Northward rush Monongahela, green Buchanan, 
 and the Cheat ; 
 
 In Ohio two Kanaw^has, Guyandotte, and Sandy 
 meet 
 
 PiNEY, Elk, East, Bi.uestone, Tug, and Green- 
 brier, Hughes, Birch, and Holly, 
 
 Cacapan, Yeo-ogha-na, Coal, Pocataligo, and 
 Gauley. — 
 
 Westward roaring, northward pouring, sparkling all 
 in meadows gay ; 
 
 Wandering, like an exile ever, here they scamper, 
 plash, and play ; 
 
 Ne'er returnino- for her orreetins" — from the mother 
 run away. 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF WEST VIRGINIA 
 
 See Note 
 
 Monongahela 14 
 
 Kanawha 15 
 
 Guyandotte 36 
 
 Yeo-ogha-na 16 
 
 See Xot3 
 
 Pocataligo 17 
 
 Gauley 18 
 
 "Run away" 19 
 
 Ohio A 
 
 14. Monongahela. Tradition sajs this native name means 
 •'river v^^ith falling-in banks." Central Africa has a river 
 named Monongha. There are many identities in the native 
 names of America and Africa. South Carolina has a Wando; 
 Africa has a Lo- Wando — the prefix "Lo" a term for river 
 in the African dialects. Other likenesses will be referred to in 
 future notes. The term "hala" in the West Virginia name is 
 duplicated in the suffix of the North Carolina name, Nanta- 
 hala. 
 
 15. Kanawha, written also Kenawha. The word is said to 
 denote the "river of the great woods or great canes." The 
 term " Ken," or " Kan," or " Can," and Canna" is found in the 
 prehistoric names of waters in all parts of the world. The old- 
 est form of the word is in the Hebrew, where, as " Canae " or 
 "Kenna" of the English writing, it is given as the ancient 
 name of a river whose modern appellation signifies "the 
 reedv," and hence our word "cane." The term is found in the 
 native names of many American waters whose banks or shores 
 have been noted for their extensive cane-brakes. In nearly 
 every instance each one of the old appellations contains a well- 
 known term for water or river. We have seen in Note 2 that 
 "Aw-ha" is an ancient term for water. 
 
 16. Yeo-ogha-na. This word is usually written in the gro- 
 tesque orthography, Yough-oigh-e-ney. The suffix in the same 
 is simply Occo-na. See Note 25. The term "Yeo" or "Ya" is 
 the ancient word referred to in the " River Name, paragraph 2. 
 
 17. PocATALiGO. See Note 53. 
 
 18. Gauley. This native American name is found also in 
 many parts of the world. It is the same expression seen as the 
 final in such names as Eaugallie, Ocala, Oghallah, etc. The 
 
THE RIVERS OE WEST VIRGINIA. 25 
 
 names Gaul, Galilee, and Wales all have the same remote ori- 
 gin, doubtless, as this American word. The most remote form 
 of the original expression is seen in the Hebrew of the Edenic 
 river name, De-Kau li, the Biblical Hiddekel, the Oriental Te- 
 gari or Tigris. 
 
 19. The rivers of West Virginia all run in an opposite direc- 
 tion from those of the mother commonwealth. 
 
 36. See forward, Note 36, for the term " Wje" or *' Guy," as 
 it appears here in Gujandotte. 
 
 A. The word Ohio appears to be simply a contraction or 
 a corruption of a native name found in the journals of Colum- 
 bus as Bohia — the name now written Bahia. The term "Hia" 
 is seen in Hiawassie. 
 
THE RIVERS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Carolina ! land of waters ! Here the strangest rivers 
 
 are : 
 Arrarat and Alligator, and the famous stream of 
 
 Tar! 
 Even Folly here is fleeing as a river to the sea ; 
 Here are rivers Flat and Little as the waters well 
 
 can be. 
 Broad and Rocky here are rivers ; here are rivers 
 
 old but New, 
 Yellow Black and silver Green, White Oak, Bay, 
 
 and Reddie's too. 
 Westward whirling wild Watauga, leaping Elk, and 
 
 crooked Toe, 
 French Broad (this the Taqua-Osta), and the 
 
 wingless Pigeon's flow ; 
 Tennessee and swift Hiawassie, gulfward through 
 
 the mountains go. — 
 From Virginia come Meherrin and the noiseless 
 
 NOTTOW^AY ; 
 
 Out from Georgia little Notley dances northward 
 
 brisk and gay. 
 Where the Cherokees still linger is the nimble Nan- 
 
 TAHALA. 
 
THE RIVERS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 27 
 
 In the land of Junaluskee is the Vallee gurghng 
 
 gaily. 
 In the dismal swamp-land is the viny-festooned 
 
 SCUPPERNONG ; 
 
 In the cloud-home and the sky-land Swannanoah 
 
 skips along. 
 In the Smokies Catalouchie lisps and warbles out 
 
 in trills ; 
 And the constant song of Seneka the highland hol- 
 low fills. 
 In the pine-lands over marl-beds, ruby, wine-like 
 
 Cashie creeps ; 
 In the fern-lands, 'neath the balsams, Tuckeseegee 
 
 grandly leaps. 
 Here Occonee-Luftee laughs, and wee Cheeow^a 
 
 frets and clashes ; 
 'Mid her towering barriers Linville (Esseeola) 
 
 spurts and splashes ; 
 And the John in foaming eddies 'neath the rhododen- 
 drons dashes. 
 In the gray and yellow hill-lands, where tobaccoes 
 
 golden grow. 
 Tumbling Dan, and Mayo, Fisher, Mitchell, and 
 
 the End go. 
 Here is Yadkin (once Sapona), winding mid a 
 
 thousand hills ; 
 Here's Catawba, pearly pebbled, from a thousand 
 
 mountain rills. 
 Here's Uwharrie with its hurry ; here the lazy 
 
 Waccamaw ; 
 
28 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Here are M11.LS, and humming spindles on the busy 
 Deep and Haw. 
 
 Here in field and forest are the Lumber and Pee-Dee ; 
 
 And, borne upon her breast, Cohera, Colly, and the 
 Mingo wee. 
 
 Cape Fear's storied waters — and these only — go to 
 open sea. 
 
 Here Contentnea and Trent, pouring into Neuse, 
 find Okracoke ; 
 
 Where the herring comes in spring time, are Chow- 
 an and broad Roanoke ; 
 
 North and Newport, Yeopim, Pungo, Pasquo- 
 tank, and PiMLico, 
 
 And Perquimans, Pantiego, and Shallotte — 
 How they come and go ! 
 
 Dripping, gurgling, rushing, tumbling, creeping — so 
 they be — 
 
 Carolina's matchless rivers, from their fountains to the 
 sea. 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
 
 See Xote 
 
 Tar 20 
 
 Folly 21 
 
 Watauga 23 
 
 Elk 40 
 
 Toe 22 
 
 Taqua-osta 23 
 
 Pigeon 157 
 
 Tennessee 152 
 
 Hiawassie 153 
 
 Junaluskee 24 
 
 Swanannoah 3S 
 
 Seneka 49 
 
 Cashie 127 
 
 Occonee-Luftee 25 
 
 Cheeowa 26 
 
 Esseeola 27 
 
 Dan 12 
 
 See Xote 
 
 Yadkin 28 
 
 Catawba 29 
 
 Uwliarrie 30 
 
 Waccamaw 31 
 
 Haw 32 
 
 Pee-Dee ^^ 
 
 Colly 34 
 
 Cape Fear 35 
 
 Neuse 36 
 
 Okracoke 37 
 
 Chowan 3S 
 
 Roanoke 4 
 
 Yeopim 39 
 
 Pungo 40 
 
 Pasquotank 41 
 
 Pimlico 42 
 
 Pantiego 49 
 
 A number of the river names of North Carolina are referred to in the Notes 
 pertaining to other states; hence the irregularity in the citations. 
 
 20. Tar. The origin of this name has given rise to much 
 controversy. A few writers have supposed that it was but a 
 contraction of the native word written Torqueo, or Torpeo^ found 
 in the region through which this river flows. It is known, 
 however, that the true original name was not "Tar," but Tau. 
 There was in the dialects of the old aborigines a term for wa- 
 ter or river, and used in the appellative sense, but variously 
 written in the conjectural orthographies of our early English 
 and French colonists. Authorities give the form "Tau" as the 
 word in the Uchee dialect, while for the old Apache dialect 
 the writing is "Toah." A fuller form of the word is found in 
 the writings " Taqua " and " Toccoa," or " Toquoy," as it is 
 sometimes written. This is regarded as the Cherokee expres- 
 sion of the word, although it is found in localities outside of the 
 range of that nation or tribe. The oldest known form of the 
 word is, as we have already seen in Note 2, in the Hebrew, 
 where it occurs in the name of a water noted in Jewish history, 
 Neph-Toah. The word as " Tau " is the old Anglo-Saxon name 
 
30 SOUTHERN RfCERS. 
 
 of a river in England. The term is found in all its forms in the 
 prehistoric names of waters in America — both as initial and as 
 a final — as in Choc-taw, Eu-taw, Pisca-tauqua, etc. See Note 
 6i, As initial it is in the Georgia name Tau-aliga. Note 63. 
 
 21. Folly, usually known as " Lockwood's Folly." " Fau- 
 lt," or '" Fau-la," is a native Indian name, seen in the appella- 
 tion Eu-fau-la. The name as Fau-li is also in South Carolina, a 
 river appellation there. See Note 54. 
 
 22. Toe. This is an abbreviation of the true name Esta- 
 ToAH, the final term "Toah" referred to above in Notes 20 and 
 2. The term " Esta" is referred to in Note 154. Avery re- 
 markable fact in connection with the name Esta-toah is that it, 
 or a word closely resembling it, is found in a book of travels in 
 America, written and published in Venice before the discovery 
 by Columbus. The work purports to be an account of the 
 adventures of two Venetian sailors known as the Zeni Brothers. 
 It not only describes the high mountain plateau of Western 
 North Carolina near the source of the river named, but the 
 name of the country is given as " Estote." Remains of stone 
 houses described in the book are said to have been discovered 
 also in Arizona. Corruptions of the name Zeno survive in the 
 name Arizona, and in the title of an Indian tribe known as the 
 " Zunis " found in that territory. While the word " Zuni " 
 appears to be an exotic in American nomenclature, the term 
 " Zona," or '^ Sona," is found elsewhere on the continent in the 
 aboriginal appellations, and notably in the word Ama-sona, the 
 native name now written Amazon, of South America, with its 
 Hebrew "Am-aa" seen in so many of the aboriginal names of 
 this country. 
 
 23. Taqua-Osta. The true word was doubtless Taqua-Esta, 
 the final term found in a number of old Indian names not only 
 as "Esta," but also in the known corruptions as "Osta" and 
 " Ousta," as in the name written both Esti-nauli and Ousta- 
 naula. For further reference to the term " Esta," see Note 154; 
 and for " Taqua," see 2 and 61, Taqua-Osta is given as the 
 old Indian name of the French Broad, the word said to signify 
 " the racing river," a highly characteristic designation. The 
 river was called French Broad at a time when it ran westwardly 
 into what was known as the " French Possessions" of the 
 country, and to distinguish it from the neighboring " Broad," 
 
THH RIVERS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 31 
 
 which ran southwardly into the British territory of South Caro- 
 lina. The French Broad has a tributary with the Indian name 
 Hominy, referred to in Note lo, in connection with the name 
 Chicka-hominy, See Note 150. 
 
 24. A remnant of the old Cherokee Indians still remains in 
 Western North Carolina. Junal-uskee was a noted chieftain 
 of the tribe. The term " Uskee," seen also in the name Sand- 
 usky, appears to be simply a corruption of the ancestral word 
 whence come " uckee," " ouchee," ''ousa," and a long list of 
 similar writings having the significance of water or river, and 
 found in the native dialects of America, Europe, and China. 
 
 25. OccoNEE-LuFTEE. In the native dialects of America 
 there was a term for river which appears in the modern con- 
 jectural writings as " Occona," "Aquana," " Equona," " Ogh- 
 ana," or similarly. The old Choctaw form of the word is given 
 as " Okina " or " Oceana," the latter now the native name of a 
 waterfall on the river called Occonee, in Georgia. In South 
 America the writing appears as Ocono. The name is found 
 also in the Old World nomenclature. The very oldest form in 
 which the likeness to the word appears is in the Hebrew of the 
 Edenic name wliich bears the Anglicized version " Gihon," the 
 name of one of the rivers of Eden. The true full writing of 
 the Hebrew symbols in their English equivalents, with vowels 
 supplied, gives the Edenic word Aga-auna, or in pronunciation 
 Ock-a-au-na. This Hebrew name is evidently the remote an- 
 cestor of the Greek word Okeanos, the Latin equiva'ent Occ- 
 atius, our English word Ocean, and very nearly the pure Indian 
 name Oceana. It is well known that the majority of our so- 
 called Indian names are frequently in the mere conjectural 
 writings. Unfortunately they have passed into official geogra- 
 phy and history without any utiiformity of phonetic expression. 
 The words at times have been given the most grotesque guises, 
 as though the tongue of "the savage" must needs be given a 
 " savage " aspect. We see, for instance, the simple name " Ya- 
 og-ha-na," showing the native term now under consideration, 
 written on our maps and in histories as the Indian name 
 of streams in West Virginia and Pennsylvania, and expressed 
 in the letters Youghoigheney! "Luftee,"in the North Caro- 
 lina name, is a mere dialectic suffix, its significance unknown 
 to the writer. The term " Occo-na," or "Aqua-na," isetymo- 
 
32 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 logically the exact equivalent of Arabic Aba-na and Hebrew 
 Ama-na, a Biblical name written in symbols which have the 
 significance of waters which flow perpetually. (Isaiah, chap- 
 ter Iviii., verse ii.) 
 
 26. Cheeowee. Thit is a name which has been variously 
 written and variously pronounced. What appears to be the 
 same native word is seen in the Engli>h writings Keowa, Keeo- 
 wee, Kiowa, and Kiawah. The latter is pronounced in some 
 parts of South Carolina as Kee-wee and Kee-a-wah. I have 
 heard the native Indians of the Pacific Coast use the word as 
 " Ku-owa," it signifying with them " Big Water," Ku-owa is 
 the aboriginal name of the Pyramid Lake, in Nevada. Kiowa 
 is a name found also in the Russian. 
 
 27. EssEEOLA. This is given as the native name of the river 
 now called Linville. The term "Ola" is doubtless the same 
 as "Auli " or " Ou-li," the latter the Chinese form of the term, 
 a word in the Mantchu dialect for river, and seen in many of 
 the native names of American rivers. '* Essee " is the same as 
 "Assa." See Note 152. 
 
 28. Yadkin. "Yadkin" is not an aboriginal name, as has 
 been supposed. It is merely a corruption of the old English 
 appellation Atkin or Adkin. The stream was once known as 
 "Adkin's River," the title coming from the name of one of 
 the earliest European settlers on the river. "Yadkin" is a 
 fanciful coinage. The aboriginal name of the river is said to 
 have been Sapona or Sap-auna. See Note 7 for "Au-na." 
 The term "Sap" or " Sepe " is seen in the i ative name of 
 many American waters. "Sepe" a term for water or river, 
 the equivalent of " Ippe." See Note 10. 
 
 29. Catawba. This native name is written also by our au- 
 thorities Kataba. The same word occurs also in the Persian 
 geography. It contains the old Persian term for water writ- 
 ten in English "Au-ba," or briefly "Aub." The term is found 
 both in purity and corruption in the prehistoric names of many 
 different countries. France has the river names written both 
 Aube and Ubaye. In the English transcripts of the Russian, 
 we find the name as Obi or Uba, both forms reproduced in the 
 native names of the rivers of America. There is an Obi river 
 in Tennessee, the old writing Obey.* In the native names 
 
 *The name is now written also Obect See Note in Tennessee Rivers. 
 
THE RIVERS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 33 
 
 of waters in South America the writing is both Uba and Ubi. 
 The California writing is Yuba, this the name of two rivers 
 there. The California writing reproduces the orthography 
 given the term in its oldest forms in the Hebrew, where it ap- 
 pears in the word for river written Yu-ba-li. It is also seen in 
 the old Egyptian name of the Nile written Yu-ba-ri, this the 
 exact equivalent of the Hebrew term. It is supposed to be also 
 the remote original of the old Basque term for river written 
 Ibari, or Iberia of the modern versions. The form of the old 
 term as "Ab-aa," denoting water, is in the Arabic appellation 
 Aba-na, heretofore referred to in Note lo. The word is found 
 in all its Old World forms in the aboriginal names of waters 
 in America. The Latin corruption "uba," seen in the name 
 Dan-ube, is in numerous Indian names of rivers, — Cat-auba is 
 the river of the catfish. This variety of the finny tribe 
 abounds in the stream from its mouth to its sources. So nu- 
 merous are the fish in sections of the river that there is a belt 
 of country lying along its banks in North Cai'olina called the 
 "Catfish Township." I once asked an old Catawba Indian the 
 question, '-To which did the name Catawba first apply, to the 
 tribe or to the river?" His answer was swift and convin- 
 cing: ''Which xvas here first f' The old natives did not call 
 themselves "Catawbas." The original title of the tribe, the 
 one by which they designated their nation, was the Ushe- 
 rees, the Way Openers, or the Pioneers. It has been the cus- 
 tom of our government authorities to call the aborigines by the 
 native name of their chief water. In this manner nearly ev- 
 ery distinct Indian tribe of North America has been designated, 
 and this in some instances independent of the native titles. 
 The old Cherokee name of the Catawba River was Inc-taqua, 
 the term for "river" in the final " Taqua," this form of the 
 word seen frequently in the appellations now regarded as 
 " Cherokee." 
 
