Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names
Gaits- [chet of the Bureau of Ethnology, " an equivalent of Wabenaki -ke'dshwan, -kidshuan, suffixed verbal stem, meaning ' Running S-wiftly,' ' Rushing water,' or current, whether over rapids or not. sas-katchczvan, Canada, ' The roiley, rushing stream ; assisku, 'Mud, [dirt.' (Cree.) The prefix ki or ke, is notihing else than an abbrejviation of kitchi, ' great,' ' large,' and here ' strong.' Examples are [frequent as -kitchuan, -kitchawan, Mass. ; kesi-itsooa"n or ta"n, Abn., [ussi-tchuan, Mass., ' It swift flows.' The prefix is usually applied to streams which rise in the higfhlands and flow down rapidly descending slopes." The final k in some of the early forms, indicates )ronunciation with the gutural aspirate, as met in wank and
28 INDIAN GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES.
wangh in other local names/ The final i* is a foreign plural usually employed to express " people," or tribe. The stream is now known as the Croten from Cnoten, the name of a resident sachem, which by exchange of n and r, becomes Croten, an equivalent, wrote Dr. Schoolcraft of Noten, Chip., " The wind." " Bounded on the south by Scroton's River " (deed of 1703) ; " Called by the Indians Kightawank, and by the English Knotrus River." (Cal. N. Y, Land Papers, 79.) Titicus, given as the name of a branch of the Croton flowing from Connecticut, is of record Mutighticos and Matightekonks, translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mat'uhtugh-ohke, " Place without wood," from whidh extended to the stream. (See Mattituck and Sackonck. )