we are considering words the most of which do not belong to the historical languages; but words that antedate them, and extend into the Semitic, or germ language, and that these cover a period when merely the very briefest and simplest expressions of tongue constituted the speech of man. It was an era furthermore when, as believed by learned writers, that speech was composed of only two classes of words, known now usually as nouns and verbs. Then, there were no adjectives or descriptive phrases employed in human speech. To this fact the river nomenclature of the extreme ancients bears unquestioned and emphatic testimony.

The terms composing this river nomenclature were few and brief—not more than half a dozen with their varying expressions:-these representing, without the aid of epithet, the condition or character of the river named. What was the actual origin of the remote germ in the earliest tongue, will forever remain unknown. One exception alone may be considered. We know, however, with actual certainty, what forms the words took in the historical languages.

One of the most ancient river names now known-ABANA of Damascus -contains two of our TERMS. As this word has never since been applied to the river (at least so far as is known), it is supposed that Naaman the leper, who first used the expression historically, applied the traditional name to the waters-for he was a learned man, supposed to have been versed in the traditional lore of his country.

The two terms in this name are ABA and NA. The actual translation of the word as a Hebrew expression makes it "waters" "sure,”—that is waters that flow certainly, with perpetuity. (Isaiah xxxiii., 16.)

In the Hebrew (where the word is found both as ABANA and AMANA, the consonants B and M being often used interchangeably) the letter M is the brief significant of the word for water; its full expression is Mo or Ma. -(In the original Hebrew the vowels are omitted-and the reader or translator is often allowed to supply the omission according to his own conjecture. So says Gesenius, the great authority in ancient languages.)*

Languages which are dialects of, or cognate with, the Hebrew, use varying expressions of the term ABA for river or water. The Sanscrit, which also omitted the vowels often, had AP as the significant of water. In the Dacian or Wallachian, the word is written APA. These are the same as ABA, for B and P are often used interchangeably in the languages of old. The Persian expression of ABA is in AB, with the pronunciation and frequent writing of AUB.

The Arabic of the word is the final syllable, BA; or, as sometimes * Hebrew Grammar, page 22 (Dr. Roediger). Appletons. 1868. Comp. remarks, page 5, also.

written, BAR or BAHR, the latter containing a hint of an additional term known in the river nomenclature of all nations-the Sanscrit word RI. As the consonants L and R are used interchangeably also in many languages, this latter term is often found rendered LI.

The idea expressed in the primitive term RI, is that of a restless, rapid, rushing current—a stream, a torrent, or a cataract. Its coinage was perhaps due to an onomatopic principle developing in the mind of the earliest philosopher. The term is found now in the river nomenclatures of every people under the sun, and always expressive of the rippling, rapid water. It has received many differing expressions in the written languages of man. We see it in the BRAHAMPOOTRA of Asia, in the NACHAR and NIGER of Africa; in the RHINE, the RHONE, and the DNEISTER of Europe, and in America it is in MISSOURI and NIAGARA, and in countless other river names, not only in America, but elsewhere all over the world. In the name NIAGARA, RI appears written with a, while the term NA is rendered with i, the true word being really NAAGARI (or more correctly still Naoghari. All our Indian words are written in mere conjectural or fanciful orthography, as we shall see more clearly as we proceed).

In the name NIAGARA, an additional factor or term is scenreally OGHA.

aga," or

In the early Semitic or Germ language, there was another word for river, in addition to the term ABA, which is supposed to be often merely water. It is, however, impossible now to give the original word a definite expression. The Hebrew, the Sanscrit, and the Celtic have slightly varying orthographies for it. In our ordinary transcripts, or versions, of the Sanscrit, the term appears as OGHA. The English word ocean is traced to this term. The Celtic language has the term written ACHA, or ACHI; and from which the Latin word acva or aqua comes. These words are given in our Lexicons as the significants of water or river.