 30. UwHARRiE. This is simply the Ou-Warrie, or the river 
 Warrie. The sufiix " Warrie " is a term for river in different 
 languages. In the French and Spanish writings we see it as 
 Guarre, Garry, and also as Gare, as in the old writing Le-gare 
 for the river now known as Lo-aire (Loire), the term Li or Lo, 
 the root- word referred t) in paragraph i,the " River Name," and 
 found in different languages as a word for river. The modern 
 
 3 
 
34 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Turkish form of the word is written in English Ghore, pro- 
 nounced either Jar or Jor. T'his is the name of the stream 
 which, with the Dan, makes the river Jordan, this name sim- 
 ply a composite of the titles of the two confluents of the river. 
 The Hebrew writing of the Turkish name was Yeor or Yari. 
 In the Russian the word is written either Jar, lar, or Yar; 
 in English letters, a term for stream or chasm. The oldest 
 form known for the word from which " Warrie " has been 
 evolved is in the Hebrew term written in English either Yeor 
 or Yaa-ri, showing the germ-words Yaa, water, and Ri, run- 
 ning. Parallel forms are seen in the old Egyptian and Coptic 
 in the English writings Aur, Airu, Eiro, and otherwise simi- 
 larly. An ancient European form of the word, and known as 
 a "Celtic" term for river, is Aar, or Aa ri. All those river 
 names of Western Europe which are now seen in the wri- 
 tings Ayr, Ayre, Aure, Ohre, and Or, are supposed to be due 
 to the Celtic origin, in the term Aar, and this traceable to the 
 Egyptian form of the word as Aur. An ancient Chaldee form 
 of the word was Ur or Ure, this the Chaldee name of the Eu- 
 phrates, the term used in the appellative sense. The word oc- 
 curs also in the Hebrew as Ureah. The Chaldee form of the 
 name is in the French appellation of a river, Eure. It is in a 
 number of the aboriginal titles of waters in America. Alone, 
 it is the name written Ouray, a river of Colorado, and as Ouri, 
 the old name of the San Jacinto, of Texas. In composites, it is in 
 the names Miss-ouri, Ura-guay, of South America, and in other 
 native appellations. The old Celtic form of the term as "Aar " 
 is seen in our names Aar-Kansas, Aar-oostook, Aar-apahoe, 
 Arre-dondee, and others. The term as " Warrie " is in the 
 native name of one of the Tennessee rivers having the modern 
 title, Wari-ota, now the Cumberland. See Note 148. The syn- 
 onymous features in the name Oo-warrie are referred to in 
 paragraph 10, page loi. See also paragraph 8. 
 
 31. Waccamaw. The term "Maw" in the Indian appears 
 to have had the significance of "great water." See Note 93. 
 The word as Mah, or Mo, was in the ancient Chinese a term 
 for the sea; it is yet in the Hebrew, the generic word for wa- 
 ter. The name Waccamaw refers primarily to the lake Wac- 
 camaw, 
 
 32. Haw, This is another abbreviation of the native name§ 
 
THE RIVERS QF NORTH CAROLINA. 35 
 
 of North Carolina. The original word was Sax-apa-haw. 
 This is supposed to have been the Indian name of the Cape 
 Fear. It is a curious and interesting fact that the term " Sax" 
 seen in this and other native names of America, and which is 
 the Sanskrit root of the Latin term saxeum, rock, is found in the 
 names of some of our rockiest rivers. There are three forms 
 of the root-word, sea, ska, and sax. Our authorities give the 
 former as a native Indian word denoting rockj, a synonym of 
 the Latin saxeum. The Haw and upper Cape Fear are the rock- 
 iest rivers in North Carolina. The Potap-sca is the rockiest in 
 Maryland. The Penob-sca (Penobscot in the French idiom) 
 is the rockiest in Maine. The Sax-achawan is the rockiest in 
 British America. Two of the rockiest streams in Florida have 
 in their native names the term "sea," the Pithlacha-sca-te and 
 the Chassahowit-sca. The Thronade-sca of Georgia is so pro- 
 verbially rough and rocky that it has been called in modern 
 parlance the " Flint." In addition to the Sanskrit term "sax," 
 seen in the North Carolina Indian name Sax-apa-haw, it con- 
 tains also the Sanskrit term for water, "Apa," found also in 
 many other native names of America, not only in purity, but 
 in the corruptions " Ippa," •' Epe," " Sepe," etc. See Note lo. 
 " Humming Spindles." Several of the largest cotton-mills of 
 the state are on the Deep and Haw Rivers. Mills is a river 
 name in the state. The word " Haw" in Indian appears to be 
 a term for river, the exact equivalent of Hebrew Hai, Chinese 
 Ho, and the Teutonic A-haa, these words denoting river. 
 
 33. Pee-Dee. There has been some doubt as to whether or 
 not this is a genuine nativr^ name. The most trustworthy evi- 
 dences are in support of the declaration that it is a true aborig- 
 inal title. Its two distinct terms are found in numerous other 
 native names. "Dee" is in the near-by name Sand-dee (San- 
 tee), the term " Sand " found also in Sand-usky (Note 24) and 
 in Santaffee of Florida, besides in other native names. "Dee" 
 is the root-word referred to in the " River Name," paragraph 4. 
 In the old Anglo-Saxon tongue the term was used in the appel- 
 lative sense as the name of deep waters, the Scottish corruption 
 being "Tay" and " Tye." 
 
 34. Colly. This name is supposed to be etjmologically the 
 same as the word Gauley, referred to in Note 18. 
 
 35. Cape Fear. In the gld colonial records this name is 
 
36 SOUTHERN Rll 'ERS. 
 
 written " Cape Fair." The native appellation is given as Sax- 
 apa-haw. (Note 32.) Of all the many rivers of North Carolina, 
 this is said to be the only one going directly into the open sea, 
 the others emptying into '' sovinds," or leaving the state through 
 other territory. 
 
 36. Neuse. " Neuse " is an abbreviation of the native name 
 originally written Noos-Ooka. " Ooka " is a dialectic expres- 
 sion of the true word Ogha, or Aqua, referred to in Note 6. 
 The name Neuces, of Texas, showing the French idiom, is 
 doubtless the same as the North Carolina word. 
 
 37. OcRACOKE is the native name of a " sound " or inlet on 
 the eastern coast- of North Carolina, whicli receives the rivers 
 named. 
 
 38. Chowan. The name was originally Cho-wanna, the fi- 
 nal vowel eliminated in the modern writings. The word, 
 and the names Shewannee, Suwanee, Svvannanoah, and Savan- 
 nah are supposed to be all corruptions of one remote, origi- 
 nal, sibilant form of an ancestry whose Hebraic type is in the 
 name Ama-na, waters flowing perpetually. It has been conjec- 
 tured that the native sounds as " Su-aa," heard in the initial of 
 the names, have for their origin the remote root whence comes 
 our words " sweet," " suave," etc. Traditions connected with 
 the names Suwannee and Svvannanoah appear to confirm such a 
 supposition. It is well known, however, that the old Oriental 
 terms for water or river in the English writings (Tcha, Chu, 
 Tsai, Su, etc.), are seen in the native names of the waters of 
 the continent. The Turkish term Su is the name of one of 
 our rivers, the Frencli form of the writing being Sioux. See 
 Note 165. 
 
 39. The term " Yeo," or '' Yaa," seen in the prehistoric 
 names of so many of the American waters, is an ancient germ- 
 word or term for water, and found well-nigh universally in 
 prehistoric river names. Further reference is made to the word 
 in the " River Name," paragraph 2. Our authorities tell us that 
 in the ancient language of Mexico the word for water was in 
 our symbol A, as it was in the old Swiss, with the sound of O, 
 the same as the French word written Eau. The old Saxon 
 form as Wye is found not only as the name of waters, but 
 it is in numerous composites, such as Wye-oming, Wye-ota, 
 Y-reka. The form of the word as " Ya " or " Yeo " is not con- 
 
TJIR RUrERS OP NORTH CAROLINA. 37 
 
 fined to any special dialect or any particular section of Amer- 
 ica. A form of the word as "Yu" is also found, not only in 
 the Hebrew, but in America also, as in Yukon, Yucatan, Yuma. 
 The latter, which is a correct Hebraism of the word given in 
 the Mosaic annals as the appellation of the Deity for the " gath- 
 ered waters " of the creation, its equivalent " Yoma " most fre- 
 quently used, was the ancient Indian name of the Colorado 
 River, of California. The ancient germ-word as " Ya " is seen 
 in the names Yakima, of California (and which is precisely the 
 same etymologically as Waccamaw), in Ya-hooli, Yali-busha, 
 and in many others. 
 
 40. PuNGO. This is another abbreviation of an original 
 name. The full word, as given by early explorers of Eastern 
 North Carolina, is written Matcha-pungo, or Metche-pungo. 
 The initial is doubtless the same word we see in one of the old 
 names of the Mississippi, Metche-Sepe, seen also in the name 
 Michi-gan and its Mexican duplicate Michioagan. (See Note 
 130.) The term "Pungo" is an Oriental word found in the 
 nomenclature of Asia. Another Oriental word found in North 
 Carolina names of waters is the Chinese tferm for lake written 
 in English Bogue. Bogue is a noted sound in the eastern part 
 of the state. Our authorities say that Bog, Pog, and Pang are 
 words for lake or pond in the native Indian dialects. There 
 are various orthographies for the words. In Alabama is a creek 
 with the native name Esta-boga, the term " Esta " referred to 
 in Note 154. In South America is a deep water, its native name 
 Bog-Ota. The Indian words as Bog and Pog are strikingly like 
 the old German terms for stream written Bach and Pach. 
 There is a wide variety of expression given the Indian word 
 Pog. It is seen as Poca, as in Pocataligo (Note 53), Poca-hontis, 
 Loacha-poka, etc. As Poga or Pogue it was found as the name 
 of a water in Western North Carolina, supposed to have applied 
 originallv to the river now called the Elk. The stream is now 
 called Elk from the fact that the last survivor of this noble an- 
 imal in the South Atlantic states was killed on the head waters 
 of the river early in the present century by the late Col. Will- 
 iam Davenport, of Caldwell County, this state. 
 
 41. Pasquo-Tank. The term " Tanga" has been referred to 
 in Note 5. The term " Pasquo " is seen also in the name of a 
 river in Mississippi. Note 118. 
 
38 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 42. PiMLico. The names Piinlico and Palmlico appear to 
 signify waters of the palm or the pine. 
 
 43. There is in North Carolina a creek known as the " Sug- 
 ar?' The old native title was Sucah. Capt. John Smith, in 
 his journals of travels in Virginia, gives the expression " Su- 
 cah-auna " as a native term for water. The initial is doubtless 
 the same word which Mr. Bancroft gives as Shoo-kah as one 
 of the native terms of the Pacific Coast — a word for water. 
 In Brazil, the same native expression occurs in the name of a 
 river, the Suca-rio, or simply the Sucah River. In Georgia is 
 a creek called the Sucah-noochee, sometimes written Sucker- 
 nuchee. 
 
THE RIVERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Bv the rice-fields and the sand-hills run the rivers 
 small and great, 
 
 From the mountains to the ocean in the grand " Pal- 
 metto State :" 
 
 From Savannah on the westward, to the eastmost 
 Waccamaw^ ; 
 
 By Catawba, where the red man once untroubled 
 kept his squaw^ : 
 
 Bubbling, hurrying, foaming, splashing, gently, smooth- 
 ly then they flow ; 
 
 Once they find her sunny borders ne'er across them do 
 they go. 
 
 Pacolet, Saluda, Reedee, Tygar, Broad, Bush, 
 Ennoree, 
 
 CoNGAREE and Wateree, all in Santee, seek the sea. 
 
 To Savannah, Chauga, Little, Seneka and 
 
 TUGALO, 
 
 Keeowee and Taxoway, and the rattling Rocky go. 
 To the ocean Coosaw-Hatchie, lazy Lynch, and 
 
 dark Chehaw^, 
 Ashley, Cooper, these in Indian Etowan and Was- 
 
 MASAW^ 
 
 Eastward flowing is the Coosaw ; by the islands 
 Edisto: 
 
40 SOUTHEFCK RIVERS. 
 
 By the cypress Salkee-Hatchie and the PocA- 
 
 TAI.IGO. 
 
 By the countless fields of cotton, spread the small and 
 great Pee-Dee ; 
 
 Here, the sea waves kissing, Sampit, Broad, May, 
 Wright's and Checkasee. 
 
 Here are Faulee, Bull and Harbor, and the way- 
 ward Wadmelaw, 
 
 Morgan and the small Kiaw^ah, and the darkened 
 
 OwENDAW\ 
 
 Here are Black, once Winnee, sleepy Stono and a 
 
 New, 
 Combahee and sluggish Wando, and the narrow 
 
 ASHEPOO. — 
 
 From Savannah west and southward, from the east- 
 most Waccamaw^ ; 
 
 To Catawba, where the Indian still is living with his 
 squaw ; 
 
 From the rich hills to the barrens, busy rivers small 
 and great. 
 
 Run by factory and plantation in the grand " Palmetto 
 State." 
 
NOTES ON THE RiVERS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 
 
 Sec Xotu 
 
 Waccamaw 31 
 
 Catawba 29 
 
 Pacolet 44 
 
 Saluda 45 
 
 Tygar 46 
 
 Congaree 47 
 
 Wateree 48 
 
 Santee 50 
 
 Seneka 49 
 
 Keowee 26 
 
 Coosaw-IIatchie 64 
 
 Etowan Ci 
 
 See Xoie 
 
 Wasmasaw 51 
 
 Salkee-Hatchie 52 
 
 Pocataligo 53 
 
 Pee-Dee 33 
 
 Faulee 54 
 
 Kiawah 51 
 
 Winnee 55 
 
 Combahee 5*^ 
 
 Wando 57 
 
 Savannah 58 
 
 "Living with his squaw" 59 
 
 44. Pacolet. This appears to be a version, in the French 
 idiom, . of the true word Pacola or Pa-Kauli. For the term 
 " Kauli " see Note 65. 
 
 45. Sal-Uda. This is the leaping water. The river in fact 
 leaps over many high places in its course from the Blue Ridge 
 to the sea, giving nvimerous fine water-powers. The term 
 " Uda " in the name shows striking likeness to the Greek Udor, 
 the Sanskrit Uda, and the old Slavonic Woda, words denoting 
 water. The most remote form of the word is seen in the true 
 Hebrew of one of the names of Eden, the English writing in 
 Au-de-Kau-li, or " Hiddekel," as it appears in the Biblical wri- 
 tings. The term "Au-de" signifies briefly deep water. It is used 
 as the name of a number of deep rivers in the Old World. In 
 France the writing is Aiide, while in the names of Italy it ap- 
 pears as Adda and Adi. The term is seen most frequently in 
 the native names of America in the corruptions "Ota" and 
 '• Uda," " Ute," or " Oo-taw." The name Utah applies origi- 
 nally to a deep lake in the territory of this name. A name that 
 appears to be kindred to Saluda is Salaqua (or Salaquoy, as 
 usually written in the river names of Tennessee). The initial 
 term " Sal " appears also to be kindred to the Latin Salio, to 
 leap, and whence comes our word " sally." 
 
 46. Tygar is given as a native Indian name. It shows like- 
 
42 SOVmnRM RIVERS. 
 
 ness to the Oriental river name Tigris, or Te-ga-ri as it appears 
 in its most remote form, the meaning simply deep water run- 
 ning, and just as the Semitic form of the name, De-kau-li, sig- 
 nifies deep water flowing. 
 
 47. CoNGAREE. This musical Indian appellation has many 
 interesting likenesses in the river nomenclature of the Old 
 World. The expression is simply " Conga Ri," or Conga River, 
 the aborigines of the continent who named its waters having 
 had knowledge of the term " Ri " as a word for river. This 
 statement is made on the authority of De Soto, who gives the 
 term " Ri " as one of the native names of the Mississippi. 
 Countless mere verbal facts are also in support of the state- 
 ment. The word "Conga" or "Congo" is itself an Oriental 
 term for river, it being one of a group of words in which are 
 embraced the Sanskrit Ganga (Ganges) and the Chinese Kang- 
 hi or Konki, all with similar significance, river or great water. 
 A Spanish form of the word is Concho, this the name of a river 
 in Texas. 
 
 48. Wateree, an Indian name showing the term " Ri " in a 
 composite with the Orientalism, Arabic Wady, or " Wattie," as 
 our native names show it. It appears in the Alabama name 
 Coosa-Wattie, and also in the South-American appellations 
 showing the Spanish idiom in the writing Guatimauli, Guati- 
 vita, etc. 
 
 49. Seneka. This aboriginal word, found in New York and 
 South Carolina, has its exact prototypes in the Old World 
 nomenclature. The American name, however, doubtless ante- 
 dates that of the noted Roman consul. And the river name 
 Senegal is also doubtless prehistoric. The true form of our 
 Indian word is evidently Sa-ni-ka, the term " Ni-ka" a corrup- 
 tion of a remote original of which the Hebrew term for river, 
 Na-ka-ri, or Nachar, is the highest and purest type known. 
 This old Semitic term is reproduced in a variety of writings 
 in the ancient names of the waters of the world. We see it 
 in the German river appellation Neckar. It is in the African 
 names Niger and Tanga-nika. We see it also as the initial in 
 our Central-American name Nicar-augua. Our Indian term 
 '• Nooka" is evidently a low corruption of the word. There 
 appears to have been in the primitive tongue of man a word 
 for water having the sounds of the English letters " e-cuh," 
 
THE RIVERS OE SOUTH CAROLINA. 48 
 
 «• ee-ka," or " ee-ga," the writing frequently in '' i-co," or " i-cho," 
 as seen in the name Jericho. This latter name, we know, owes 
 its origin to the " exuberant waters " found about the site of the 
 citv. The ancient term appears to have been used by the Rus- 
 sian language-makers in the coinage of their term for river 
 written in English either raga, rega or rika, simply running 
 (Ri) water (Ga or Ka). The primitive term is reproduced in 
 the old Latin eqiior, or cequor. We see it also in the Hebrew 
 word for river written fully Aa-pa-li-ka (peleg), this a word re- 
 produced exactly in the Indian name Opelika. Nowhere in the 
 world is the ancient primitive term "ee-ka" found with more 
 frequency and certainty than in the Indian namesof the waters 
 of America. We shall have occasion to refer to the facts again. 
 The old term has been given such a wide variety of verbal ex- 
 pressions having identical sounds that we shall have no diffi- 
 culty in recognizing it in the native Indian words. 
 
 50. Santee. This name is doubtless Sand-dee, Santee a 
 proper euphemism. See Note 80 for " Sand," and for Dee, 
 in the "River Name," paragraph 4, page 99. 
 
