Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names
It is met in place in Saratoga County and at Wyoming, Pa. (See Shannondhoi.) Stissing, now the name of a hill and of a lake one mile west of the village of Pine Plains, Duchess County, is probably an apheresis of Mistissing, a "Great rock," and belongs to the hill, wbidh rises 400 or 500 feet above the valley and is crowned with a mass of naked rock, described by one writer as "resembling a huge boulder transported there." Poughkeepsie, now so written, is of record in many forms of which Pooghkeepesingh, 1683; Pogkeepke, 1702; Pokeapsinck, 1703; Pacaksing, 1704; Poghkeepsie, 1766; Poughkeepsie, 1767, are the earlier. The locative of the name and the key to its explanation are clearly determined by the description in a gift deed to Peter Lansing and Jan Smedes, in 1683 : "A waterfall near the bank of the river called Pooghkeepesingh ;" ^ in p'^tition of Peter Lansing and Arnout Viele, in 1704: "Beginning at a creek called Pakaksing, by ye river side." ^ There are other record applications, but are probably extensions, as Poghkeepke (1702), given as the name of a "muddy pond" in the vicinity. Schoolcraft's interpretation, "Safe harbor," from Apokeepsing, is questioned by W. R. Gerard, who, from a personal acquaintance with the locative, "A water-fall," writes : "The name refers not to the fall, but to the basin of water worn out in the rocks at the foot of the fall. Zeis-
^ A translation from the Delaware Scha-gach-we-u, "straight," and meek ■*' fish " -- an iseelno-- eel Trumbull placecorrect. doubt -- has been widely quoted. The translation by Dr.