|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