 51. Etowan and Wasmasaw are given as the Indian names 
 of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers. The latter was known 
 also as the Kiawah {Kee-xvah, in pronunciation), the name 
 now belonging to another and near-by river. See Note 26. 
 Original titles have been changed in numerous instances, the 
 words applving to different waters. We need not wonder at 
 this, since most of the ancient appellations had no other signifi- 
 cance than that of river, or water under its varying conditions. 
 While different tribes had apparently different titles to the wa- 
 ters, it has been found that the words themselves are near 
 identities. The South Carolina name is usually written Et-i- 
 WAX, while the similar appellation of Georgia is written Et-o- 
 wah. If we follow the old Anglo-Saxon orthography in wri- 
 ting the suffix, the true form of the name would be Et-a-wan. 
 Our authorities give the term "Awan" as identical with 
 "Avon," "Abon," "Abhan," and "Aban," old words for river 
 in a number of the now obsolete dialects of Western Europe 
 and the British Islands. The term as "Aban," or "Abon," ap- 
 pears to be simply an abbreviation of the Arabic word given 
 as the Biblical name Aban-aa, the equivalent of Hebraic Amana, 
 whose original characters are rendered elsewhere in a transla- 
 
44 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 tion as " waters which flow perpetually." See Note 25. The 
 words Habana and Havana are doubtless due to the same re- 
 mote ancestry which gives us Abana, the former in the aspi- 
 rate Spanish idiom. It is a further curious fact which shows 
 that prototypes of the two native American names referred 
 to, Etiwan and Etowah, are also found in the British Islands in 
 the prehistoric names written Etawah and Etive. 
 
 52. The term " Hatchie '' is an old Seminole word for river- 
 This and the non-aspirated form of the word as "Atchie," or 
 "Acha," are found in many parts of the continent in the native 
 names of waters. They are found also in regions supposed 
 to have been unknown to the old Seminole tribe, whose origi- 
 nal domains were in the Florida peninsula and in the near-by 
 bordering territory. Corruptions of the term exist in the wri- 
 tings " Uchee," " Ouchie," " Houchee," etc. The purest form 
 of the word known is in the old European (Celtic) term for 
 river w ritten Acha, and as Aci in the Italian. See Note 169. 
 
 1^3. Poca-Taligo is found as a river name in West Virginia 
 also. It is a pure Indian word. The term " Poca " is doubtless 
 the same word we have seen in Note 40. The term " 'Jaligo " 
 appears to be kindred with the word Aa-palika referred in Note 
 49. A corruption of the word is seen in the writing Tellico, 
 Note 159. Jellico and Jericho are also apparently cognate 
 names. The name Pocataligo applied not only to the river, but 
 it was also known as the title (derived from the original river 
 name) of a noted Indian village on the water, long famed as 
 one of the "cities of refuge" among the aborigines. This 
 ancient Mosaic institution, cities of refuge where accused 
 criminals should have protection and an asylum, appears to 
 have been well known among the old natives of America. 
 One of the last of these Indian cities to disappear in the his- 
 toric era was situated on the Tennessee River. See Note 151. 
 
 54. Faulee, written also Folly. See Note 21. 
 
 55. WiNNEE. "Winnee" is the wine-colored. This is the 
 native name of a river now called the Black, from the color 
 of its waters, which are of a rich wine hue. The term "Win- 
 nee," seen in a number of the old native appellations of waters 
 in Northern states and in British America, signifies, in the 
 supposition of many writers, the muddy or the turbid. The 
 color of the "Winnie " in South Carolina throws strong light 
 
THE RIVERS OE SOUTH CAROLINA. 45 
 
 on the problems connected with the word. The waters of the 
 Lake Winne-pisc-aqua, or Winne-piskoga, as sometimes writ- 
 ten, are not colored; they are bright, and unusually clear and 
 sparkling. The term '• Winne " in this name does not, there- 
 fore, appear to refer to the waters of the lake, but to the inter- 
 mediate factor in the name, the expression " pise." The waters 
 of the lake have long been celebrated for their fine wine-col- 
 ored salmon and trout. The inference is therefore clear that 
 the name Winne-pisc-aqua was originally intended to deno'e 
 the xvaters of the zvine-colored fsh. This interpretation carries 
 with it the supposition, if not the fact, that the aboriginal phi- 
 losopher who coined the expression "Winne-pisc-aqua" had 
 knowledge of the Latin \soxdi%fisca and xviiia (vina). Many facts 
 are in support of such a theory, but the limits and purview of 
 these Notes forbid any extended discussion of the subject. 
 There is, however, no doubt of the fact that there are scores of 
 terms and full words in the aboriginal nomenclature of Amer- 
 ica having not only exact likenesses in the Latin and Greek, 
 but the common significances of the expressions appear to be 
 also identical. This fact goes far to remove the question or fact 
 of likeness from the sphere of mere accidency. The river and 
 water nomenclature of prehistoric America shows no term with 
 more frequence than that which we see in the forms of the 
 Latin term for water, aqua. The word fisca, which is not known 
 to antedate the Latin, is seen again in its purity in connection 
 with the Roman term aqua, in another native appellation, Pis- 
 ca-taqua, this the name of a lake one of whose tributaries was 
 so noted for its fine fish that even in historic times it has received 
 the title " Salmon Falls River." — It is worthy of note in this 
 connection to state that in the book of the " Zeno Voyages," 
 referred to in Note 22, the Italian authors say that even at the 
 time of their visit to this new world (or "island," as they called 
 it) there were Latin books still in existence here. And Mr. 
 Prescott, the historian of the Mexican conquest, says that, at 
 the time of the occupation by the Spaniards, Roman games and 
 Roman sports and the Roman system of notation were known 
 and practised by the natives. The cross as a symbol in relig- 
 ion, not known anterior to the crucifixion of Christ, has been 
 found in various parts of prehistoric America, the fact evinced in 
 the famous " Lorrilard Collection " of relics in the Smithsonian 
 
46 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Institution, at Washington Citj. The ruins of a temple dedi- 
 cated to the Triune God, not known in any age anterior to 
 Christ, was also discovered near the city of Mexico. Other 
 Latin terms seen in the names of Southern rivers are referred 
 to in Notes 130, 154, 45, 67, 126, 158, 100. 
 
 56. CoMBAHEE. A local pronunciation gives the name sim- 
 ply " Cumba" or " KuMBEE." The final term " Hee " is doubt- 
 less but the mere word for" river," the equivalent of Chinese and 
 Hebrew " Hia," and seen also in the Indian name Hia-wassie. 
 The term " Cumba" is seen in the native Alabama names Tus- 
 cumbia and Escambia 
 
 57. Wando. Wando is an Oriental word for the sea. It is 
 also the exact equivalent of Sanskrit Hondo, Indu, Sindhu, 
 Inde, and Aande. The name India (pronounced "Ond" in 
 French idiom) has the same origin. The ancient term is found 
 in the prehistoric nomenclature of America; all its Old World 
 forms are reproduced in our native names. As Wando, it is not 
 only in the South Carolina appellation, but it is found in the 
 original title of a stream in Pennsylvania, the To-wando. As 
 Lo-Wando, it is in Central Africa, the term "Lo" a word for 
 river. The term as Onte, Onde, or Aande is in the native names 
 of a number of our deep waters, illustrations seen in the wri- 
 tings Ontario, On-anda-ga, Onte-rocti or Aande-rocti, this latter 
 the Indian name of Lake George, in New York, The aspirate 
 form of the word is in the names Honduras and Hondo, of Texas. 
 The ancient term as Aan-de or On-te,owes its origin to the germ- 
 word De, the deep, in a composite with the Oriental expression 
 Ain, En, or On (paragraph 13, the "River Name"), the word 
 signifying simply deep, perpetual water. The oldest forms of 
 the true word are seen in the Hebrew in the names of the ancient 
 city Anti-och, on the banks of the river Aar-onte (Orontes). 
 
 58. See Note 38 for Savannah. 
 
 59. Catawba. See Note 29. A remnant of the old Usheree 
 or Catawba Indians still live on a reservation in York and Lan- 
 caster Counties in this state. 
 
THE RIVERS OF GEORGIA. 
 
 From the mountains on the northward, how do Geor- 
 gia's rivers go? 
 
 How, to Mexiqiie Gulf and Ocean, do her waters fall 
 and flow? — 
 
 From the silvery Chattahoochie to the golden 
 Etowah, 
 
 To the broad and grand Savannah, by the deep Al- 
 
 APAHAW ; 
 
 From the turbid Occi.oconee to the crystal Tugalo, 
 
 From Chattooga to Saint Mary's, Georgia's riv- 
 ers come and go. — 
 
 Northward Tennessee, Hiawassie, Notley, and 
 ToccoA pour ; 
 
 Here's Ulaffie's liquid laughter; here Turoree's 
 toss and roar. 
 
 Here are Herb and Fenhalowa, Wilmington, and 
 
 WiLLACOUCHIE, 
 
 Tybee, Newport, and Oci.ocknee, Crooked, Tur- 
 tle, Suwanooche, 
 Okeewalkee, and the Soque, and the tiny Tes- 
 
 NATEE, 
 
 And SuwANEE, oozing from the fens of Okee-fen- 
 
 okee. — 
 Here the Chestatee goes chaffing round and o'er the 
 
 rocky steep ; 
 
48 SO U THERN RI I 'ERS. 
 
 Here Ogeeciiee, Towaliga, and the two Sautillos 
 creep 
 
 Through the barrens by the cypress and morasses 
 dank and deep. — 
 
 Talking Rock and Coosa-wattie, Salaqloy, and 
 Ellija Y, 
 
 Oostenauli, Connesauga, — six in Coosa roll away. 
 
 Here are Broad, Alcaup au-Hatciiie, Sautke saun- 
 tering, Auchee-Hatchie, 
 
 Leaping, terrible Tallulah, olden New, and Apa- 
 
 LACHA. 
 
 Here is Flint, once Thronadesca ; here Canou- 
 
 chie's cany tide ; 
 Here Ocmulgee, dark and murky, Altamahaw, 
 
 deep and wide ; 
 Sapelo and Hanna-Hatchie, sluggish Medway, 
 
 bright Yahoola ; 
 Little, once Occoloc-Oochie, Tallapoosa, and 
 
 Patoula ; 
 OccoPiLCO, and Occonee, and Occoa, clear and 
 
 small ; 
 IcH-A-wAY-NocH-A-WAY, and Amicolola, with its 
 
 brawl ; 
 Withlac-Oochie, and Welawnee, and the Chick- 
 asaw, and all — 
 From the Chattahoochie chattering, to Savannah 
 
 murmuring low, 
 Where is heard the Oohoopee : — so Georgia's rivers 
 
 sing and go. 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF GEORGIA. 
 
 See Note 
 
 Chattahoochie 75 
 
 Alpahaw 121 
 
 Hiawassie 60 
 
 Toccoa 61 
 
 Tybee 116 
 
 Okee-fen-okee 62 
 
 Towaliga 63 
 
 Sautillos loi 
 
 Coosa-Wattie 64 
 
 Salaquoy 15S 
 
 Oostenauli 65 
 
 Connesauga 163 
 
 Alcaufau-Hatchie 66 
 
 See Note 
 
 Tallulah 67 
 
 Thronadesca 6S 
 
 Canouchee 69 
 
 Hanna-Hatchie 70 
 
 Yahoola 71 
 
 Occoloc-Oochie 72 
 
 Tallapoosa , 73 
 
 Patoula 71 
 
 Occonee 74 
 
 Occoa 76 
 
 Savannah 77 
 
 Oohoopee 7S 
 
 Nochawav B 
 
 60. Hi\WASsiE. This is a short river, but iis waters are in 
 three different states. It is referred to more fully in Note 153. 
 
 61. Toccoa. This ^vord is variously written, as Tocoa, Tuc- 
 coa, Toquoy, Tockoi. It is the same native word which we 
 find as a term in the writings Taqua, Tauga, Daigua, Tioga, 
 and in the corruptions and abbreviations "Tock," ''Toga," 
 "Tuckee," etc. A type of the word, as Tokoi, is found not onlj^ 
 in the Hebrew, but also in the Japanese. The significance of 
 the word appears to be simply deep waters, — its origin in the 
 term aqua, water, and the germ-word te, the deep. The word 
 " Occoa " is an Indian corruption, the equivalent of aqua or ogha. 
 See Note 6. The Toccoa was known also as the Aquokee. 
 
 62. Okee-fen-okee. There are various pronunciations of the 
 name of this great swamp of Southern Georgia. The native 
 accent is usually on the last syllable of their words. It is a re- 
 markable fact that in the old Indian names of swamps, and of 
 some rivers in low, marshy regions, there is found the old Cel- 
 tic word for swamp, "fen." The names Okeefenokee, Fenha- 
 lowa, and Econfenee are illustrations — the latter a Florida ap- 
 pellation. The term "Okee" is a well-known native word for 
 water or river, it being a pronunciation of the Sanskrit as ogha, 
 or a corruption of the Latin as aqica. See Note 6. 
 
 63. Towaliga. The suffix "al-iga"in this name is referred 
 
 4 
 
50 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 to in Note 53. The initial To or To-a/i is doubtless the term 
 Toa/i referred to in Notes 20 and 2. 
 
 64. Coosa-Wattie. The term " Wattie " in this name has 
 been referred to in Note 48. It is evidently a real "term " in 
 the full sense of that word, and the exact equivalent of the 
 Arabic Wady and Spanish Guade. The term is dropped from 
 the name of the tributary, and the river becomes simply the 
 "Coosa" in the lower part of its course in this state. The 
 word "Coosa" is found in different Southern states as the name 
 of rivers. In South Carolina it is rendered " Coosaw." As 
 "Coos," the word is also in the New Testament. In the native 
 dialects of America the word appears to be simply a guttural 
 form of the term Usa or Ouse, meaning river. See Note 24. 
 
 65. OosTENAULi. See Note 154 for the term " Oosta." The 
 word Nau-li is a Hebrew term for river, doubtless the remote 
 original of the name Nile. In the ancient Hebraic MSS. the 
 form of the word is expressed in the symbols corresponding to 
 English N-L, the usual writing Nahal or Na-auli. We find the 
 term as "Nolly" in the Indian nomenclature. See Note 154. 
 
 66. Alcaufau-Hatchie. The modern abbreviation of this 
 true name is written "Alcova," the term for river, " Hatchie," 
 dropped. 
 
 67. Tahlulah. This word is said to mean " the terrible." 
 The physical facts as well as the verbal truths are well in sup- 
 port of the tradition. The word appears to owe its origin to 
 the Latin term terrerc as tellele. The old Cherokees, from 
 whom the word comes, did not use the letter R in their dia- 
 lects, hence the form of the word as tcUdc, this also a legitimate 
 form of the Latin, the old Romans using the letters R and L 
 interchangeably. The briefer terms " Telia " and " Talla," seen 
 so frequently in the (Cherokee) Indian names, must be regard- 
 ed as having a different origin. The Indians appear to have 
 used these terms Talla, Telia, and Tulla in the sense of 
 "muddy" or "earthy," and hence these words appear due to 
 the Latin as terre or tella, earth. See Note 73. 
 
 68. Thronadesca. This was the native name of the river 
 now called Flint. The late Dr. David Reese, of Georgia, 
 whose father was one of the early pioneers of the country, 
 gives the name also as Fleenadesca or Fleenatesca. The 
 term "Throna " occurs in the native name of a lake in Florida. 
 
THE RIVERS OF GEORGIA. 51 
 
 The term " Sea," the final in the names, is referred to in Note 
 
 69. Canouchee. See Note 15 for the term "Can," and Note 
 72 for "Ouchie." 
 
 70. Hanna-Hatchie. The term " Hanna " is simply an as- 
 pirated form of the word "An-na," as in the name Susque- 
 hanna. The two synonyms in the word are explained in para- 
 graph 9, the " River Name." For '• Hatchie " see Note 169. 
 
 71. Yah-ooli. For the term " Ya," seen in this name, see 
 Note 39. The word Ou-li or Ula, seen in so many of the na- 
 tive river names of America, is a parallel form of the term Ou- 
 ri or Ura. The oldest forms of the word are in the Hebrew 
 and the Chinese. In the former it is written Uleah, the name 
 of a water. In the Manchu dialect of China the form of the 
 word as Ula or Ouli is a term for river. The word as Ya-li in 
 the Chinese is the same which we see in the English writings 
 as the Yellow (Sea) and Yellow (River). The identity of the 
 terms Ouli and Ouri is illustrated in our Indian names Missou- 
 ri and Missouli, the same word in different dialects, many of 
 the old Indians rejecting the sounds of the letter R. See Notes 
 67 and 147. The word as Tu-lee is found in the Indian nomen- 
 clature. 
 
 72. The Indian name of the Little was Occoloc-Oochee, 
 the initial term seen also in the name Ocklock-Nee. Oochee, 
 or Uchee was the old Muscogee word for river. There is a 
 creek in Georgia and one in Alabama having the name simply 
 Uchee. The tribe of Indians known as Uchees received their 
 title from the Alabama name. Uchee is a corruption of Acha. 
 The word is found in one of the old dialects of the British Is- 
 lands, a term for river, the ancient writing Uxe. See Note 
 169. 
 
 73. Talla-Poosa. The term " Talla " is supposed to signify 
 the " muddy " or the "earthy," Note 67. It is found in the 
 native names of rivers whose banks, caving in, give the muddy 
 or earthy character to the waters. The suffix " Poosa " con- 
 tains the old Anglo-Saxon term " Usa," the initial P supposed 
 to indicate in the Indian tongue, as it did in the old Roman lan- 
 guage, the idea of "powerful." See Note 103. 
 
 74. OccoNEE. See Note 25. 
 
 75. Chatta-Hoochie. The term " Chatta " is given as an 
 
52 SOUTHERN RUBERS. 
 
 old Choctaw and Cherokee name of the owl, the pronunciation 
 expressing, in an onomatopoetic sense, the notes of the bird, 
 and just as the word Wi-on-ias-sa in the Osage tongue meant 
 whippoorwill. 
 
 76. OccoA. The name is written on old maps as Aquo-ke 
 also. See Note 155. 
 
 77. Savannah. See Note 38. 
 
 78. OoHooPEE. This is the river (" Ooh," or " Eau ") Upa 
 or OoPEE. The word Oupa is a well-known corruption of the 
 Sanskrit term for water, Ap-aa, referred to in paragraph 12, 
 the "River Name." The corruption is conspicuous only in the 
 river names of Russia and America, although found elsewhere 
 in the appellations of waters. Russia has a river whose name is 
 written either Oupa, Upa, or Oopa. One of the rivers of Cali- 
 fornia appears to have had the name originally as " Hoopa," 
 in the Spanish writing, the title preserved in the name of an old 
 tribe of Indians who lived on the waters of the stream. This 
 is evidently the name we now have in the English idiom as 
 7~uha. There are two rivers in California with this name. We 
 see the term as " oupa" in the suffix of the Texas and Spanish 
 appellation Guadeloupe. A parallel form, as well as a con- 
 gener, of the word as Upa, is seen in the writings Uba and 
 Yuba. See Note 29. 
 
