The last settlement of the Nappeckamak Indians remembered in this town stood near the present residence of Abraham Fowler, on a rising bank of the Neperah (Saw Mill.) The crystal waters of this sweet stream (which rims principally north and south) arise from two perennial springs in
a Alb. Rec. C. C. G2.
t Sometimes called the Younger Van Dunke. Assize Rec. Alb. 47.
« Alb. Rec. viii. 79, 80 ; Hcl. Doc. vi. 118 ; Book of Pat. i. 5(J ; O'Callaghan's Hist. N. N. 28-2.
d Valentine receipts for rent.
« Nipi, in the old Algonkin, signifies water; Nicp, in the Montauk. Traas. Amer. Antiq See. ii. ., ■ •.:-,.
COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER. 403
the bosom of the Chappequa hills. ^ To this nymph of the valley the Indians (as their custom was) offered sacrifice, the perpt>- tuity of her motion typyfying to them the eternity of God.
^h,.
Indian Rock, Meglikccka=sin, or Aiiucka'-Jiii.
In the north- west corner of this town, west of the Saw Mill, (Neperah) is situated the rock Meg-hkeckassin, A?nackassin, or the great stone, sometimes called Meg-hkeckassin, and Macakassin, a name probably derived from two Delaware words, ^'- Mekhkakhsin,^^ signifying copper, ^^ ahhsin,'" stone.^ This word appears to denote not a common stone, but the colored, copper stone bound under some spell of Indian necromancy. " To these stones they paid all outward signs of worship and devotion, not as to God, but as they are hieroglyphicks of the permanency and immutability of the Deity; because these, both for figure and substance, are, of all sublunary bodies, the least subject to decay or change.''^ This stone lies in an obscure nook on the eastern shore of the Hudson, at the foot of a steep bank whose sides are shaded with masses of wild cedar and laurel, the beautiful lake like appearance of the river giving additional interest and magical illusion to the scene.