[FN-3] Seahwhoog, "they are scattered." (Eliot.) "From this word the Dutch traders gave the name of Sewan, or Zeawand, to all shell money; just as the English called all Peag, or strung beads, by the name of the white, Wampum." (Trumbull.)
[FN-4] An interpretation of Paumanack as indicating a people especially under tribute, is erroneous. The belts which they made were in universal use among the nations as an offering, the white belts denoting good, as peace, friendship, etc., the black, the reverse. The ruling sachem, or peace-chief, was the keeper and interpreter of the belts of his nation, and his place sometimes took its name from that fact. That several of the sachems did sign their names, or that their names were signed by some one for them, "Sachem of Pammananuck," proves nothing in regard to the application of that name to the island.
[Wompenanit] is of record as the name of "the utmost end eastward" of the Montauk Peninsula. The description reads: "From the utmost end of the neck eastward, called Wompenanit, to our utmost bound westward, called Napeake." (Deed of July 11, 1661.) In other papers Wompenonot and Wompenomon, corrupted orthographies. The meaning is "The utmost end eastward," i. e. from the east side of Napeake to the extreme end. The derivatives are Nar. Wompan (from Wompi, white, bright), "It is full daylight, bright day," hence the Orient, the East, the place of light, and -anit, "To be more than," extending beyond the ordinary limit. The same word appears in Wompanánd, "The Eastern God" (Williams), the deity of light. From Wompi, also Wapan in Wapanachkik, "Those of the eastern region," now written Abanaqui and Abnaki, and confined to the remnant of a tribe in Maine. (See Wahamanesing,) Dr. Trumbull wrote: "Anit, the subjunctive participle of a verb which signifies 'To be more than,' 'to surpass'"; with impersonal M prefixed, Manit, as in Manitou, a name given by the Indians, writes Lahontan, "To all that passes their understanding"; hence interpreted by Europeans, "God." It has no such meaning in Wompenanit, but defined a limit that was "more than," or the extreme limits of the island. No doubt, however, the Indians saw, as do visitors of to-day, at the utmost end of the Montauk Peninsula, in its breast of rock against which the ocean-waves dash with fearful force; its glittering sun-light and in its general features, a Wompanánd, or Eastern God, that which was "more than ordinary, wonderful, surpassing," but those features are not referred to in Wompenanit, except, perhaps, as represented by the glittering sun-light, the material emblem of the mystery of light—"where day-light appears."
[Montauk,] now so written—in early orthographies Meantacut, Meantacquit, etc.—was not the name of the peninsula to which it is now applied, but was extended to it by modern Europeans from a specific place. The extreme end was called by the Indians Wompenanit, and the point, Nâïag, "Corner, point or angle," from which Adriaen Block wrote, in 1614, Nahicans, "People around the point," a later Dutch navigator adding (War Dep. Map) the topographical description, Nartong, "A barren, ghastly tongue." The name has had several interpretations by Algonquian students, but without entire satisfaction even to themselves. Indeed, it may be said with truth, "It has been too much translated" to invite further study with the hope of a better result. The orthography usually quoted for interpretation appears first in South Hampton Records in an Indian deed of 1640, "Manatacut, his X mark," the grantor being given the name of the place which he represented, as appears from the same records (1662), "Wyandanch, Meantacut sachem," or sachem of Meantac. The Indian deed reads: "The neck of land commonly known by the name of Meantacquit, . . . Unto the east side of Napeak, next unto Meantacut high lands." In other words the high lands bounded the place called Meantacqu, the suffix -it or -ut meaning "at" that place. The precise place referred to was then and is now a marsh on which is a growth of shrub pines, and cedars. Obviously, therefore, Meantac or Meantacqu, is an equivalent of Mass. Manantac, "Spruce swamp," and of Del. Menántac, "Spruce, cedar or pine swamp." (Zeisb.) The Abn. word Mannaⁿdakôô, "cedar" (Mass. -uᶋtugh; Nar. áwtuck), seems to establish conclusively that -ántak was the general generic suffix for all kinds of coniferous trees, and with the prefix Men, Man, Me, etc., described small or dwarf coniferous trees usually found growing in swamps, and from which swamps took the name. [FN] There is nothing in the name or in its corruptions that means "point," "high lands," "place of observation," "fort," "fence," or "confluence"; it simply describes dwarf coniferous trees and the place which they marked. The swamp still exists, and the dwarf trees also at the specific east bound of the lands conveyed. (See Napeak.)
[FN] The Indians had specific names for different kinds of trees. The generic general word was Me'hittuk or M'hittugk, Del., M'tugh, Mass., which, as a suffix, was reduced to -ittuk, -utugh, -tagh, -tack, -tacque, etc., frequently ak, which is the radical. Howden writes in Cree: "Atik is the termination for the names of trees, articles made of wood," etc. Mash-antack-uk, Moh., was translated by Dr. Trumbull from Mish-untugh-et, Mass., "Place of much wood." Mannaⁿdakōō is quoted as the Abn. word for "cedar;" Mishquáwtuck, Nar., "Red cedar." Menántachk, "Swamp" (Len. Eng. Dic.), is explained by Rev. Anthony, "with trees meeting above." Menautac, "Spruce, cedar or pine swamp" (Zeisb.), from the kind of trees growing in the swamp, but obviously antac never described a swamp, or trees growing in swamps, without the prefix Men, Man, Me, etc. Keht-antak means a particularly large tree which probably served as a boundmark. It may be a question if the initial a in antak was not nasal, as in Abn., but there can be none in regard to the meaning of the suffix.
[Napeak,] East Hampton deed of 1648, generally written Napeaka, Neppeage and Napeague, and applied by Mather (Geological Survey) to a beach and a marsh, and in local records to the neck connecting Montauk Point with the main island, means "Water land," or "Land overflowed by water." The beach extends some five miles on the southeast coast of Long Island. The marsh spreads inland from the beach nearly across the neck where it meets Napeak Harbor on the north coast. It is supposed to have been, in prehistoric times, a water-course which separated the island from the point. Near the eastern limit are patches of stunted pines and cedars, and on its east side at the end of what are called the "Nominick hills," where was obviously located the boundmark of the East Hampton deed, "Stunted pines and cedars are a feature," wrote Dr. Tooker in answer to inquiry. (See Montauk.)
[Quawnotiwock,] is quoted in French's Gazetteer as the name of Great Pond; authority not cited. Prime (Hist. L. I.) wrote: "The Indian name of the pond is unknown." The pond is two miles long. It is situate where the Montauk Peninsula attains its greatest width, and is the largest body of fresh water on the island. It would be correctly described by Quinne or Quawnopaug, "Long pond," but certainly not by Quawnotiwock, the animate plural suffix -wock, showing that it belonged to the people—"People living on the Long River." [FN] (See Quantuck and Connecticut.)
[FN] The suffix -og, -ock, -uck, is, in the dialect here, a plural sign. Williams wrote -oock, -uock, -wock, and Zeisberger wrote -ak, -wak. Quinneh-tuk-wock, "People living on the Long River"—"a particular name amongst themselves." Kutch-innû-wock, "Middle-aged men;" Miss-innû-wock, "The many." Lénno, "Man"; Lénno-wak, "Men." (Zeisberger.) Kuwe, "Pine"; Cuweuch-ak, "pine wood, pine logs." Strictly, an animate plural. In the Chippeway dialect, Schoolcraft gives eight forms of the animate and eight forms of 'the inanimate plural. The Indians regarded many things as animates that Europeans do not.