 B. See Note C, page 60, the *' Rivers of Florida." 
 
THE RIVERS OF FLORIDA. 
 
 Where the orange grows and gladdens, and the sum- 
 mer softly sleeps, 
 
 Florida in summer stillness all her many rivers keeps : 
 
 From Perdido bordering westward, to Saint Mary's 
 eastern flow ; 
 
 Through the hummocks and the pine-lands, turning, 
 creeping, there they go : 
 
 Who that e'er has seen them wonders why the Span- 
 iard loved them so? — 
 
 Where the swan and water-eagle make their brooding 
 and their nest, 
 
 Amaxura and the Charlotte there go crooking to 
 the West; 
 
 Westward wind the Weekee^vatchie, Withla- 
 
 COOCHIE, SaNTAFFEE, 
 
 Tampa's Hillsborough, Miaka, and the Pithla- 
 
 CHASCATEE, 
 
 Itchee-puckee-sassee, Hammoth, roving Rogers 
 and a New, 
 
 Chockoliscee, Cork-Screw, twirling with an Alli- 
 gator too ! 
 
 Softly southward sweeps Suwannee, sweet Suwan- 
 nee, famed in song. 
 
54 SOUTHERN RUBERS. 
 
 In melodies that echo still the vanished olden tongue. 
 South flow Alaqua, Ocilla, Saint Marks, Apa- 
 
 lachicola, 
 Choctaw-Hatchie, Shoal, Escambia, Occoloco- 
 
 NEE, and Chipola, 
 Attapulgo, Crooked, Brother, and Alapahaw, 
 
 Waucassie, 
 And SoPCHOPPY, and a Little, and the wandering 
 
 Waukeesassa. 
 Southward glides the small Talooga ; so Wau- 
 
 kulla winds away ; 
 So Black Water, Econfenee, New and Yellow, 
 
 and the Bay, 
 Fenhalowa, and Stein-Hatchie where the waves 
 
 with mosses play. 
 Westward creep the Cootee-Hatchie, Anclote, 
 
 Alafiah, Pease, 
 Chassa-howit-sca, Apopka, Crystal, Salt and 
 
 Manatees. 
 Eastward crawls the gray Opossum, Saint Sebas- 
 tian, Little, North, 
 Lemon, Bell and Jupiter, and Jolly, Snake, there 
 
 stealing forth ; 
 Nassau, Halifax, Matanzas, and Saint Lucy, 
 
 Eaugallie, 
 Middle and Hulpatiokee and Amelia, Miami, 
 EcoNTocK, ToMOKA, TuRKEY, thcsc all soughing to 
 
 the sea. 
 
THE RIVERS OF FLORIDA. 55 
 
 Out from Okec-cho-bee's marshes, hot Caloosa- 
 Hatchie steals ; 
 
 Out from lake-lands fair, Kissimmee all her wondrous 
 wealth reveals ; 
 
 Out from bright, pellucid fountain, fountain deep and 
 pure and wide, 
 
 Homossassie's crystal currents, matchless marvels, 
 gulfward glide ; 
 
 Out in coquetry with ocean, lags the tawny Indian's 
 tide ; 
 
 Out from hummock rich and gloomy, home of bruin 
 and of deer, 
 
 Gulfward winds the wee Wakiva, dancing, spark- 
 ling, bright, and clear. 
 
 Northward Rita runs to lake, where the lazy current 
 sleeps ; 
 
 Out from OcKLAWAHAW northward, grand Saint 
 John to ocean sweeps. 
 
 Out go Alcatopa, Harney, Gallivant, from Ev- 
 erglades, 
 
 With Wahlika, Fahkan-Hatchie, neath the som- 
 ber palm-made shades, 
 
 With Caximbas, Chitta-Hatchie, these all wan- 
 dering in the South, 
 Where the Shark is throwing open from the gloom 
 
 his murky mouth. — 
 O'er the sands or reefs, here broadening into ocean, 
 gulf, or bay. 
 
56 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Where the countless wild fowl gather there to dream 
 the years away ; 
 
 Where the orange grows and gladdens, and the sum- 
 mer nods and sleeps, 
 
 Florida in summer stillness all her drowsy waters 
 keeps ; 
 
 From Perdido bordering westward, to Saint Mary's 
 eastern flow ; 
 
 Past Suwannee sung in ditties, murmuring ever 
 soft and low ; — 
 
 Who that e'er has sailed there wonders why the Span- 
 iard loved them so? 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF FLORIDA. 
 
 See Note 
 
 Amaxura 79 
 
 Santaffee 80 
 
 Hammoth Si 
 
 Suwannee S2 
 
 Ocilla S3 
 
 Escambia 107 
 
 Taloo^a S4 
 
 Econfenee 85 
 
 Stein-Hatchie S6 
 
 Anclote S7 
 
 Apopka SS 
 
 Saint Lucy S9 
 
 See Note 
 
 Eaugallie 90 
 
 Miami 91 
 
 Econtock 92 
 
 Tomoka 93 
 
 Kissimmee 94 
 
 Homossassie 95 
 
 "In coquetry with ocean". 96 
 
 Ocklawahaw 97 
 
 Itcliee-puckee-sassee C 
 
 Waukulla D 
 
 Rita E 
 
 " In Summer Stillness".... F 
 
 79. Amaxura. This is an old native name of a river now 
 commonly called the larger Withlocoochee, there being two 
 rivers in the state with this latter name. There are also two 
 called New and two Manatee. The name written "Amaxura," 
 with its term •* Ura " referred to in Note 30, is doubtless the 
 same aboriginal word written Amaccura, a river in South 
 America. There are numerous identities in the native names 
 of the two sections of the continent, H. H. Bancroft, the his- 
 torian, who has given the subject long and careful investiga- 
 tion, says, in his work on the native races of the continent, 
 that all its dialects reveal a common origin. The term "Ama " 
 in the names cited is referred to in paragraph 4, the " River 
 Name." 
 
 80. Santaffee. This is the true native name. It is not 
 Santa-Fe, of the Spanish ecclesiasticism. The terms " Sand," 
 or " Sant," and "Affa" are in other Indian appellations. See 
 Notes 50 and 24. 
 
 81. Hammoth. This name occurs also in the Hebrew. 
 
 82. Suwannee. This celebrated Indian appellation is re- 
 ferred to in Note 38. 
 
 83. Ocilla. This native Indian name is also written 
 Aquilla. The word evidently has the same origin of the Bib- 
 lical appellation Aquila, the name of one of the companions 
 
58 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 of St, Paul, the likenesses accidental doubtless. The name is 
 found also in African nomenclature. 
 
 84. Talooga. This is doubtless a corruption of the original 
 whence come the writings Taligo and Tellico. See Note 53. 
 The modern Indian writing gives the word as Tallaquah, a 
 city of the Indian Territory. 
 
 85. EcoNFENEE. This writing contains the term " Econ," 
 or "Ecan," which is doubtless the same as that seen as the 
 final in such native names as Michigan, Wauregan, Oregon, 
 etc. The term " Fen" is referred to in Note 62. 
 
 86. Stein-Hatchie. This old Indian name has as its initial 
 the German word for stone, stein, in connection with the Sem- 
 inole term for river, the writing " Hatchie," seen so frequently 
 in the names of the rivers of this state, the old territory of the 
 Seminoles. See Note 169. 
 
 87. Anclote. This word is pronounced locally in two syl- 
 lables, the accent on the last, and in long sound of O, as An- 
 clote. 
 
 88. Apopkee, usually written Caloos-Apopka. The word 
 " Caloosa," " Calusa," or " Colusa," seen in the native names of 
 two of the Florida rivers, is also a native California appella- 
 tion, the old title of the river now^ known as the Sacramento, 
 this a name showing the influence of the ancient Spanish priest- 
 hood there. " Cal-usa" means hot water, or warm water, both 
 phvsical and verbal facts in support of the declaration. The 
 term " Cal " is referred to more fully in Note 147; " Usa," in 73, 
 and elsewhere in these pages. 
 
 89. Saint Lucy. The true word is doubtless not the eccle- 
 siasticism "Saint Lucy," but Sand-Lousa. The term " Lou- 
 sa" is found in the native Indian name of waters not only in 
 Florida, but elsewhere. Florida has the lake name Loch-loosa, 
 the term "Lack" occurring also in the name Lackawanna. 
 The term "Lousa" is referred to more fully in Note 170; the 
 term "Sand" referred to in Note 80. 
 
 90. Eau-Gallie. This name contains the term "Gau-li" 
 referred to in Note 18. Different versions of the same origi- 
 nal word are found in the Wisconsin name written Oghalla, 
 and the Florida city name Ocala. 
 
 91. Miami, with accent as Mi-am-ee on last syllable. This 
 native name is found also in Indiana and Ohio. 
 
THE RIVERS OF FLORIDA. 59 
 
 92. EcoNTOCK. The true word is doubtless Ecan-Taqua, 
 the final vowel omitted in the modern expression. " Ecan " is 
 referred to in Note 85; Taqua, in Note 61, 
 
 93. ToMOKA. This appears to be a corruption of the word 
 as Te-Maqua, or more fully Te-Ma-Aqua, Ma-aqua is the abo- 
 riginal name of the river now known as the Hudson, of New 
 York. The title still survives in the corruption " Mohawk," the 
 name of one of the tributaries of the Hudson. George Ban- 
 croft, the historian, says the word Ma-aqua denoted simply 
 " The Great River." It may be worthy to state that the germ- 
 word as "Mah" is given as the old Sanskrit root of the Latin 
 word magnus, great. The aborigines had a corruption of the 
 expression, Ma-aqua, which we now see in the writing 
 " Muckee," denoting, in the native mind, " Big Water," the 
 term seen in the lake name Winne-Muckee, and in the old 
 Cherokee title of the Tennessee Riveras Kalla-Mucky. See 
 Note 164. 
 
 94. KissiMMEE, pronounced locally as Kis-sim-ma, the ac- 
 cent on the second syllable. Kissammo is in European geog- 
 raphy. 
 
 95. Homo-Sassa. This and the Tarpon Springs are among 
 the most remarkable of the many phenomenal waters of the 
 state, this a wonderful realm of fountains, lakes, and unique 
 streams. The term " Homa," found also as Aa-ma or Am-ah, 
 Yo-ma and Homa in the Hebrew, where it was used to denote 
 waters under various conditions, as seas, lakes, rivers, and har- 
 bors, has been referred to in paragraph 4, the " River Name." 
 
 96. "In coquetry with ocean." The Indian river approaches 
 very near the Atlantic in several places before finally yielding 
 its current to the embrace of the sea. 
 
 97. OcKLAWAHAW. This is the native name of a river now 
 called the Saint Johns, the true word now applying to the 
 water which is the source of the main stream. Ocklawahaw 
 is given as a Seminole word denoting, in the native tongue, 
 simply "flowing waters." Its ancestry is seen in the germ- 
 word Li, or La, and " Ock " and " Waha " waters. See para- 
 graph I, the " River Name," for " Li." 
 
 C. It will be observed, doubtless, by the reader, that there are 
 in the names of a number of the rivers of this state terms or 
 features not held in common with the majority of the expressions 
 
60 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 of the Indian nomenclature of other parts of the country. Such 
 expressions as " Itchee," " Withla," " Pithla," " Hulpa," " Fah- 
 kan," and others peculiar to the water names of Florida, evi- 
 dently belong to the modern dialects of the country, and not to 
 the tongue of the primitive colonists. Most of the lake names 
 of the state appear to be of the modern coinage also. The dia- 
 lectic expression •' Itchee " is seen also in the Georgia name 
 Icha-xvay-Nochaxvay. The name Ichazvur occurs in Oriental 
 nomenclature. 
 
 D. In the old Spanish this is written Guaxula. The word is 
 precisely the same thing etymologically as Eaugallie, referred 
 to Note 90 — "Kulla" a corruption of Gaulie and " Wa " the 
 Teutonic equivalent of French " eau." 
 
 E. Rita is an ancient Old World word for river or deep run- 
 ning water. Corruptions exist in Reda, Rood, Ruth, Rotter, 
 and otherwise. The Dutch name Rotterdam shows the term ; 
 this the "dam" on the Rotter, or the river. 
 
 F. *' In summer stillness." There are but few of the rivers 
 of Florida the murmur of whose currents can be heard at the 
 distance of a dozen yards. 
 
 Thiere are a number of the river names showing corrup- 
 tions of terms and other expressions that have been so fre- 
 quently referred to in the previous Notes that I have made 
 no immediate references to them here. The likenesses to the 
 ancestral types suggested will be readily recognized and lo- 
 cated by the reader who has read the work continuously thus 
 far. 
 
THE RIVERS OF ALABAMA. 
 
 Where the Indian, fleeing southward, hard by North- 
 ern foemen pressed. 
 Found a hunting-home in peace, is Alabama : " Here 
 
 we rest ! " 
 Past Paint Rock and Flint here came he ; over 
 
 sucking, tumbHng Tennessee ; 
 Over Warrior (Tusca-Loosa), down Cahawba 
 
 did he flee ; 
 Leaving Elk, Louk-Sapa-Tilla ; seeing Sipsee ; 
 
 crossing Coosa : 
 Past ToMBECKBEE, Oaknoxubee; paddhng pretty 
 
 Talla-Poosa ; 
 Past Sepulga, and Chattooga chattering nightly as 
 
 an owl : 
 Butta-Hatchie, Suarpokee, Patsiliga, and the 
 
 Fowl : 
 Roaming by the New and Little, over North and 
 
 Choctaw-Hatchie, 
 Past the Red and bounding Deer, and the prattling 
 
 Apalacha : 
 Then in peace he rested ; hunted ; fished he then in 
 
 Hillabee ; 
 In Conecuh, Yellows-Water, Choctaw-Hatchie, 
 
 Styx and Pea 5 — 
 
62 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Fished in waters fringed with mosses in the glades, 
 
 Kantappahaw, 
 And Escambia, Bonsecour, and Tensaw, Fish and 
 
 Chickasaw. — 
 From the border by Perdido, to the eastmost EscA- 
 
 TAPPA, 
 
 Over Mobile in its beauty, fishing, hunting, dreaming, 
 happy — 
 
 Here the Red Man, fleeing southward, hard by lake- 
 side foemen pressed, 
 
 Found the game and grave forever! Alabama! 
 Here they rest ! 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF ALABAMA. 
 
 See Note 
 
 Talla-Poosa 103 
 
 Chattoog-a ; 104 
 
 Butta-Hatchie 105 
 
 Hillabee 29 
 
 Conecuh 49 
 
 Kantappahaw 15, 116 
 
 Escambia 56, 107 
 
 Bonsecour 106 
 
 Escatappa 107 
 
 Mobile loS 
 
 Alabama, ^ 
 
 Sep Note 
 98 
 
 Flint 
 
 ^6S 
 
 Tusca-Loosa 
 
 100 
 
 Louk-Sapa-Tilla 
 
 lOI 
 
 Coosa 
 
 64 
 
 Tombeckbee 102 
 
 Oaknoxubee 29 
 
 98. Alabama— " Here we rest." There is a belief that the 
 name Alabama meant, in the Indian tongue, " Here we rest." 
 It is said to have been a joyful exclamation of an oppressed 
 people who, fleeing southward from their more powerful foes 
 of the northern lake regions, found a resting-place on the banks 
 of the Alabama River. It has been recently claimed, however, 
 in the interest of historic truth, that the so-called "legend" is 
 but a bit of clever and innocent fiction, emanating solely in 
 the brain of a distinguished son of Alabama, still living and 
 honored as a poet and a jurist. The coinage, however, is so 
 replete with graceful and poetic fancies, and withal so well in 
 accord with historic possibilities, if not historic truth itself, 
 that I shall not only give it a lodgment here, but I endeavor 
 furthermore to picture the flight of the oppressed over the dif- 
 ferent waters of the northern part of the state, leaving them, 
 the aborigines, fugitives no longer, in the blissful existence of 
 hunting, fishing, and paddling along the other waters of the 
 central and southern part of the state. I shall add this much 
 more, for the benefit of readers who have a fondness for the 
 curious in word-lore. The name Alabama, which is unques- 
 tionably a native appellation, contains apparently two distinct 
 terms which are not seen in any other river name of America. 
 These are "Alia" and " Bauma." The latter is a well-known 
 ancient word regarded as the remote type, if not the ances- 
 try, of the English word "balm." The original word denotes 
 anything that soothes or delights, The writing "Allah " is the 
 
64 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 name of the Mohammedan Deitj, the equivalent of the He- 
 brew Eloi, the true God, The historian, Prescott, calls atten- 
 tion to the instances in which the Greek name of the Deity, 
 Theos, and the Latin Deus, occur in the language of the an- 
 cient Mexicans. The knowledge of the ancient philosophers 
 who named the waters of the continent appears to have em- 
 braced many curious and startling features that are not charge- 
 able to accident except in the trespass upon reason. The name 
 of the leading character worshiped by the Brahmans, Buddha, 
 ^s also found in the Indian appellation of one of the rivers of 
 Alabama, the word written as Butta-Hatchie, the dental 
 sounds on the native tongue never so perfect or distinct as to 
 enable the hearer to determine clearly the enunciation, 
 whether it expresses a T or a D. Illustration of this fact is 
 given in Notes 50 and 147. The word " Butta " is not found 
 elsewhere in the Indian names of America, at least so far as my 
 researches have extended. The occurrences may be all acci- 
 dental. I give them "for what they are worth" — no more. 
 
 99. " Sucking, tumbling Tennessee." The reference is to 
 places in the Tennessee River that are known to boatman and 
 others as "the sucks." These are dangerous localities along 
 the " Mussel Shoals " where the current seethes and boils and 
 tumbles over the immense ledges of limestone that obstruct 
 the flow of the waters. Rafts and boats are frequently drawn 
 under the current in these " sucks." There are other points on 
 the river known as the "Frying Pan," "The Skillet," "The 
 Pot," etc., referred to in other Notes (147, 152). The word 
 "Tennessee" is not pure Indian: it is a fanciful writing of the 
 original name Ten-assa. The Cherokee name of the river was 
 Chal-aqua or Kal-aqua, sometimes written in old works Kella- 
 kee. 
 
