It is believed the priests of the ancient Mohegans made similar distortion of their words, for similiar ends, and that the terms Moh hi Kan and Moh hin gan, used by the early French missionary writers for this tribe, furnish the origin of the term. The term itself, it is to be understood, by which the tribe is known to us, is not the true Indian ; but has been shorn of a part of its sound, by the early Dutch, French and English writers. The modern tribe of the Mohegans, to whom allusion has been made, called themselves Muhhekaniew. This is, manifestly, a compound declarative phrase, and not a simple nominative, and is equivalent to the phrase, " I am a Mohegan." It is in accordance both with religious custom, and the usage of the Indian priesthood, to infer a unity of superstitious practices in nearly affiliated tribes. In this manner the word " Mohegan " was used to denote, not a common wolf, but the caries lupus, under the supposed influence of medical or necromantic arts. In other words, Mohegan was a phrase to denote an enchanted wolf, or a wolf of supernatural power. This was the badge or arms of the tribe, rather than the name of the tribe itself. And this, also, it may be inferred, constituted originally, the point of distinction between them and the Minci, or wol ftribe proper. The affinities of the Mohegans with the Minci, or Moncess, on the west banks of the Hudson, and through them with the Delaiuares, are apparent in the language, and were well recognized at the era of the settlement."*1