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Footprints of the Red Men: Indian Geographical Names — Passage 19

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[Edward Manning Ruttenber (1906)] 'Menhaden country,' from _Munongutteau,_ 'that which fertalizes or manures land,' the Indian name for white fish or bony fish, which were taken in great numbers by the Indians, on the shores of the Sound, for manuring their corn lands." Moharsic is said to have been the name of what is now known as Crom-pond, in the town of Yorktown. The pond is in two parts, and the name may mean, "Where two ponds meet," or come together. _Crom-pond_ is corrupt Dutch from _Krom-poel,_ "Crooked pond." Maharness, the name of a stream rising in Westchester County and flowing east to the Sound, is also written _Mianus_ and _Mahanus,_ in Dutch records _Mayane,_ correctly _Mayanno._ It was the name of "a sachem residing on it between Greenwich and Stamford, Ct., who was killed by Capt. Patrick, in 1643, and his head cut off and sent to Fort Amsterdam." (Brodhead, i, 386.) Dr. Trumbull interpreted, "He who gathers together." _Kechkawes_ is written as the name of the stream in 1640. Nanichiestawack, given as the name of an Indian village on the southern spur of Indian Hill (so called) in the town of Bedford, rests on tradition. Petuckquapaug, a pond in Greenwich, Ct., but originally under the jurisdiction of the Dutch at Fort Amsterdam, signifies "Round Pond." It is now called "Dumpling Pond." The Dutch changed the suffix to _paen,_ "soft land," and in that form described an adjacent district of low land.