 100. Tuscaloosa. This is the native name of a river now 
 known as the Big Warrior or Black Warrior. The great chief- 
 tain of the Tuscaloosa tribe of Indians was killed on the banks 
 of this river in 1540 in battle with the Spaniards under De 
 Soto. The slain leader was a warrior with a very black skin ; 
 and in consequence of the fact he was referred to by the white 
 Europeans as the "black, black warrior," this name appearing 
 on the oldest English maps of the country. The title of the 
 tribal chieftain came from the native name of the river. See 
 
THE RIVERS OF ALABAMA. 65 
 
 Note 29. The term for river in the word is in the expression 
 " Loosa," which owes its origin to the ancient term for water 
 "Ousa" and the germ-word "Li," the flowing. See Note 89. 
 There are many striking facts connected with the term " Tus- 
 ca," seen in this Alabama name. It is found originally in the 
 prehistoric names of our waters only in a narrow belt of lati- 
 tude stretching from the shores of the Atlantic, where the old 
 Tuscarora Indians had their hunting-grounds, to Arizona, 
 where it ends, the last apparent survival in the name w ritten in 
 the Spanish idiom Tucson. There are so many evidences of 
 the Roman knowledge possessed by the ancient aborigines of 
 the continent that it has been conjectured that the word "Tus- 
 ca " seen in the native American nomenclature is reproduced 
 from the ancient Latin name Tusca, which once applied to the 
 Roman province now known as Tuscany. The word appears 
 to have been left in the New World by some early explorers 
 and colonists, and as the memorial of their fatherland. From 
 time immemorial it has been customary for new colonists in 
 virgin countries to fix in the nomenclature of the country some 
 memento or testimonial of the ancestral home or the ancestral 
 tongue. The migrations of the ancient Celts and Moors, and 
 various other peoples, have been followed and traced over the 
 Old World simply by the shreds of their tongue left in the pre- 
 historic nomenclature of different regions. In like manner the 
 old French and Dutch and Spanish and German colonists of 
 this continent have left mementoes of the mother tongue in ev- 
 ery locality where their influence was long felt. The term 
 "Tusca" has some curious connections. Tusca-ora means lit- 
 erally a native or inhabitant of Tusca. The Tuscarora Indians 
 were said to be "shirt-wearers." Possibly the ancient garments 
 brought from the fatherland gave rise to the tradition. 
 
 loi. Louk-Sapa-Tilla. The term "Tilla" is simply De-la, 
 the deep flowing. It is in the Georgia name Sau-tilla. " Sapa" 
 is sepe. (Note 10.) " Louk " is an unknown dialectic term. 
 
 102. ToMBiGBEE. The river is now usually referred to in 
 the abbreviation "Bigb3^" The true native name was "Tom- 
 Beck-Bee. (See Note 4 for " Beck.") 
 
 103. Talla-Poosa. (See Note 73.) The term " Tallah " is 
 supposed to mean "muddy" or "earthy." On the Tallapoosa 
 River is a noted waterfall having the native name " Talassa." 
 
 5 
 
66 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 This word is strikingly like the old Greek term for the sea, 
 TJialassa, this showing origin in the germ words Te as "Tha" 
 in the Greek idiom, and Li and assa as "lassa." The pure 
 form of the term we have seen in the Indian corruption " Lou- 
 sa." "Te" is the deep; "Li" is the flowing; and "assa," wa- 
 ter — the deep-flowing water — a brief, yet comprehensive, desig- 
 nation of the sea. See paragraph 6, the " River Name," for 
 fuller reference to the germ-words named. See also Note 170 
 for Lousa. 
 
 104. Chattooga. For the term " Chatta " see Note 76. 
 
 105. Butta-Hatchie. See Note 98 for " Butta," and 169 for 
 " Hatchie." 
 
 106. BoNSECOUR. This is evidently an original word in 
 French idiom. 
 
 107. Esca-Tappa. This is the native name of the river 
 called Dog or Cedar on some of the maps. The term " Esca," 
 seen also in the prehistoric names of America as " Esque " and 
 " Eska," is found also in the Hebrew in the names Esca-lon and 
 Aska-lon. It is also in the old Irish and Welsh in the writings 
 Aesca, Isca, Uisque, and otherwise, with the significance of 
 water or river. The original writing of the name Wisconsin 
 shows one of the old Irish forms of the word, Ouisque-onsin. 
 The word " whisky " owes origin to the Irish form of the word. 
 The term "Tappa " is doubtless the same original word we have 
 in the Indian nomenclature as " Tippa." The oldest form of 
 the word known is in the Hebrew name of a water En-Tap- 
 puah, now called simply Tappuah. See Note 116. 
 
 108. Mobile. The Indian name was originally written Mau- 
 bela or Maubile, and also Mauvila, 
 
THE RIVERS OF MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 All along the west meandering, here, far up, full Mis- 
 sissippi, 
 
 Restless monarch, always marvel, from his burdened 
 mossy lip he 
 
 Out on live oak and magnolia bottoms prodigally spills 
 
 A SUNFLOW^ER, once SOCK-TAFFA-TOOTA ; TaLLA- 
 
 Hatchie from the hills 
 Eastward drinks it with Coldwater, changing into 
 
 Yazoo where 
 Yalla-boosha and Loosa-scoona seek the flitting 
 
 " Father" there, — 
 They and Bt.ack and Home-chitto, and, from 
 
 bayou, deep Pierre. 
 Northward in the knob-lands, Tippa, Wolf, and 
 
 Hatchie hie away ; 
 Loitering Leaf, Fox, Buckatoona, in the far south 
 
 seek the bay. 
 Pasca-gouli, Chickasawha, with the Tulla-ho- 
 
 MA blending. 
 And BouGH-HoMA, slowly southward darkened cur- 
 rents here are sending. 
 O'er eastern borders Esca-tappa and Ocktibbehaw 
 
 here break ; 
 Here Noxubee, Butta-hatchie, Wolkee part of 
 
 Mobile make ; 
 
68 SOUTHERN RUBERS. 
 
 Tangapahoe, Pearl and Tipsaw, Strong and 
 Amite meet in Lake. — 
 
 Somber waters, somber borders, where the languid 
 saurian dwells 
 
 'Neath the live oak's mossy mantle and the grand mag- 
 nolia dells. 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 See Note 
 
 Sunflower 109 
 
 Talla-Hatchie no 
 
 Yazoo Ill 
 
 Yalla-Boosha 112 
 
 Loosa-Scoona... 89 
 
 '• Flitting ' Father ' " 113 
 
 Homa-Chitto 114 
 
 Pierre 115 
 
 Tippa 116 
 
 Hatchie 1 10 
 
 Buckatoona 117 
 
 See Note 
 
 Pasca-Gouli 118 
 
 Tulla-Homa 114 
 
 Bough-Homa 114 
 
 Esca-Tappa 107 
 
 Ocktibbehaw 116 
 
 Noxubee 119 
 
 Butta-Hatchie 105 
 
 Wolkee 120 
 
 Mobile 108 
 
 Tangapahoe 121 
 
 Lake 122 
 
 109. Sunflower. The Sunflower River is simply an over- 
 flow of the Mississippi, a debouchure from the main current. 
 The Indian name of the stream was Sock-taffa-toota. 
 "Taffa" is doubtless the same original word now written both 
 *' Tappa " and " Tippa," and just as Jaffa and Jappa are the same. 
 The name Java appears to be an etymological equivalent. See 
 Note 116 for the term "Tappa." 
 
 no. Hatchie. The term "Hatchie" has been heretofore 
 referred to as the old Seminole and Muscogee word for river. 
 It is found in the British possessions and also in South Ameri- 
 ca in prehistoric nomenclature, but invariably in connection 
 with some other term either a synonym or a modern descrip- 
 tive. It is used in the appellative sense alone only in this in- 
 stance and in the name of the same river in Tennessee. "Tal- 
 la " is supposed to mean the muddy. See Note 73. 
 
 111. Yazoo. There is in Russia a river with the same orig- 
 inal name, the word rendered from the Russian symbols either 
 Yazwa or Yazoo. The true word is Ya-soo, or Ya-su, a com- 
 posite with the two synonyms — Hebrew " Ya," and the Orien- 
 tal term "Su," river — seen in our river name Sioux in its 
 French garb. Another Russian name reproduced in Missis- 
 sippi is Wolkee. 
 
 112. Yali-Boosha. " Ya-li" is the same as " Wa-li," water 
 flowing. The most remote form of the term is in the Hebrew 
 of the Edenic name Au-wau-li, this in the Anglicism Havillah. 
 
70 SOUTHERN klVBRS. 
 
 The Edenic word is found in its absolute purity in the old Sho- 
 shone dialect of the Pacific Coast, where it is given as the tribal 
 term for river. The word survives in the appellation of the two 
 rivers coming together in Eastern Oregon, " Walla-Walla." 
 " Wa-li " is the old Anglo-Saxon original of our word "well" 
 as applied to a fountain of waters. As " Ya-li," the term is in 
 the Chinese, the word we now have as " Yellow," the Chinese 
 name for a sea and a river. The Alabama river name now 
 known as "Yellow Water" I am satisfied was originally Ya- 
 li Wattee, a native Indian name. The term " Boosha " is sup- 
 posed to be a mere dialectic expression. A corruption of the 
 initial term is seen as Yu-lee in a nvimber of Indian names on 
 the continent. 
 
 113. " Flitting 'Father.'" The Mississippi is sometimes called 
 the " Father of Waters," under the supposition that its name 
 signifies this fact. The tradition doubtless comes from one of 
 the old titles given bj De Soto, the discoverer, as Chuck- 
 AuGUA. This name shows some analogy to the Choctaw term 
 for the Deity, Chihowa, and the Delaware Indian equivalent, 
 Je-ho, or Che-ho. There is an interesting tradition connected 
 with this word, which may not be inappropriate here. This 
 legend states that far back in the ages the finger of the Great 
 Spirit touched the primeval mountain wall at the place now 
 called the " Delaware Water Gap," cleaving a passage eastward 
 for the waters long imprisoned beyond. Henceforth the river 
 was known to the aborigines as " God's River," the idea ex- 
 pressed in the Delaware tongue in the ancient aboriginal title 
 of the river Chi-ho-Occi, the term for river in the suflix 
 " Occi," this evidently a corruption of Ogha or Aqua. For fur- 
 ther reference to the name Mississippi, see Note 130. Chuck- 
 auga is the true word now written Chicago. 
 
 114. Homa-Chitta. The term " Homa " has been referred 
 to in paragraph 4, the " River Name," and also in Note 95. 
 Chitta is supposed to be a corruption of the word " Chatta," 
 meaning owl. See Note 76. 
 
 115. Pierre. The pronunciation is Pe-ayr. It is supposed 
 to be a native name, the term "Aar" found in many of the 
 native appellations. See the " River Name," paragraph 8. The 
 term " Pe " is in the South Carolina name Pee-Dee. 
 
 1 16. TiPPA. Etymologically, this word, as Tepa, denotes sim- 
 
THE RIVERS OF MISSISSIPPI. 71 
 
 ply deep water. It is doubtless the same original term which is 
 seen in the native names of our waters in the diverse writings 
 Tippee, Tibbee, Tjbee, Tappa, and Taffa. This is the only in- 
 stance in which it is found alone in the appellative sense; in all 
 other cases it is in a composite with other terms; these in most 
 instances mere synonyms, as in the name Tippa-canou and its 
 near identity Kantappahaw. The oldest form of the word 
 known is in the Hebrew name of a water originally written 
 En-Tappua, the term "En" referred to in paragraph 13, the 
 "River Name." The Syrian name is now written Tappuah. 
 We see the same original word in the name of a city of France, 
 bv the deep waters of the sea, the word written in the French 
 idiom Deippe. The term " Tippa " is also in the old Irish no- 
 menclature, in the name Tipperary. 
 
 117. BucKA-TooNA. The term "Toona" in this name shows 
 analogy to the German word for Danube, Doonaa. It is the 
 ancient name Dena in corruption. See Note 12. 
 
 118. Pasca-Goula. The term "Goula" here is doubtless 
 but a corruption of the word Gauli, referred to Note 18. " Pas- 
 ca " is the same as the term written " Pasquo " in the name of 
 the North Carolina river Pasquo-tank. 
 
 119. Noxubee. The term " Ubee " is evidently the same as 
 the California name Yuba. The term is seen also in the He- 
 brew word for river, Yu-bali. Note 29. 
 
 120. WoLKEE. This name is identical with the Russian ap- 
 pelation written either Volga, Wolgee, or Wolka. We see the 
 same word in the Georgia appellation Okee-wolkee. 
 
 121. Tangapahoe. The term "Tang" is referred to Note 
 5. The suffix "Apahaw " is found in the Georgia name Al- 
 apahaw. Apa-haw is simply river. 
 
 122. The rivers named all go to Lake Ponchartrain, in 
 Louisiana. 
 
THE RIVERS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 From the Pearl to Sabine westward, by plantation 
 
 and savanna, 
 And her rice-lands, giilfward lag the sluggish streams 
 
 of Louisiana. 
 Here's Chifuncte ; and here Bogue-chitto ; Sara, 
 
 too, with cypress stain ; 
 Tangapahoe, Amite, Comite, Tickfaw; — all to 
 
 Pontchartrain. 
 Here are Grand, Lafourche, the lazy ; Terra- 
 Bonne with spreading bayou, 
 Teche and Crocodile here crawling on to red 
 
 Atcha-Falaya. 
 Creeping through the diked cane-lands goes Vermil- 
 lion to the Bay ; 
 Farther westward, still and lonely, Mermenteau and 
 
 Calcasieu. 
 From the far northwestern border comes, through 
 
 yielding ochery bed, 
 Rio-Roxo, with her driftwood wonder, fitly named the 
 
 Red; 
 Saline, Black-Lake, Cane, and Bodceau by these 
 
 currents filled and fed. 
 Southward, washing through the loam}-, fertile vales 
 
 of Arkansas, 
 With Bartholomew and Tensaw and the Boeuf, is 
 
 Ouachita. 
 
THE RIVERS OF LOUISIANA. 73 
 
 Here the mighty Mississippi, half a hundred fathoms 
 
 deep, 
 In his plash a hundred rivers still their fretful mur- 
 murs keep ; 
 "Gathered" here the countless waters, half of all a 
 
 continent, 
 Seething, like a serpent writhing, all in awful volume 
 
 blent. 
 From the Black Hills and the lake-lands, and from 
 
 eastern oil and coal lands ; 
 From the Appalachian summits, and from western 
 
 grain and gold lands ; 
 From the caiions of the Rockies, 'neath the never- 
 going snow ; 
 From rich prairie, and from desert where but sage and 
 
 cacti grow ; 
 Past a hundred crowded cities, through the forest's 
 
 silent hush ; 
 Fled from fearful height and boulder, and the froth- 
 ing cascade's rush ; 
 By the cot and painted palace, from the wigwam of 
 
 the savage ; 
 Through the peaceful Southern bayou, from the west- 
 ern floods and ravage ; 
 Gathered in one vexing volume, artery of a continent ; 
 Seething, like a serpent writhing, all in rolling gran- 
 deur blent. 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 See Note 
 
 Bogue-Chitto 123 
 
 Sara 124 
 
 Tangapahoe 121 
 
 Comite 125 
 
 Teche 125 
 
 Atcha-Falaya 126 
 
 See Note 
 
 Calcassieu 127 
 
 Red 126 
 
 Arkansas 128 
 
 Ouchitah 129 
 
 Mississippi 130 
 
 123. Bogue-Chitto. Bogue is a word found in prehistoric 
 nomenclature in different countries. See Note 4, also Note 76 
 for Chitto, supposed to be a corruption of Chatta. 
 
 124. Sara is a term for river, a sibilant form of Aa-ri, found 
 in use in the appellative sense in many ancient tongues. Its 
 oldest form is in the Hebrew, where it appears as the name of 
 a noted water, the fountain near which Abner was slain by 
 Joab. The title survives jet in the Oriental name Aih Sara. 
 The name Syria owes origin to the same root-words. The an- 
 cient term is seen in the prehistoric names of a number of 
 waters in America, nearly all of whom have their exact proto- 
 types in the names of the Old World. Our lake name Sara- 
 toga, with its term "Taqua" as "Toga," and indicative of the 
 deep waters, is the counterpart of the Russian appellation 
 written either Sara-toga or Sara-towka. Our name Sara-nacca, 
 with its Hebrew Nachar as " Nacca," is the same as the ancient 
 name of the ^gean Sea, Saronika. See Note 49 for " nakar." 
 
 125. Amite, Comite, and Teche. These are doubtless sur- 
 vivals of the French influence in the nomenclature of Louisi- 
 ana, this long a French province. There is a river named Tesh 
 (Tech) in France. 
 
 126. Atcha-Falaya. This in pronunciation is Atch-a-fal-ly- 
 ya, rhyming with by-yu (bayou). Atcha-falaya is the old In- 
 dian name of the Red River. Authorities say that it denotes 
 in the native tongue the " Lost River." This tradition is con- 
 firmed by both physical and verbal facts. We have already seen 
 in numerous citations that the term "Atcha " was used by the 
 aborigines in the sense of river. The suffix " Falaya " shows 
 
THE RIVERS OE LOUISIAl^A. 75 
 
 striking analog}- to a form of the ancient word seen in the Latin 
 falor, which means to He hidden or concealed from view. This 
 is precisely a condition which formerly existed in this river, a 
 condition referred to in the expression " Driftwood wonder," 
 well known to geologists and others. Up to quite a recent 
 date the current of the stream for nearly a hundred miles of its 
 course was hidden from view by vast and deep masses of drift- 
 wood and soil, which, for unknown centuries, had been accu- 
 mulating above the waters. Growing out of this mass of drift 
 were large forests of trees several feet in diameter, when the 
 country first came into the possession of the United States. 
 Years of time and toil, and millions of public money have been 
 expended by our government in efforts to remove the obstruc- 
 tions and open the river to successful navigation. It was in 
 this part of the river that a disaster befell the national troops 
 under Gen. Banks in 1863. The old Spanish and French 
 name of the river was Rio-Roxo; this, Anglicized, gives the 
 modern appellation the "Red River." The current is fitly 
 named: the waters are of a rich ochery red, the fact due to the 
 immense quantities of clay and red soil held in solution, the 
 coloring coming from the "yielding ochery bed." 
 
