The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1885-10-15
POETIC INDIAN NAMES.

1CODOcAASt-1>ltcTaI Ir3DSiatlOn.
[CharTeston News and Courier
1t is not that the savage of old times
has changed-we are only coming to
know him better. Chingachgook and
Uncas and Hiawatha and Powhatan.
and all the rest of them, We're the same
as their descendants and representatives
of today, only we look at them afar off,
Though the cloudy, softening atmos-
phere Of fiction and of history which is
bat little better than fiction. The noble
red man of to-day eats grasshoppers and
seldom bathes, and there is good reason
to believe that Red Jacket and King
Philip were not ihsensible to the attrac-
lions of roast dog as an article of diet
The poetry with which the race has been
invested does not pertain to them. 1t
had its origin and end in the imagination
of those who have rhapsodized concern
ing them, and the true, original savage
was ever and remains a heather and
nothing more-until he is civilized.
In no particular. perhaps, is this fact
made palmer than in respect :of the
names which these heathens conferred
upon the places where they once dwelt,
but which now happily know them no
more. First, rs regards their own
names. When we find that the mel
hf1uent, nagniloquent and pollysyllabic
titles of to-day are transferable into
such nicknames as Scar Faced Charley,
Hole-in His Blanket, ShacknaSty Jim,
Young Man Afraid of His Mother-in-
Law, One Eyed Blacksnake and Old
Man W ho Won t-Pay-His Debts, what
confidence, we ask, can DO reposed in
the claim that corresponding titles in
ancient times meant Eagle-Eye, Heart
of Stone, The Great Warrior, Swift
Arrow, Boss in His Own Wigwam, or
other such condensed expressions of the
recognition of savage heroic attributes?
1t is no better when we look into the
origin and derivation of names of rivers
and places. Passing by such unpro-
nounceable and outrageous combinations
as Mayaguaduvid, MOlechemumk,
MOOselumaguntic, and Chinquassabam-
took as being hopelessly and defantlY
heathenish in their essential construc-
ton, and possessing little or no interest
except in so far as they indicate nature
of the soil or the devious course of the
rivers, in the localities to which they
have been applied, we arrive at the con-
sideration of certain names which con-
Germ US more nearly. ''Eufaula," we
have found, means a liquidated cur,
and not a blooming rose or fragrant
magnolia, or anything of that kind.
tChAttahooohe," likewise, does not
mean the Silver. Path to the Sea, but
rather. Very Muddy, as well as we re-
member.
~'MSsissippi' has long masqueraded
IS the Father of Waters old Indians,
however, told the early settlers that it
meaH what may be very nearly ex-
pressed by the general term Big Ugly.
''Calnba, the name of one of the
streams in Alabama, has always been
Translated Beautiful River The full
Indian name, however, was Cahaba- hia,
or Chunk, pile, by which term they in
dcated ~ their own satisfaction the
fact that it's classic shores were always
lined to an unusual extent with drift
wood. "ChoccolOcco" is the name of an
other Alabama stream, a creek of con-
siderable size which runs through a
famous valley of the same name. 1t
has been claimed by those who have
land to sell in the valley, that the
creek was named from the valley, and
that ChoccoloccO means In the
aboriginal vernacular, ga val
ley Astounding in rich minerals"
The more literal inhabitants who have
not lands for sale state that the original
name was Chocoo Thiocco, or High
Horse, indicating that the stream was
too deep to be forded on pony ITALIA
poosa was never synonym for happy
homes" but was simply 1.-The dog
town" Taledega was "the cat-town,"
of course, and the list might be ex-
tended indefinitely.
1t is not necessary or desirable, how
ever to pursue the painful theme any
further. 1t is not pleasant task to
uudeceive people in regard to their most
cherished beliefs, and the iconoclast is
not always regarded as public bene-
factor. Whatever may have been the
original meaning of the names which
We have mentioned, it is plain that the
Interpretation now put upon them is
much more agreeable in every way and
further search might lead to unpleas-
ant discoveries in regard TO like names
nearer home.
Manners and Men