rary with the painting. Strachey's form, Tsenahcommacah, he probably obtained from some Indian frequenting Jamestown, perhaps from Kemps, the Indian who gave him the names of Powhatan's dozen wives, and whom he mentions as having died at Jamestown in 1612, after living with the colonists for nearly a year (Historie, p. 53).

While these two forms of the native name of Virginia are seemingly from different sources, their identity is apparent, the difference between them being due more perhaps to individual utterance than to any dialectal change. This appears plain when we compare the two- Attanoughkomouck and Tsenahcommacah-for then we find that the vowel sound of the initial a in the former was either discarded or was not heard in the latter, and that the second t was changed by assibilation into s, with resulting change in the vowels, which would make the name Attanohcommacah a difference that would happen to any name spoken by a person who uses correct language, contrasted with the same spoken by a person with an impediment in speech, or with a decided lisp.

However this may be, in illustrating the etymology of the term I shall proceed as if the two forms were dialectally different and analyze them separately with the aid of the two most prominent New England dialects, for in its vocabulary the Powhatan is closer to these two than to any other of the Algonquin family. I have made this statement before in some of my essays, but it will do no harm to repeat it here. In fact it is difficult to give its equivalent from any other dialect, owing to lack of vocabulistic material; and this is especially true of the Lenape, so far as this name is concerned. It seems singular, however, that Smith does not refer to the name in any way, and the term most nearly approaching it is where he quotes Pory (page 507), who in 1621 visited a town called Attoughcomaco' on Pawtuxunt river, the habitation of Namenacus and of Wamanato his brother, where Pory was shown many cornfields, which might indicate, as will be observed, the same derivation for this name as the other.

We have considered that these two early forms are sufficient for

1 While this town is not named on Smith's map of Virginia, it appears to have been situated on the south side of Patuxent river, in what is now Calvert county, Maryland. Bozman, Hist. Maryland, book 1, p. 149.

our present purpose, and so have not searched further than the authorities given for others of the same period.

Attanoughkomouck finds its equivalent in the Natick adtanohkomuk (= adtan-ohke-komuk), from adtan-, dtan-, or tan-,' as Eliot varies it, 'growing,' 'producing,' as land does by cultivation; ohke 'land,' 'ground'; komouck or comaco (= Natick komuk, = Narragansett kamuck, or commuck), house,' 'inclosure,' 'an inclosed place,' hence 'land inclosed for producing or growing.' There is another constructive form, frequently used by Eliot, in several variations, which is very similar to the foregoing in meaning but not in grammar, viz. : adtanohketeamuk (= adtan-ohketea-muk), ‘a garden,' or 'where the ground is planted for growing'; ohketeau, 'he plants or sows,' with the termination -muk, which Trumbull variously calls the suppositive, passive, or present conditional-passive form of the verb.

3

Strachey's Tsenahcommacah finds its cognate form which has about the same letter change as before mentioned, i. e., t to s, in the Narraganset sanáukamuck ( = san-áuke-kamuck), 'land,' 1st pers. sing. nissawnáwkamuck (= nis-sawn-awke-kamuck), 'my land,' literally land inclosed for producing or growing,' and so by free translation the name may be interpreted as 'a plantation,' and its meaning perhaps was so understood by the Virginia colonists.'

4

Trumbull's suggestion that the Narraganset term was perhaps the same as sowanohkomuk (=sowan-ohke-komuk), 'south land,' 'a field with a southern exposure,' is not acceptable from any point of view; and it will not stand analysis, for the Powhatan term chowan Natick sowan = Narraganset sowwan, south,' hence the Powhatan chowanock Natick sowanohke, 'south land,' which indicates that there is no cognation in the prefix with the Narraganset san or the Natick tan.

=

1 My authority for the use of this prefix is Eliot's Bible. As it occurs in various compounds, it refers to 'growing,' or 'producing,' from the beginning of cultivation, while adtannekin, or tannekin (= adtan-nekin) has reference to complete growth, as when a tree fruits. This is plainly seen in the Abnaki cognate : tzanig8, 'il cesse de croitre' Rasle.

2 Tanohketeaonganit, Deut. XI, 10 (=tan-ohketea-onganit), 'a garden'; tanohketeaonk, Solomon, IV, 12, 'a garden.'

3 Compare Narraganset (Williams) wuskáukamuck (=wuske-auke-kamuck), ‘new ground,' from wuske 'new,' 'fresh,' 'young,' hence 'new ground inclosed.'

♦ Natick Dictionary, p. 145.

For a final word as to Pocahontas, the woman, let us remember the unbounded obligations we are under for her part in preserving this "plantation alias Virginia," of which Smith (pp. 531-532) testifies in his letter to Queen Anne: "James towne with her wild traine she as freely frequented, as her fathers habitation; and during the time of two or three yeeres [1608-09], she next vnder God, was still the instrument to preserue this Colonie from death, famine and vtter confusion; which if in those times, [it] had once beene dissolued, Virginia might haue line [lain] as it was at our arriuall to this day. She was the first Christian euer of that Nation, the first sense Nonsense Virginian euer spake English."

SAG HARBOR,

NEW YORK.

A PUBERTY CEREMONY OF THE MISSION INDIANS1

BY HORATIO N. RUST

In 1889 the author attended a puberty ceremony of the Mission Indians at Campo near the Mexican line in southern California. Word had been sent out that the ceremony would be held near this place. Friendly tribes were invited. Among others twentyfive Yumas came across the desert by a trail which leads by the new settlement of Imperial. The writer saw them crossing a mountain ridge mounted on ponies, in Indian file, gaily attired, presenting a most picturesque sight.

An Indian fiesta is usually much the same, though it may be assembled for various purposes. It consists of a general gathering of entire families, and eating, drinking, horse-racing, gambling, and all kinds of merrymaking are indulged in night and day continuously for about a week, or until food is exhausted and the sharpest gamblers have secured all the money and valuables at hand.

The present ceremony has been observed by the different tribes. of Mission Indians of southern California from time immemorial. It has been described under various names, such as the "roasting of girls." It was learned from careful inquiry among the old women that the object of the ceremony is to prepare the girls for matrimony. As they arrive at the age of puberty they are informed of the object of the ceremony and told that they have been selected for it. They look forward to the event with pleasure rather than dread, for contrary to what has been represented there is nothing in it that is repulsive. The object of the present account of this ceremony as it was witnessed is particularly to show its relation to a certain sacred curved stone which was then new to the author, and to point out its possible relation to the sacrificial yoke or "Maya stone" of Mexico.

1 Read at the meeting of the American Anthropological Association, San Francisco, August 30.