 127. Calcassieu. This is a French version of the native 
 word, the modern pronunciation Cal-cash-ya, or Cal-cas-sha, 
 the accent on the last syllable. The term " Cal," found in 
 many of our native names, is referred to in Note 147. Cassia, 
 or Cashee, is found as the native name of waters in North Car- 
 olina and Idaho. 
 
 128. Arkansas. The true word is Aar-Kansaw. See Note 
 30 for the term "Aar." The suffix "Kansas" survives in the 
 name of another river. The writing in a final silent " s " is due 
 to the old French influence. 
 
 129. Ouachita. This is the old French writing of the na- 
 tive name we now have as Washitaw and Wichita, the word 
 rhyming with Arkansaw. The varying orthographies illus- 
 trate the principle in language heretofore referred to, showing 
 the identity of French Oiia, or Eau, and the English or German 
 zva. Ouachita is simply the river Chatta, the word " Chatta " 
 said to mean "owl" in the native tongue. Etymologically the 
 term "Chatta "is really Cha-te, the initial showing the Orien- 
 tal term cha, tcha, tsa, denoting water. It is also a remote 
 
76 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 form of our word sea. We see this Oriental term in its com- 
 posite with the root- word for the deep, " De," as the ancient 
 lake name written Tchade or Tchad. Another form of the 
 word is in the original name of a deep water in Louisiana, 
 Caddo. A kindred expression is the Spanish name written 
 Cadiz. The full name as Ouachita, in its queer French garb, 
 has its exact prototype in the Russian name seen on our maps 
 as Ouichitza. 
 
 130. Mississippi. This is another of our American names 
 over which there has been much speculation. The modern 
 writing of the word is known to have been the fanciful coinage 
 of a French priest in the seventeenth century. The journals 
 of De Soto, the first white man to discover and give authentic 
 versions of the native appellations of the water, records various 
 tribal designations of the stream. It was known, says that au- 
 thority, in 1540, as Ri, as Chuck- Auga, as Mice or Messo, as 
 Mes-apa, and otherwise. The French explorer Allouez, in 
 1665, gives the writing Mess-Ippe. This is substantially the 
 same as one of the names given by De Soto more than a cen- 
 tury previously. Marquette, in 1673, gives the form of the 
 word as Metche-Sepe. The term " Sepe " is a known syno- 
 nym of •' Ippe." There is tradition that the true word meant 
 " The gathering together of the Waters." Certainly the phys- 
 ical facts are in confirmation of the legend, given, I think, in 
 Barnes' School History of the United States. The waters of a 
 large portion of North America are finally borne to the gulf 
 through the mighty stream. The term for water in the name 
 is well understood — this is in the expressions, ''Pa" or "Apa," 
 " Ippe " or " Sepe." The feature of [the word indicative of 
 the "Gathering," the descriptive or adjective in the name, 
 must therefore be looked for in the initial of the different 
 writings, " Mess," " Messo," or " Metche." Geological facts 
 come to our aid in determining the problems connected with 
 the words. The true river is regarded as being in the current 
 known in the upper part of its course as the Missouri. This 
 was written originally, when the name was first made clear, 
 Mes-ouri. The suflix "Ri" in this name is also well known as 
 a native term for river, a near synonym with the suffix in the 
 name as Messis-apa or Messa-pi.* These facts show that the 
 
 * And also one of the true names of the river. 
 
THE RIVERS OF LOUISIANA. 77 
 
 two names Mississippi and Missouri are substantially the same 
 thing in significance. The term " Mes " as it occurs in our 
 English is traced to the root of the Latin words Alcfo and Afessis, 
 and whence come our words meter and measure, denoting, in 
 the original sense, a gathering together. The participle of the 
 term Meto, Messui, denotes the "gathering." The name Mes- 
 sui-Ri would therefore denote "the gathering river;" an ex- 
 pression tersely characterizing the stream, since it gathers into 
 its mighty embrace the waters of so many different lands. The 
 term " Ri," as De Soto has told us, was one of the appellations, 
 while his writings " Mico " (Messi) and "Messapa" give us a 
 suggestion as to the true descriptive in the composite appella- 
 tion. A remote type of the name given by the discoverer is 
 seen in the Oriental word Meso-potamia. 
 
THE RIVERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 To the dark gulf, never resting, tossing whitecaps o'er 
 its green, 
 
 Coursing 'twixt the Rio Grande and the Red and 
 brown Sabine, 
 
 Drag the dreamy Texas rivers : Neches first, with 
 Angeline ; 
 
 Then the Indian's Aar-ko-kee-sa, Trinity, through 
 forest flows ; 
 
 Next their Ou-ree, San Jacinto, where the star of 
 Houston rose. 
 
 Through the roUing mesquite prairie, where the wild 
 dog builds his town, 
 
 Brazos, once the Tock-on-hona, winds and waits 
 and wanders down, 
 
 Bearing with him Navasota, Bosque from the bot- 
 toms brown. 
 
 And Paloxy, Gabriel, Noland, and Keetumsee. 
 — Farther west 
 
 The slow San Barnard seeks the deep and troubled 
 briny breast. 
 
 Then from Llano Estacado, through the barren moun- 
 tain shadow. 
 
 Over sandstone, granite, marble, to perennial blooming 
 meadow. 
 
THE RIJ 'ERS OF TEXAS. 79 
 
 Flows the ancient Pasho-hono, now the Spaniard's 
 
 Colorado ; 
 In its current mixing Concho, Llano, stony Perdi- 
 
 NALLES, 
 
 And San Saba, from the sand plains, and Pecan 
 
 from nutty valleys. 
 Next with Navadad, Lavacca ; then the purple 
 
 Guadeloupe, 
 Where there rang in war times deadly, savage Santa 
 
 Anna's whoop. 
 Where blend Blanco and San Marcos through its 
 
 mossy stone-bed run. 
 And the Comal, glittering brightly as the dewdrops 
 
 in the sun. 
 In the ancient city springing, San Antonio darts 
 
 away, 
 With San Pedros and Cibola and Medina to the 
 
 Bay. 
 Mission and Aaransas, Frio with Sabinal, Hondo 
 
 deep, 
 Leona, Neuces, and San Migual, Atascosa, wind 
 
 and creep 
 Where the cacti spread in splendor, and coyotes revel 
 
 keep. 
 To Del Norte purls the Pecos ; and from where the 
 
 savage paints. 
 Scalping cowboys, small San Pedros, he and various 
 
 other " Saints." 
 
80 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 Eastward trails the gloomy Cypress ; snail-like Sul- 
 phur's in the pines ; 
 
 And Attoyak mid cottonwood, eastward, noiseless 
 lags and winds ; 
 
 Eastward Hee - chee - aque - noNo, Pease and 
 WiCHiTAS are whirled ; 
 
 And the long and red Canadian, like a pennon, is 
 unfurled 
 
 In the northlands from the red man's war-camps in the 
 sunset world. 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVERS OF TEXAS. 
 
 See Note 
 
 Neches 131 
 
 Trinity 132 
 
 San Jacinto 133 
 
 Tock-on-hona 134 
 
 Navasota 135 
 
 Llano- Estacado 136 
 
 Colorado 137 
 
 Concho 138 
 
 Perdinalles 139 
 
 Navadad 135 
 
 See Note 
 
 Guadeloupe 140 
 
 Comal 141 
 
 Aaransas 132 
 
 Hondo 57 
 
 Neuces 36 
 
 Del Norte 142 
 
 Pecos 143 
 
 "Saints" 144 
 
 Hee-chee-aque-hono 145 
 
 Wichitas 146 
 
 131. Neches. The local pronounciation is Na-ches, the ac- 
 cent on the "Na." This is doubtless the same aboriginal word 
 given elsewhere as Natches. There was an ancient tribe of 
 Indians called by the name Natches, and said to have been 
 white, or of the Caucasian color. They were doubtless the last 
 remnant of an aboriginal stock — the Tviscaloosa chieftain the 
 last representative of a black race. See Note 100. The modern 
 Indian is apparently a mongrel, or a cross between the white 
 European and the black Moor. Columbus states in his journals 
 that he discovered Moorish traits among the natives at the time 
 of his first landing. The usually beardless face and the long, 
 straight and coarse black hair of the American red man have 
 their types in the Moor. Ethnologists, as a rule, do not regard 
 the Indian as a pure Mongolian. 
 
 132. Aar-ko-kee-see. The Trinity was originally known 
 by this name. The word is found also as Or-Quis-Aco. See 
 Note 30 for the term "Or" or "Aar." The expression "Quis- 
 acco" is found in the South American "Chu-quis-acca," the 
 native name of the La Platte. 
 
 133. San Jacinto. It was on the banks of this river, in 
 1836, that Gen. Sam Houston, commanding the Texas armies 
 of the Revolution, won his first great victory over the Mex- 
 icans; this established the independence of the Texas Republic. 
 It was indeed here that the "Star" of the illustrious hero 
 arose. The native name of the river was Ou-ri or Ouree, a 
 name that survives in the appellation of a river in Colorado, 
 
82 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 the word now written Ouray. See Note 30 for the term 
 " Uree." 
 
 134. TocK-oN-HONA. This is given as the native name of 
 the Brazos; while the original title of the Colorado was Pasho- 
 HONo or Pashaw-honah. The term " Honah," seen in the 
 different Texas appellations, appears to be but the aspirated 
 form of the word "Au-na," referred to in Note 7, the writing in 
 the superfluous H representing the Spanish idiom. The word 
 Brazos is Spanish, denoting the brown; while Colorado, in the 
 same tongue, is the red. The names have been interchanged 
 in the historic era: the title Colorado once applied to the river 
 now known as the Brazos; the latter name belonged to the 
 Colorado. The changes occurred while Texas was a Mexican 
 province. The term "Tock" is an abbreviation of Toccoa or 
 Taqua. See Note 61. 
 
 135. Navasota. The term "Nava" is doubtless the same 
 ancestral word seen in the writings of the Indian names in 
 Napa, Naba, and Naw^a; and seen also in the Old World river 
 name Nava — this written either Nava, Neva, or Nieva. " Sota" 
 appears to be simply a sibilant form of the word "Au-de" or 
 "Ota," referred to Note 45. This term is found in the Indian 
 names both as a final and as the initial — ^as in the appellations 
 Sota-yoma (the native name of the Russian river of California) 
 and in Minne-sota. 
 
 136. Llano Estacado. The Spanish expression denoting 
 the Staked Plains. 
 
 137. The Colorado is one of the most interesting of all the 
 rivers of Texas. It presents in its course a wide range of 
 scenery. Entering Southern and Central Texas, it is the first 
 river that can be heard running at any considerable distance 
 during all seasons of the year. The current is subject to sud- 
 den and dangerous rises from unknown subterranean causes. 
 It has been known to increase several feet in height in a few 
 minutes, and without any note of w'arning in the way of rain- 
 fall. The subterranean outflow is pure and clear. The old 
 Indian name of the water was Pash-aw-Hona. The term 
 "Pashaw" has its exact type in the river names of the old 
 world, the most remote form of the word being in the Hebrew 
 Pashawna; this the Edenic appellation rendered "Pison" in 
 the Anglicism of the Biblical record, 
 
THE RIVERS OF TEXAS. 83 
 
 138. Concho. This is doubtless the same word we have in 
 the South Carolina name Conga-ree — the Texas name in the 
 Spanish idiom. See Note 47. 
 
 139. Perdinalles. The term rendered "Nalles'Ms doubt- 
 less the word Nau-li, in the foreign idiom — the final S super- 
 fluous. See Note 154. The term "Perdi" is evidently the 
 same as that in the initial of the Florida name Perdi-do. 
 
 140. Guadeloupe. The Texas name is doubtless but a repro- 
 duction of the old Spanish appellation, referred to in paragraph 
 12, the "River Name." The composite factors in the word, 
 however, are seen frequently in the Indian nomenclature. For 
 the Moorish term "Guade," see Note 48; for "Oupa," see Note 
 78. On the banks of the Guadeloupe the Mexican general, 
 Santa Anna, massacred a large body of Texan troops surren- 
 dered as prisoners of war. Hence the reference "savage Santa 
 Anna's whoop." 
 
 141. Comal. The Comal is one of the brightest of all the 
 American waters ever seen by me (and I have seen more than 
 half of the rivers of the United States. I have crossed every 
 stream named in Texas, with but about half a dozen exceptions. 
 More than three-fourths of the other Southern rivers have 
 been seen and studied, and the local pronunciation of the names 
 learned by me in the immediate vicinity of the waters them- 
 selves. These statements are made not in the spirit of egotism, 
 but that they may aid in emphasizing the authority of the 
 work). 
 
 142. Del-Norte. The full title of the river is Rio-Grande- 
 Del-Norte, of the old Spanish writing. This, in English, 
 is the Grand River of the North. 
 
 143. Pecos. This pronunciation is Pa-cos, accent on "Pa." 
 
 144. There are in Western Texas several small streams hav- 
 ing, in the old Spanish titles, the term "San" or "Saint," all 
 the streams flowing to the Rio Grande. 
 
 145. Hee-chee-aque-hono. This long Indian name is said 
 to mean "River of the Prairie-Dog Towns." In the old Mex- 
 ican tongue the river was called also Palo-Duro. 
 
 146. Wichitas. There are two rivers known as Wichitah. 
 Wichitah and Washitaw are the same— the old French Oya- 
 ghita. See Note 129. 
 
THE RIVERS OF TENNESSEE. 
 
 Tennessee ! How were her rivers in the olden In- 
 dian tongue? 
 
 What syllabic rhythm had they ere the white man's 
 changes rung? 
 
 Wasciota and Shewanee, thus the Cumberland 
 was known ; 
 
 With Red, Caney, Obee, Harpeth, and the Sul- 
 phur, New, and Stone. 
 
 HoLSTON once was Hogee-hee-gee ; and, from 
 mouth of French Broad down. 
 
 Which was once the Taqua-Osta, Cootcla on to 
 Chota Town, 
 
 This an Indian " Refuge City " of an ancient, wide re- 
 nown, 
 
 Where there emptied in Tenassa, this the Little 
 Tennessee ; 
 
 Then began great Kalla-Muckee, Chalaqua in 
 Cherokee. 
 
 Once HiAWASSiE was Euphassie, with its brawling, 
 small Chestoa, 
 
 Esta-Nauli, " Where they rested," and Amoah or 
 
 OCCOEE. 
 
 Through Chilhowee comes the Little, this the Red 
 Man's swift Canou ; 
 
THE RIVERS OF TENNESSEE. 85 
 
 Where the wingless Pigeon flutters, once the Agaqua 
 
 they knew. 
 Where Unaka sent his daughter, Salacoi, is Tel- 
 
 Lico ; 
 Where was once the Nauli-chuckee simply Chucky 
 
 now we know. 
 Thundering through the Alleghanies with the Doe is 
 
 yet Watauga ; 
 Out and in, with Georgia pranking, straight to Gulf 
 
 goes CONNESAUGA ; 
 
 Out, but never more returning, " Stream of Death " is 
 
 Chickamauga. 
 Down through Alabama rattling, Rock and Flint 
 
 and Elk they go. 
 White man's rivers, they and Sandy, Duck, Beech, 
 
 Buffalo. 
 But Sequatchie keeps her beauty from the " vandal 
 
 changes" free ; 
 Obed and the dancing Daddee, these glide on to 
 
 Emoree. 
 Where is now the Clinch with Pow^ell, once was 
 
 known as Pellos-Ippe ; 
 Chuckauga, Ree, Mes-Apa, all these were names 
 
 for Mississippi ; 
 Thither going Nanna-conna, Lousa-hatchie, 
 
 Forked-Deer, 
 Wolf, Obion with his Reel - Foot, and Big 
 Hatchie hieing there. 
 
86 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 By these waters fought the Shawnee, Uchee, Choc- 
 taw, Cherokee, 
 Chickasaw, and Chickamauga, Tuscarora, Muscogee. — 
 
 Dead are all those tawny warriors ; but the music of 
 
 the river 
 And the sweet syllabic rhythm of its name shall live 
 
 forever ! 
 
FROM PHOTO, 
 FRANCISCO. CAL., 
 
 CAPT. M. V. MOORE 
 
 NATIVE TENNESSEEAN. 
 
 DEC. 1885. 
 
