Thursday, November 30, 2017

Qussuk/Quassuk or Stone


  
|Qussuk|, { A Rock}. |pl. Qussukquanash|.   
             |Hussun|, { A Stone}. |pl. Hussunash|.
    


wâunon, ‘honor’ + qussuk, ‘stone’ = Wâunonaqussuk: ‘honoring stone’

(Natick Nipmuc wâunonukhauónat – ‘to flatter,’ Trumbull 1903:202, verb stem wâunon- ‘honor’ + qussuk ‘stone’ = wâunonaqussuk – ‘honoring stone’ + quanash pl., also Narragansett wunnaumwâuonck – ‘faithfulness, truthfulness,’ wunna, ‘good,’ wáunen, ‘honor,’ + onk, abstract suffix, O’Brien 2005:37, Wawanaquas- sik, ‘place of many honoring stones,’- Nochpeem Mahikkaneuw/Wappinger, Ruttenber 1992b:373). 


From Nohham Rolf Cachat-Schilling

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1202&context=bmas


   “To the high, woodlands called Wawanaquasik...
 “To a place called by the Indians Wawanaqussek, where the heapes of stone lye...upon which the Indians throw another as they pass by, from an ancient custom, among them.” 
 The heap of stones here was “on the south side of the path leading to Wayachtanok,” and other paths diverged, showing that the place was a place of meeting... 
    “To the high woodland,” in the description of 1649, is marked on the map of survey of 1715, “Foot of the hill,” apparently, a particular point, the place of which was identified by the head of the creek, the marsh and the heap of stones. The name may have described this point or promontory, or it may have referred to the place of meeting near the head of the creek, or to the end of the marsh, but it is claimed that it was the name of the heap of stones, and that it is from Mide,  or Miyée, “Together"—Mawena, “Meeting,” “Assembly"—frequently met in local names and accepted as meaning, “Where paths or streams or boundaries come together;” and Qussuk, “stone”—“Where the stones are assembled or brought together,” “A stone heap."
   This reading is of doubtful correctness. Dr. Trumbull wrote that Qussuk," meaning “stone,” is “rarely, perhaps never” met as a substantival in local names, and an instance is yet to be cited where it is so used.” It is a legitimate word in some connections, however, Eliot writing it as a noun in Möhshe-qussuk, “A flinty rock,” in the singular number. If used here it did not describe “a heap of stones,” but a certain rock. On the map of survey of the patent, in 1798, the second station is marked “Manor Rock,” and the third, “Wawanaquassick,” is located I23 chains and 34 links (a fraction over one and one-half miles) north of Manor Rock, as the corner of an angle. In the survey of 1715, the first station is “the foot of the hill”—“the high woodland”—which seems to have been the Mawan-uhquðOsik" of the text. To avoid all question the heap of stones seems to have been included in the boundary. It now lies in an angle in the line between the townships of Claverack and Taghkanic, Columbia County, and is by far the most interesting feature of the locative—a veritable footprint of a perished race. 
   Similar heaps were met by early European travelers in other parts of the country. Rev. Gideon Hawley, writing in 1758, described one which he met in Schohare Valley, and adds that the largest one that he ever saw was “on the mountain between Stockbridge and Great Barrington.” Mass. (Doc. Hist. N. Y., iii, Io99.) The significance of the “ancient custom” of casting a stone to these heaps has not been handed down. Rev. Mr. Sergeant wrote, in 1734, that though the Indians “each threw a stone”as they passed, they had entirely lost the knowledge of the reason for doing so,” and an inquiry by Rev. Hawley, in 1758, was not attended by a better result.* The heaps were usually met at resting places on the path and the custom of throwing the stone a sign-language indicating that one of the tribe had passed and which way he was going, but further than the explanation that the casting of the stone was “an ancient custom,” nothing may be claimed with any authority. A very ancient custom, indeed, when its signification had been forgotten...” from "Proceedings of the New York State Historical Association," Volumes 5-6






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