In the ancient Germanic or Tuetonic language of Europe the term has been rendered AHA or AHHA, our authorities stating that this is also a correct pronunciation of the Celtic ACHA. Writers on language usually refer to the word AHA as the Germanic equivalent of the words ACHA, APA, and AQUA-water or river. Probably the facts are that ABA and the group of terms owing their origin to it, variously rendered in b and p, making really one primitive word, was in the ancient speech the true term for WATER, while the word written with g, c, ch, and q, refers always to the running river, with the possible exception of the Latin aqua, which is expressive of either water or river. AHA may be considered simply as the ancient Tuetonic expression of ACHA, as it is known that defect has existed

for countless ages in the German tongues, preventing their pronunciations of certain digraphs in speech—a fact we shall have occasion to refer to again.

There are developed so far but two of the ancient terms for water and river, ABA and OGHA. NA, while not purely an adjective, was expressive of the constantly flowing water. There was another term in the ancient speech expressive of the character of the water. It is the syllable DE (often rendered "dee"). It is seen in the Sanscrit words DENA and DEAP; and it is supposed to be the root of our English word "deep," this coming, says Webster, from the Anglo-Saxon deop, the same as the Sanscrit deap, meaning the deep waters, as the sea. DENA is the flowing deep water, while RINA, another Sanscrit word, is the rapid flowing water. DENA, DEPA, and DEAP are all analogous if not identical. It is well known that D and T often interchange in languages-one being used for the other. Our authorities state that the Indian word now written TIPPA is correctly rendered Depa. (See Lippincott's Pronouncing Gazetteer.)

It is scarcely necessary to burden these pages with full illustrations of the manner in which these ancient terms have entered the river nomenclatures of the Old World. They are seen in purity and corruption everywhere there, and they are so imbedded in the historical languages that references are superfluous. One fact should be remembered-the vowel sounds, especially, in the terms are given all manner of writings. This is due to the fact that the expressions of sounds have no common uniform and arbitrary orthographies in the language of men.

In the Old World especially, where a is often rendered in o and u,* we see, for instance, that ABA is written OBA and UBA, and OBI and UBI. These are the names of Russian rivers. We write the same thing in our Indian nomenclature, OBEY (a river in Tennessee), and YUBA, a river in California, while in Africa one of the native (Bari) names of the NILE is given as YUBIRI-ABA with the addition of the term RI.

The Persian method of expressing ABA, as in AUB, or AB, is seen in the Asiatic rivers PUNJAUB, MURJAUB, and CHENAUB or CHENAB. The term is not confined to Persia alone. France has a river named AUBE. There are more than fifty rivers in Europe showing the presence of ABA and APA in their names. The Indian nomenclature shows a like number. The reader's memory can call up the names. The Persian sound is heard in the names CATAWBA, SENATOBA, MANITOBA, and others; while the pure Sanscrit or

It is very common to find in the old world words which have origin in those primitive languages which were chiefly consonantal in structure, now written with either of the vowel sounds.

Dacian expression is found in such names as APA-LACHA, AL-APA-HAW, SAX-APA-HAW, CANIAPUSCAW, and in the original of the word Mississippi, which was MESSIS-APA. The very name ABANA is found in the Indian word written ABANAY.

In the former of these illustrations (in APALACHA) we see the Celtic ACHA in connection with the Sanscrit AP. In two others we see the Germanic term AHA (haw), and in the three others we find with the ancient term for river prefixes well known in the Latin-prefixes which are unmistakably adjectives of modern birth.

APA is rendered with o in the European river names, written OPPA (in Italy and Silesia also). It is written with o in the Indian names OPEQUAN and OPELIKA, and numerous others. The Po (once the Padus or Padee river of Italy) gets its title from APA. The final vowel is often written. with o in the Indian, as in APPOMATOX, APPODEE, and in many others. It is written with u also, as in APPUREMAC.