 
NOTES ON THE RIVER NAMES OF TENNESSEE 
 
 See Note 
 " White man's changes ". 147 
 
 Shewanee 148 
 
 Obee 149 
 
 Taqua-Osta 150 
 
 Chota Town 151 
 
 Tenassa 152 
 
 Hiawassie 153 
 
 Esta-Nauli 154 
 
 Occoee iSS 
 
 Canou 156 
 
 Pigeon 157 
 
 Salacoi igS 
 
 Tellico 159 
 
 Nauli-Chuckee 160 
 
 See Note 
 
 Doe 161 
 
 Watauga 162 
 
 "With Georgia pranking" 163 
 
 Chickamauga 164 
 
 Flint 165 
 
 Sequatchie 166 
 
 Obed 149 
 
 Pellos-Ippe 167 
 
 Chuckauga 168 
 
 Lousa-Hatchie 170 
 
 Wolf 172 
 
 Obion 149 
 
 Big Hatchie 169 
 
 Muscogee 171 
 
 147. Effort is made in these verses to rescue from oblivion, 
 and, if possible, properly preserve in this work the old native 
 appellations of some of the rivers of Tennessee now^ having 
 modern titles. The aboriginal names still in existence are, in 
 many instances, known corruptions, fanciful versions, or mere- 
 ly conjectural forms of the native words. Those who have 
 heard the red men of America in the utterance of their words 
 understand well how vague and unsatisfactory are their enun- 
 ciations, and especially in the vowel sounds. It is also difficult 
 to distinguish the difference in G and K, in D and T, and P and 
 B, on the native tongue. And hence it is that we have among 
 the old words such a wide variety of English writings of the 
 remote originals, these also in many instances conjectural ex- 
 pressions at best. A single vowel ending in a native appella- 
 tion has been given different writings with the English letters 
 A, le, Ee. Our sound of U has been rendered in " Indian " 
 names Ou, Oo, U, leu, and Eau. The name Tennessee in the 
 now adopted orthography is known to be a fanciful coinage 
 from an original word written both Ten-assa and Ten-essa. 
 We pronounce the word with a strong vocalization and accent 
 on the last syllable. And yet the old native pronunciation of 
 the word, as Ten-is-a, with accent on the first syllable, is still 
 
88 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 remembered bj many who heard the name as it had come di- 
 rectly from the native tongue, the vocaHzation of the other syl- 
 lables so indistinct as to admit of the varied writings. The true 
 appellation has been also misapplied. The name Ten-assa — 
 Tennessee, as we now write it— did not belong originally to 
 the chief river of the state as it now does. It was the title of 
 the stream now known as the Little Tennessee. The old 
 Cherokees, who were the most numerous and influential of all 
 the tribes occupying the territory at the time the English colo- 
 nists first came to the country, called the main river Chalaqua. 
 This title applied from the mouth of the Ten-assa down to the 
 Ohio. A dialectic title among some of the natives was Kalla- 
 muckee. The two appellations are substantially the same: 
 Chal-aqua appears to be the pure remote word, the aboriginal 
 coinage; while Kalla-muckee is a tribal or dialectic expression, 
 a corruption of the original. The term " Muckee " denoted in 
 the native mind the idea of "Big Water," or " Much Water;" 
 while the form of the expression as " Uckee " or "Aqua" was 
 simply water or river. Forms of the same terms appear in the 
 writings " Muchee " and "Uchee," the name Kallamuckee sur- 
 viving yet in the Georgia creek appellation now written Calla- 
 muchee. The term as " Muckee" survives in the native appel- 
 lation of Nevada, Winne-Muckee, a deep lake there. (The 
 term "Winne" is referred to in Note 55.) The ancient .word 
 Chalaqua has been perverted in modern writings. It is the 
 true original of the name we now have as " Cherokee." In old 
 chronicles the word is written Chel-akee and Kelakee. The old 
 Cherokee Indians did not use the letter R in their dialect. 
 They were called " Cherokees " by the neighboring tribes, who 
 used the sound of R as the equivalent of L, as do the Japanese 
 of to-day. The term " Chal," or " Kal," as it appears in the 
 dialectic expression, is supposed to have referred originally to 
 that part of the Tennessee River now known as the "Mussel 
 Shoals," and where the current seethes and boils so about the 
 vast limestone ledges in its bed that it has localities named in 
 the common parlance of the boatmen on the river, in such 
 homely and significant expressions as the " Pot," the " Frying 
 Pan," the " Skillet," the " Sucks," etc. The term " Kal " is sup- 
 posed to have been inserted in the original composite word as a 
 descriptive of these features of the river as they appeared on the 
 
THE RIVERS OF TENNESSEE. 89 
 
 native mind. The word is an ancient expression, the remote 
 root whence come our English words coal, caloric, etc. In its 
 original significance the root-word appears to have denoted 
 heat, energy, vehemence, etc. It is in a number of the native 
 appellations of American waters that are noted for their 
 warmth — as the Calousa, of California; as the Caloosa, of Flor- 
 ida — or for their boisterous energy, as the Tennessee. In Ram- 
 sey's "Annals of Tennessee," the author, quoting from Adair, 
 says that the name Cherokee is derived from a word (Cheera). 
 signifying fire. This is analogous with caloric, heat. 
 
 148. Wasciota and Shewanee. These were the native 
 names of the Cumberland, known in different dialects. Wa- 
 Sciota was simply the River Sciota, the sufiix now seen in the 
 appellation of a river in Ohio. The Cumberland was also 
 known as the Wari-ota, the two ancient synonyms *' Wari " 
 and *' Ota " in the one word. (See paragraph 8, the " River 
 Name.") The name as Sewanee is preserved in the title of the 
 great university on the summit of the Cumberland Mountain. 
 The modern appellation of the river is in honor of the English 
 Duke of Cumberland. The old French writing of the name 
 Shewannee was Shavmmon. 
 
 149. Obee. The word is written usually Obey. It is sup- 
 posed to be a corruption of the ancient term "Au-ba," or 
 "Obi," as it appears in the Russian. Three Tennessee names 
 show the old Oriental term : Obee, Obed, Obion. The latter is 
 doubtless Obi-anna. See Notes 29 and 7. 
 
 150. Taqua-Osta. This was the native name of the French 
 Broad. See Note 23. Ramsey gives the name of the French 
 Broad as Agiqua; others give this as the name of the Pigeon^ a 
 tributary of the French Broad. See Note 157. 
 
 151. Chota Town. This was an ancient city of refuge used 
 by the aborigines. It was situated at the mouth of the Little 
 Tennessee where there was an easy crossing on a shallow 
 shoal of the main river. There is now no vestige of the ancient 
 city surviving, but the name "Chota" still remains in the appel- 
 lation of the " Shoal " so well known to boatmen on the river. 
 Elsewhere on the continent the aborigines had their cities of 
 " refuge" governed by the same laws as those which obtained 
 among the Jewish nations of antiquity. See Note 62. How 
 and by whom the ancient Hebraic institution was introduced 
 
90 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 into America will never be known. We have seen, however, 
 that the two peoples — the ancient Hebrews and the old colo- 
 nists of the New World who named its waters — held in com- 
 mon many words, both full names and terms, words that appear 
 to have possessed similar significance in the respective tongues. 
 From Chota Tow n up to the mouth of the French Broad the na- 
 tive name of the river was Cootcla. This appears to have been 
 simply a mere dialectic expression, its significance unknown. 
 Above the French Broad the river now known as Holston was 
 called in the Indian tongue Hogee-he-gee. The term 
 "Hogee" is doubtless simply an aspirate form of the corrup- 
 tion " Okee," river; " Heegee" is an unknown dialectic word. 
 
 152. Tenassa. This name has been referred to Note 147. 
 The word is supposed to mean the "Long River," the stream 
 having for its size an unusually long and winding course 
 through the mountains of East Tennessee and Western North 
 Carolina. The term for river is in the writing "Assa," the 
 purest known form of the primitive word now seen in the old 
 Anglo-Saxon term written usa, ousa, etc, (Note 73,) The 
 Greek term for the sea, Thal-assa, referred to in Note 103, and 
 the Hebrew word Massa reveal the expression. Another form 
 of the word is seen in Note 153, 
 
 153. Hia-Wassie. The original name of this river appears 
 to have been simply Assie, or Wassie. To this appellative 
 different tribes added their dialectic terms for river, giving us 
 four different composites which history and tradition have pre- 
 served as the ancient names of the river. These are Hia- 
 Wassie, Euph-Assa, Na-Quassa, and Re-Quassie. The 
 names give evidence of the synonymous character of the 
 different initials " Hia " (seen in both Hebrew and Chinese); 
 " EuPH," seen in the Greek (of Euphrates) and the Russian (of 
 Oufa) and the germ-words **Ri" and "Na," In Note 155 we 
 find other curious evolutions in the prehistoric tongue. 
 
 154. Esta-Naula. Tradition says this word signifies the 
 place or water " where they [the Indians] rested." The term 
 " Nauli " is seen in two of the Tennessee River names, this and 
 the old appellation Nolly-Chucky, now simply Chucky. The 
 word is found in the Hebrew, in the term for river written in 
 the English letters either Na-hali or Na-auli, We see in this 
 word the remote form of the name Nile, through its Latin garb 
 
THE RIVERS OF TENNESSEE. 91 
 
 IVtlus. The name Esta-nauli has a corruption in the writing 
 Oustenaulee, referred to in Note 65. The initial term in the 
 name, " Esta," appears to refer to rivers or countries where the 
 natives " rested," or where they spent the summer months in 
 hunting and fishing, and away from the low altitudes and 
 warmer latitudes, where they had the winter homes. It is a 
 curious fact that this same term " Esta " is found also in the 
 Latin where it has reference to the summer months. A pure 
 form of the word is in the Alabama creek name Esta-boga, and 
 in the North Carolina name Esta-Toah (see Note 22); while 
 corruptions are seen in the names Oustenauli, of Georgia, and 
 Taqua-osta, of North Carolina. In old chronicles the word is 
 written Oostinahli. Nah-li is a correct form of the Hebrew 
 written Nahal, or Nahauli. 
 
 155. OccoEE. This river was called by the old aborigines 
 also Amoah. The latter name appears to be a corruption of an 
 original word for water or river seen in the Hebrew in the 
 writings Ya-ma, Amaa, and otherwise similarly. A corruption 
 of the true word is seen in the Oriental river name given on 
 our English maps in the writings Amou, Amoo, etc. Another 
 very singular and striking fact in connection with this name is 
 that which shows that the Oriental river known as the Amou 
 was known also to the ancients as Occoa or Accha, the modern 
 writing of the name in the Greek idiom being Oxus, the He- 
 brew as Accho. The final vowel sound in A denotes the pecul- 
 iar idiom of the Indian. In some of the old maps of the coun- 
 try, the name of the river is given as Aquoke, a word which ap- 
 pears to be simply a different dialectic expression of the same 
 original word whence comes Occoe and Occoa. Aquokee ap- 
 plied to the Toccoa also. 
 
 156. Canou. This was the native name of the river now 
 called the Little. The word Can-ou meant originally in the 
 Indian tongue the Caney River. See Note 15. It is found 
 in the composite name of a river in Indiana, Tippa-Canoe. 
 The word "canoe" as applied to a "dug out" boat, is simply a 
 borrowed term, applied without reference to the original 
 meaning, as many of our best English words are. Authorities 
 give the word as an "Indian" term for river, but in the gro- 
 tesque writing Key-nough. 
 
 157. Agaqua. This was the native name of the river now 
 
92 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 called the Pigeon. The significance appears to have been 
 "river where the fields are," places in the valley of the river 
 long cultivated in corn by the Indians. The stream was known 
 also as the Wah-na or Wau-na. See Note 7 for wauna. 
 
 158. Salaquoi. The name is spelled variously in the suffix. 
 The true writing is doubtless Sal-aqua. The word appears to 
 be congeneric with Saluda. See Note 45. This was the leap- 
 ing river, the stream springing out of the high places in Unaka 
 Mountains. This name Unaka, unquestionably a native Indian 
 word, is singularly like the Latin Unka, and our English 
 unique. 
 
 159. Tellico. See Note 53. 
 
 160. Nauli-Chucky. This is the full writing of the name 
 now given in the abbreviation simply Chucky. " Chucky " is 
 said to have been a dialectic word in the Cherokee tongue 
 meaning "dangerous." The term " Nauli " has been referred 
 to in Note 154. The ordinary writing is "Nolly." 
 
 161. Doe. There are two theories in regard to this name. 
 One confounds it with the name Toe or Toah, the North Caro- 
 lina river name referred to Note 22, the two streams having 
 their sources near together. Tradition states that the name 
 " Doe " was applied to the river by the great hunter, Daniel 
 Boone, in commemoration of the fact that he had killed an un- 
 usually large female deer on the banks on the river. It is known 
 that heonce had a hunting-camp at the head waters of the stream, 
 and under the shadow of the Roan Movmtain. This famous peak 
 of the Alleghanies, its very highest point, received its title 
 from a noted old roan horse belonging to the hunter. The 
 animal strayed away from the camp one fall, but was found 
 next spring, fat and sleek, on the summit of the mountain on 
 the rich, grassy " Bald." — I have these facts from an old pioneer 
 of East Tennessee, Christian Razor, who died about 1852, aged 
 over ninety. He had known Boone personally. This man 
 Razor claimed to have been the first man who ever brought a 
 wagon across the Alleghanies from North Carolina into Ten- 
 nessee. 
 
 162. Watauga. See Note 61 for the term Taugua. A sim- 
 ilar name is in Alabama, the writing Autauga. The words ap- 
 pear to have no significance except that of river. 
 
 163. " With Georgia pranking." The Connesaugua runs in 
 
THE RIVERS OF TENNESSEE. 93 
 
 and out across the Georgia state line several times before final- 
 ly making for the gulf through the Coosa of Alabama. AH 
 the other rivers of the state go to the gulf through the Missis- 
 sippi, the majority of their currents first emptying into the Ohio. 
 The oldest writing of the name now known as " Connesaugua " 
 is found in the journals of De Soto, where the word is written 
 Canasaqua. See Note 15 for the term " Can." 
 
 164. CmcKAMAUGA. This word is said to mean " River of 
 Death." There are, however, no reliable data sustaining the 
 tradition except that the native Indians known as the " Chicka- 
 mauga tribe" were the most cruel and bloodthirsty of all the 
 savages who once roamed over this section of the country. The 
 " tradition " is evidently the coinage of a modern fancy, taking 
 advantage of the terrible issues of blood and death occurring 
 on the banks of this river in September, 1863. The initial term 
 in the name is found in many of the native appellations of 
 America — as Chicka, Chico, and Checo. As Chico, it is a Cal- 
 ifornia name. "Mauga" is doubtless the same original word 
 that now appears in the corruptions " Mucky," " Mohawk," 
 etc., referred to Note 147. Doubtless the purest form of the 
 word known is in the writing MaJi-aqna, which the historian 
 George Bancroft gives as the aboriginal title of the Hudson, 
 the word surviving in the corruption Mohawk. The signifi- 
 cance of the expression Mah-aqtia was simply " Great 
 River." 
 
 165. Flint. The native name of this river was Chee-Wali, 
 the word written also Chu-Waula. The Alabama creek name 
 Chee-wa-clee is a kindred expression. The term " Wau-li " 
 has been referred to in Note 112. The term "Che," seen in 
 many of the ancient appellations of America, has its prototype 
 in the river nomenclature of the Old World. In the English 
 writings Tche, Tchai, Tsai, Tsa, there is a Turkish word for 
 river, the word supposed to have been evolved from the sibilant 
 form of the Hebrew Yaa as Sa. In the more modern tongues 
 of the Old World the term is seen in the writings Sa, Su, Sjo, 
 Zee. Our own English word " sea " has the same remote origin 
 whence comes all the forms of the words here given. The 
 modern Turkish word for river written simply Su, is repro- 
 duced exactly in the native name of one of the American 
 rivers written in the Frerich idiom Sioux, 
 
94 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 i66. *' Vandal Changes." The historian Ramsey, in "Annals 
 of Tennessee," sajs that the supplanting of the old native ap- 
 pellations by the modern title was an act of "vandalism." The 
 name Sequatchie has various w^ritings, and a number of "tra- 
 ditional meanings." Its final term " tche " is referred to in 
 Note 165. The word Sequoa is given as a native California 
 word now referring to big trees, and also to a noted chieftain. 
 
 167. Pellos-Ippe. This was the native name of the Clinch 
 River, The title " Clinch " owes its origin to the exclamation of 
 an early explorer who, falling into the waters of the stream, 
 and unable to swim, cried to a companion to "clinch" him, and 
 prevent his drowning. Pellos-ippe is the dark water. The term 
 " ippe " has been referred to in Note 130. It is a native term 
 for water or river. FeUos shows identity with the Greek and 
 Latin word pellos, denoting dark-colored. The waters of the 
 Clinch are supposed to owe their dark tinge to the stains com- 
 ing from the many coal-bearing strata about the sources of 
 the river. 
 
 168. Chuck-Auga. This word is given by De Soto, the dis- 
 coverer, as one of the native names of the Mississippi. See 
 Note 130. The name Chicago is a modernized form of the 
 word. The significance of the expression was not, in the na- 
 tive language, " Windy City." 
 
 169. Hatchie. Our authorities on the native languagues of 
 America give the word Hatchie as a term for river in the Semi- 
 nole and Muscogee dialects. While the word appears to have 
 been used by most of the Southern Indians, it is found also in 
 the British America name, Sax-atcha-wan, and in the New 
 York appellation, Oswego-atchie. The term is found usually 
 in connection with another factor. This is the only instance 
 in which it appears alone as the appellative. " Hatchie " is 
 evidently but an aspirate form of the same word which is seen 
 in the Celtic as Acka, in the Italian as Aci (atchie), and in the 
 French as Atx. In the old dialects of the British Islands the 
 same word is written Axe, Exe^ and Uxe, a term for water or 
 river, but used as an appellative. Axe and Exe are river names 
 in England. As Ouche the name is in France; as Ouchy in 
 Switzerland; and as Oochee in China. We have the word in 
 our Indian nomenclature as Uchee, Ucha, Uchi. The names 
 Jujuy, a river of South America; Ujjiji, ^ lake gf Central 
 
THE RIVERS OF TENNESSEE. 95 
 
 Africa; and Ujjijai, a town of Spain, are apparently simply 
 variations of the same ancestral word. 
 
 170. Lousa-Hatchie. The term Hatchie is referred to 
 above; " Lousa " in Notes 89 and 100. The latter is found in 
 different parts of the world in the prehistoric river nomencla- 
 ture. In the English transcripts from the Russian and Central 
 African names, the writing is Louza. We find the term in the 
 Indian names both as initial and also as the final, as in Lousa- 
 scoona, Tusca-loosa. The word owes origin to the germ Lu, 
 the flowing, and otisa, water. See Note 103 for TJialassa. 
 
 171. Muscogee. The native accent was originally on the 
 last syllable; but in the modern tongue we hear it also as Mus- 
 co-ga, with the accent on the second syllable. The word was 
 originally written Mus-qua-kee. 
 
 172. Wolf. Ramsey, in "Annals of Tennessee," gives the 
 native name of this river as " Margot." A final syllable has 
 evidently been suppressed. The true word doubtless was 
 Mahgotah or Magota, the etymological equivalent of the South- 
 Americaii name, Bosfota. 
 
THE RIVER NAME: 
 
 ITS ORIGIN AND HIS TOR 2'. 
 
 As the majority of the aboriginal river names of 
 America are supposed to have been coined from types 
 preexistent, and now seen in the Old World languages, 
 it is apparent that the primitive colonists of the New 
 World, who named its waters originally, had either a 
 knowledge of those types or a knowledge of the ver- 
 bal science and art revealed in the structure of the 
 words. It will be well, therefore, to glance briefly at 
 the known history of the Old World words, before we 
 can appreciate fully or properly the character of the 
 native Indian names of America. 
 
