Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/471

 Forgotten Indian Place-Names in the Adirondacks. 123

��SOME FORGOTTEN INDIAN PLACE-NAMES IN THE ADIRONDACKS.

The mountainous district known as the Adirondacks, comprising parts of Lewis, Herkimer, Fulton, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Clinton, Essex, and Warren counties in northern New York State, takes its name from a well-known Mohawk word, ratirontaks, ' they eat trees ' or ' those who eat trees ' (masc. plur.). This term is in reg- ular use at the present day among the Mohawks at Caughnawauga, P. Q., and elsewhere, to denote the so-called " Algonquin " * tribe who formerly had their headquarters at Oka (Lac des Deux Mont- agnes), not far from Montreal, but who are now, with the exception of a few families still resident at Oka, scattered throughout the whole of eastern Canada. These Algonquins, who are really a branch of the Ojibwe-Ottawa division of the Algic family, were wont in former days to hunt extensively in the Adirondack region, which was accordingly named after them by the Mohawk-Iroquois, who also ranged through the same territory.

The term Ratirontaks, 'tree' or 'wood eaters,' as applied to this sept, simply indicates that the Algonquins, like the rest of their eastern Algic congeners, were essentially forest Indians, in contra- distinction to the Iroquois, who called themselves Ratinonsionni, ' those who build cabins.' 2 There can be no doubt that Ratirontaks was originally a term of opprobrium in the mouth of the Iroquois, whose whole history shows an unceasing warfare with the Algic clans. A curious but probably incorrect tradition still exists among the Mohawks of the St. Regis Falls Reserve, that the Algonquins were called ' tree-eaters,' owing to their habit of clearing streams for their canoes by cutting trees and logs which had fallen across the water-ways. This is of course not a distinctively Algonquin trait.

1 For the language of the " Algonquins," cf. J. A. Cuoq, Lexiqtie de la langue Algonquine, Montreal, 1886; " Grammaire de la langue Algonquine " in Me- moires S. R. Canada, 1891. The Rev. J. Guillaume Forbes, Roman Catholic missionary at Caughnawauga, P. Q., kindly informs me that ratirontaks is a poly- synthetic combination of ktironta, ' tree, wood,' and ikeks, ' I eat.' The following examples of the conjugation of the verb ' I am an Algonquin ' will illustrate the Iroquois grammatical method : —

KSrontdks, ' I am an Algonquin,' e. g. ' I eat wood.' sSrontdks, ' thou,' etc. rarontdks, ' he,' etc. ttwardntaks, ' we, you, and I,' etc. iakviardntaks, 'we, they, and I,' etc. ratirontaks, ' they,' etc. Cf. also on this word, Cuoq, Lexiqtie de la langue Iroquoise, p. 39.

2 So Forbes. This is a verbal form from kdnonsa, ' house, cabin.'

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