ABA and APA are often rendered with the vowel i, as in MISSISIPPI, OSIPPE, CARIBBE, and ABBATIBBE. In the ancient name JOLIBAH of Africa (once the Niger), and in the MERIBAH of the Hebrew, we see the same term. The Celtic term ACHA is found in a score of instances in the Indian river names in absolute purity, often alone, as in our numerous HATCHIES. It is more frequently joined with a modern descriptive epithet. (By the term "modern," as used in this and a previous paragraph, I refer to the historical periods.) We see the Celtic word in OSWEGATCHIE, CALOOSATALCHIE, CHOCTAWHATCHIE, etc.

ACHA is found in river nomenclature all over the world. In Sicily is a river—the name is pronounced Atchee, but the writing of the word there is ACE. Sumatra has ATCHEEN. ACHEEN in Germany is pronounced nearly Ockeen. Nearly all the German river words showing the Celtic root ACHA, with the c sounded, give this consonant the hard or k sound. AACH-a river there-is pronounced Ak. This pronunciation of the syllable ACH is prevalent all over the world. It is so similar in many instances to the sound of the initial syllable in the Sanscrit term OGHA that it is often a difficult matter to determine to which word a corruption is due— whether to OGHA or ACHA, as in the word NIAGARA. The "aga" here may be traced to the sound of either (though the terms themselves are really one and the same).

This recognized difficulty is more conspicuous in the Indian nomenclature than in the names of the Old World-due to the manner in which we have received the Aboriginal names of America. Yet even in the existent writings of the Indian words we find very striking similarities and analogies

everyway to these names in the words of the Old World. We have space for but few illustrations in this paper. We notice only a few.

The Indian name SARATOGA has an exact counterpart in the SARATOWKA of Russia. The word SARA itself is in many names in America and the Old World besides.* All over the Old World are GARRIS and GARRAS. We have in the Indian GARRY and GAURIBA. All over the Old World are LOORIS or LURIS. The same word is written more than once in our Indian names LURAY. LU is a corruption of LI (for Ri). In African nomenclature the same words are written with either Ru or Lu-as in RuBUMBA, which is also LUVEMBA. Africa has the river RUANNA. In our Indian nomenclature the same word shows the Latin root in the way it is now written-RIVANNA. The vowel is sometimes written in o, in Africa. We find there the LOWANDO. In America we have it simply WANDO. In Africa is MONONGAH. In America we have MONONGAHELA-in the "ela," a well-known Latin word seen. (The meanings of these words will be discussed in future.) In Africa is the KYOGIA. We have in New York the CAYUGA pronunciations almost identical.

names.

All over the Old World we find the word CoOSEY or KOOSI, in the river There are more than a dozen COOSAS in the Indian. The word MOOSE is also a "native Indian name." Yet in Europe and Asia it is seen written MOUSA. The WOLGA is a river in Europe; the WOLKEE a river in Alabama. In Africa is the CONGO. In America is the CONCHO, and also the CONGAREE-the Sanscrit RI added. SARABAT is in Asia; SARABITA is in South America.

The name Mississippi was originally MESSISAPA, which is not unlike MESOPOTAMIA, of Asia. Our fanciful name Tennessee was once TENASSY (or Tenacha), like the other Asiatic word TENASSARIM. The GENESSEE of New York is like the YENESSEE of Russia. YEMASIE is also similar. ONEGA of Russia is similar to ONEIDA of America.

The word SHOCCO or Soco is in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. It is also a river in Europe. As SHOCKOE and SACO, it is in the Indian nomenclature from Maine to North Carolina. SARANAC is in New York; SARAWAK is in Borneo, and SARAMACCA is in South America. CHILI of South America is heard in the Japan river name PEE-CHEE-LEE. UJIJI of Africa finds its likeness in the JUJUY of the Indian.

OOCHEE (which is a corruption of either ACHA or OGHA) is found in many river names of the world-in Russia, China, France, Scotland, and

*SARA is a river in Russia, Switzerland, France, and in Louisiana. It is SARARI in Brazilanother term added. Tigris-Tegree or Tiegra-is found in river nomenclature in Asia and in America in several places. Tigre is in Africa.