 I. The history of the Water and River Nomencla- 
 tures of the Old World is sufHciently well known to 
 etymologists to have enabled them to determine and 
 specify distinctly the verbal roots or germ-words in hu- 
 man language out of which definite terms and names 
 were coined by the primitive man for the expression of 
 ideas and facts in connection with the subject. It is 
 supposed that many of the primordial root-words now 
 seen in our language had their origin mainly in the 
 principles of onomatopy — in the suggestive expressions 
 of the things or phenomona to be named. Objects in 
 rapid motion — and especially machinery, certain birds, 
 as well as currents of water — make a peculiar sound, 
 which is quite fitly expressed in our word " whirr " — 
 with two Rs. It has been observed that in most Eng- 
 lish words indicative of the idea of rapidity of motion 
 there is the letter R — as in rush, run, whirl, race, etc, 
 
THE RIVER NAME. 97 
 
 Kindred expressions are seen in writings with the kin- 
 dred letter L — as in fleet, flitting, flow, etc. The ma- 
 jority of ancient terms for river, or stream of flowing 
 water, contain a root-word having one or the other of 
 the letters R or L. Etymologists have given these 
 root-words, in their primordial forms, the English 
 writings " Ri," " Rii," " Rha," or similarly otherwise 
 with the letter R ; the germ in L being " Li," " Lu," 
 or " Flu." The Greek form of the word denoting pri- 
 marily motion is in the writing " Flu," out of which 
 has grown a large family of words having reference 
 primarily to movement. In combination with an an- 
 cient germ-word for water, written in English both 
 " Wa " and " Va," the term " flu " makes the word for 
 river seen in the pure English idiom as Jlzi-wa or 
 Jlu-va^ or in the Greek and Latin idioms Jluvios 
 and Jluvius. Forms parallel with these words, and 
 showing the germ-word in R, give the term for river 
 as ri-va or ri-tva — rivus of the Roman idiom. In 
 the Spanish idiom the same word is 7'i-oo — the ex- 
 pression " Oo " the exact synonym of " Wa " and 
 " Va," the latter representing the Teutonic idioms, 
 while the writing as " Oo " comes from the ancient 
 Basque form of the word for water, this now denoted 
 usually in the French idiom as Eau, sometimes Eu. 
 
 2. The very oldest of all the written forms of the 
 ancient germ- words for water are found in the Hebrew. 
 The generic word for water in that language is written 
 in our letter M — the full expression either Mo, Maa, 
 Aam or Yaam. The origin of the Hebrew term for 
 water in the symbol English M is traced to a word 
 written variously in the ancient Hebrew as Yaam, Yomj 
 Yaama, Aa-Ma and Ho-Ma, this being the expression 
 7 
 
98 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 which the Mosaic record gives as the name applied by 
 God, the Creator, in the morning of time, when He 
 gathered the waters together, and called them seas. 
 Out of the initial sound in this divine word for the 
 " gathered waters," there appears to have been evolved 
 all those syllabic expressions denoting primarily wa- 
 ter, and seen now in the Hebrew writings in. the 
 English forms as '- Yeo," " Ya," " Y," " U," " Ai," 
 " Hai," " Owa," " Oah," and reproduced in the modern 
 English writings from the ancient languages and dia- 
 lects of Western Europe and the British Islands also as 
 "Yeo," "Eo," "Ae," " Eau," " Ou," "Aa," "Ah," 
 " Wa," " Va," and otherwise. Authorities give about 
 twenty different writings of the one word as a term 
 for water in the ancient European languages. As 
 "Aa," "Au," "Aue," " Yeo," " Eu," " Wye," " Vie," 
 and " Y," it has survived as the name of more than 
 thirty European rivers and other streams — the appella- 
 tions being prehistoric. 
 
 3. In the ancient Oriental languages the symbol for 
 water is given in characters which correspond to Eng- 
 lish P and B. In the Sanskrit the full writing of the 
 word for water is either Ap or Pa, or more fully as 
 Ap-aa, a form seen in the old Wallachian or Dacian 
 tongue, which is supposed to have perpetuated the pure 
 word in its entirety. In the Arabic and Persian the 
 word for water is in the writing with the labial B, as 
 Ba, or Au-Ba. In the ancient Egyptian tongues the 
 writing was in M as in the Hebrew — this labial the 
 symbol generally for most of the Semitic tongues. The 
 full writing in the Coptic was Mu or Moo, this form 
 seen in the old Turkish. In the pure Hebraic the 
 writing was either Maa or Mo. 
 
THE RIVER NAME. 99 
 
 4. The primordial germ-word indicative of the idea 
 of depth, as relating to waters, appears in the ancient 
 languages of the Old World in the English writings 
 both as " Te " and as " De." The oldest form of the 
 word deep is in the Hebrew, where it appears as Te- 
 Am, or Te-ho-ma — the aspirate H in the Hebrew with- 
 out true etymological value. The real and full signifi- 
 cance of the word, in Hebrew, is deep zvatei's — the 
 term " Am " or " Homa " denoting, in that tongue, wa- 
 ters. The idea of perpetuity, as this relates to the mo- 
 tion of waters in the river or other stream, was denoted 
 in the ancient Old World tongues, in our English wri- 
 ting, " Na." The fact is illustrated in the Hebrew 
 name Ama-na, the exact equivalent of the Arabic 
 form of the word as Aba-na — the river known in the 
 history of Naaman. The word is given a translation 
 in Isaiah, where it is rendered as waters which are 
 perpetual. (Chapter Iviii., verse 11.) 
 
 5. These facts show us that the ancient river no- 
 menclature of the Old World contained only six or sev. 
 en primordial germ-words. Out of this brief store the 
 primitive nations of mankind wrought their words, 
 both terms and names, for water and river. In 
 what age of the world these germ-words became gen- 
 erally known is a problem indeterminate. It is a fact, 
 however, that each and all the primordial words I have 
 named are contained and illustrated in the river names 
 of Eden — words which were doubtless coined by Adam 
 himself. 
 
 6. In order to enable the reader to revert to the facts 
 in future references, and in a prompt and convenient 
 view, the following epitome of the above paragraphs, 
 is made, showing at a glance the germ or root words. 
 
100 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 with their significance as used in ancient river nomen- 
 clature : 
 
 Mo, or Maa, Ba, or Aub, Ap, or Pa, are the labial 
 forms of the primitive w^ord for w^ater. 
 
 Au, Ecu, or Yeo, Ya, or Hai, and Wa, and Va, are 
 vow^el forms of the word for water. 
 
 Te or De denotes the idea of the deep in connection 
 with water. 
 
 Ri, or Li, and their idiomatic forms " Ru," " Wra,"^ 
 " Rha," " Flu," and " Flo," indicate the fact of motion 
 as connected with waters. 
 
 Na denotes the idea of perpetuity of motion in 
 waters. 
 
 7. In some of the ancient languages the labials were 
 all used interchangeably. The fact is especially true of 
 the Hebrew, in which tongue the labial germ- word for 
 water appears as frequently in B and P as in M, in 
 all composite expressions. As the individual symbol 
 for water, the letter M alone was used. 
 
 8. In the list of expressions representing the vowel 
 germ for water, there is doubtless but one true original 
 — the others being mere idiomatic forms of the ances- 
 tral word — this supposed to have been the Hebrew AU, 
 There are four different ancient writings of the term, 
 these supposed to have been coeval in origin — the vari- 
 ations doubtless due to national idiom or to the mere 
 conjectures of copyists, or translators, in supplying 
 vowels in words originally written only in the conso- 
 nantal symbols. In a composite with the germ word 
 " Ri," the running, the word appears in the old Egyp- 
 tian Coptic and Hebrew terms for river, now seen in 
 the English versions as Yu-bali, Yeo-ri, Au-ri, and 
 Eia-ro. The last three are all the same word unques- 
 
THE RIVER NAME. 101 
 
 tionably, but in varying idioms. The modern Turkish 
 idiom shows the term as Ya-ro — a form seen also in 
 the native Australian river name Yara-Yara. Another 
 form of the same term is in the Celtic word for river 
 written either Aar, Ayre, Ahre, or Ayr. This is re- 
 garded as the true original of the river names of West- 
 ern Europe and the British Islands now written Ayr, 
 Ohre, Aure, and Ayre. The old Chaldee corruption 
 as Ur or U-re is found in prehistoric names of rivers 
 in nearly every part of the world. It is conspicuous in 
 the river nomenclature of the aborigines of America, 
 two rivers of the United States having this old Chaldee 
 word as the native title : the Ouray of Colorado and 
 Ouri of Texas. The term is seen also as the sufHx in 
 the name Missouri. All forms of the term appear in 
 the names of Southern rivers, as we see elsewhere in 
 this work. 
 
 9. The history of river nomenclature shows that 
 originally in the primitive tongue of the nations the 
 water received no other title than that which conveyed 
 the idea simply of water, or water in one of its varying 
 conditions of depth or motion. Streams were named 
 before the purely descriptive adjective or the mere hon- 
 orary term was known in connection with waters. But 
 we now find ancient appellations which are composites 
 showing two or more actual synonyms in their struc- 
 tures. Indeed, in some of the oldest names for waters 
 in existence there is this feature of the word : it con- 
 tains pure synonyms. Even the river names of Eden 
 are no exception to the rule. 
 
 10. The majority of the names of antiquity showing 
 the two synonyms in the one word originated in this 
 way : Originally — as I have just said — the water bore 
 
102 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 a title that was simply a national term for water or 
 stream, the word representing the idiom of a tongue 
 corrupted (or " confused," in the Scripture expression). 
 It was doubtless an effort to reproduce a remote origi- 
 nal perverted in the Divine purpose at Babel, as well as 
 resulting from the imperfections of human memory, 
 which alone, for countless centuries, kept the words 
 until the art of writing was finally invented. In a sub- 
 sequent age, and on the occupation of the various coun- 
 tries by new peoples speaking a different language from 
 that of the primitive colonists, the old names were not 
 supplanted ; but they were referred to in the terms for 
 water or river in the tongue of the new nations. In proc- 
 ess of time the two terms — the old and the new — grew 
 into the one appellation. Examples are known where 
 there are as many as three synonyms in a single name 
 of a water. The words afford curious and valuable 
 studies not only in language, but also in human history 
 otherwise. The very footsteps of the ancient migra- 
 ting man, of extinct tongues and extinct nations, have 
 been traced over continents by the shreds of language 
 left in the nomenclature of the countries. 
 
 II. The history of the river names of Spain affords 
 some of the most interesting and valuable illustrations 
 of the facts just referred to. Take, for instance, the 
 name we have on the maps of that country as Guadel- 
 quiver. The original title of that water was Chebar or 
 Kabar. This was a Hebrew term for river, used in 
 the days of Ezekiel, in the appellative sense, as the 
 name of the stream upon which the prophet began his ca- 
 reer. In some unknown age of the world the word was 
 borne to the west of Europe, and applied as the name 
 of the water in Spain. In the conquest of that coun- 
 
THE RIVER NAME. 103 
 
 try by the Moors of Africa they applied to the old pre- 
 existent title their national term for " the river " — this 
 being " Wady," river, and " el," t/ie — the full expres- 
 sion becoming " Wady-el-Kabar." In the Spanish id- 
 iom — which writes the English sound of " Wa " in the 
 letters Gzia, and gives " Ka " as ^zn, and V for B — the 
 Moorish phrase of three words is converted into the 
 single beautiful appellation Guadelquiver. This one 
 word reveals the touch of three distinct and different 
 tongues — the modern Spanish, the Arabic Moor, and 
 the remote unknown Semitic — this latter representing 
 a race of people who, hundreds of years before the ad- 
 vents of the Romans and Christianity, colonized West- 
 ern Europe, and left in the languages there the scores 
 of Hebraisms and other Oriental terms now found in 
 the ancient river and water nomenclatures of the 
 country. 
 
 12. The Arabic or Moorish influences in connection 
 with Oriental forms of speech are to-day visible in much 
 of the river nomenclature of Spain. The interesting 
 appellation Guadeloupe is the Arabic " Wady-el" (the 
 river) with a suffix in a corruption with the Sanskrit 
 Ap-aa (water) as "Oupe." This corruption has two 
 well-known forms — the old Slavonic as " Ou-pa," or 
 " U-pa," and the Greek as " Eu-pha," or " Eu-fa," seen 
 in the name Euphrates. This latter is one of the river 
 names of Eden, not in its Hebraic form, but retained — 
 as many of the Biblical names have appeared — in the 
 English versions of the Scriptures, in their old Greek 
 and Latin idioms, and not at all times in the pure He- 
 braisms. The true Hebrew of the word, as Greek 
 Euphrates, originally written only in the symbols cor- 
 responding to English P-R-T, appears fully in the 
 
104 SOUTHERN RI\ 'ERS. 
 
 writing as Aa-pa-ri-te — this a form of the word corre- 
 sponding with its oldest expression in the Greek of He- 
 rodotus — before the days of the Hellenic classicism. 
 The corruptions " Ou-pa " and "Oo-fa" are found in 
 many of the prehistoric names of waters, and especially 
 in Russia and the Southern states. We have had oc- 
 casion to revert to this fact in a number of the Notes 
 of this work. 
 
 13. There is also another Oriental term for river seen 
 frequently in the names of the waters of Southwest- 
 ern Europe, to which we have had occasion to refer in 
 numerous Notes. This is the word found in the 
 Persian as "Ain," and in the Hebrew as "Ain," " On," 
 "Au-na," and frequently as " En " simply — as in the 
 names En-rogel, En-Gady, etc. The suffix in this lat- 
 ter Hebrew brook name is identical with the Arabic 
 term " Wady " above noticed. A curious fact, and one 
 well illustrating the history of river names, is that which 
 shows that the name Ain-Gady, with its composite fac- 
 tors in inverted order, is the same as the Spanish river 
 name now written Guadi-anna. The pure and full 
 form of the latter term was in the Hebrew in the pro- 
 nunciation as "Au-na," the abbreviation as " En " and 
 *' On " simply an Anglicism. We have seen this Orien- 
 tal term, "Au-na," in a number of its Old W^orld forms 
 in the native Indian names of waters in many in- 
 stances. And even the Arabic term, both as " Watte " 
 and " Guati," is conspicuous in the appellations of the 
 aborigines of the continent — some of the facts given 
 in the Notes. "Au-na" is the germ-words Au, wa- 
 ter, and Na, the perpetually flowing. 
 
 14. One more Oriental term seen in the native names 
 of America deserves a reference before we dismiss 
 
THE RIVER NAME. 105 
 
 the subject. It is seen with a composite factor in the 
 Russian name Dneiper. This word is an EngHsh ab- 
 breviation of the true word in the Slavonic as Dena- 
 apri, or in the French idiom as Danapris. This name 
 has the two synonyms, " Dena " and "Apri." " Dena " 
 is the word which we see so frequently in the river 
 names of the Old World in the writings " Don," " Dan," 
 " Tan," " Ton," " Doon," " Dun," and otherwise simi- 
 larly. Its oldest form is in the Hebrew river name 
 written in the Scriptures Dan, and in the modern Ara- 
 bic Dahn, the word applying originally and yet to the 
 deep fountain which in the Syrian hills is the wonder- 
 ful source of the river known as the " Dan." The 
 name occurs in the Biblical annals in a period five hun- 
 dred years anterior to the birth of the man Dan. Its 
 companion "Ap-ri " in the Russian appellation is an 
 Oriental term for river showing origin in the germ- 
 words Sanskrit " Ap " and " Ri " — these also the ances- 
 tors of the kindred Latin term " Ri-pa," synonymous 
 with " Ri-va," river. A very interesting and striking 
 fact in connection with the name Dneiper is that which 
 shows that it is substantially the identical word which 
 appears in the Greek idiom as Borysthenes. This is the 
 old Arabic title of the river, rendered in the English 
 equivalents of the Greek letters. The original name of 
 the river was simply " Dena." In other words, it was 
 once one of the " Dons " of Russia. The national term 
 -'Apri," applied as the suffix to the primitive appellation 
 by the Orientals, giving the name Dena-apri, or Dneiper. 
 The Southern Arabs, whose national term for river has 
 been for many centuries " Ba-ri," or simply water run- 
 ning — the word frequently written " Bahr," " Bar," and 
 " Bor," applying their word as the prefix, the full ex- 
 
106 SOUTHERN RIVERS. 
 
 pression became Bari-Dena. This in the Greek idiom 
 is, as I have just said, Borysthenes. The true Arabic 
 name is discovered still in the English writing of the 
 name of a great city on the banks of the river, Bo- 
 rodina, made memorable by the terrific battle fought 
 there by Napoleon in the disastrous Russian campaign. 
 The term " De-na " is simply a composite of the germ- 
 v^ords De, the deep, and Na, the perpetually flowing. 
 The word as " Dee " was used in the appellative sense 
 by the ancient colonists of the British Islands as the 
 name for rivers. An old Scottish corruption is in the 
 writing *' Tay." The term " Tau," found also as the 
 river name in England, and also as the native Indian 
 name of a river in North Carolina, appearing further- 
 more in numerous composite appellations of rivers in 
 the Southern states, is not regarded as precisely the 
 same word. It shows origin in the two germs or root- 
 words " Te " and "Au." A further reference to this ex- 
 pression is made in Note 20. The aborigines of Amer- 
 ica appear to have used the word " Dee " in the same 
 sense in which it is found in the old Anglo-Saxon or 
 Scotch name, expressive of the deep water or deep 
 river, but usually as a suffix, as in the names Sand-Dee 
 (Santee, Note 50), Pee-Dee, etc. 
 
 15. The limits and purpose of this work forbid a 
 fuller discussion of the history of river nomenclature 
 in these pages. What has been written is given solely 
 with a view to making clear in the mind of the reader 
 some of the problems which appear in the Note refer- 
 ences to the river names of the aborigines of America, 
 and especially in connection with some of the Indian 
 appellations of the Southern states. Nowhere on earth 
 are the ancient Old World terms for river and water 
 
THE RIVER NAME. 107 
 
 seen with a greater degree of distinctness and accuracy 
 than in many of the names that have been long re- 
 garded as the coinage of the " savages " of America. 
 I do not pretend to advance any theory in these pages 
 as to the primitive sources of the words ; there is no 
 wisdom of to-day that can show clearly whence came 
 the knowledge of the ancient pioneers of the Western 
 World who first named its waters. I simply place on 
 record in my pages the facts as gleaned from historic 
 archives. In regard to the conclusions which may be 
 drawn from the premises, the reader is entitled to his 
 or her own opinions. I shall not make the work a ve- 
 hicle for the expression of my individual views here. 
 
LIBRARY 
 
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