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�Indian [illegible word] of Martha's Vineyard with most all of its place names. And that reminds me of our Experience Mayhew, one of the latest and perhaps best Indian scholars, author of the Psalter in the Massachusetts dialect. In his essay on the language of the Vineyard Indians he says this about their bestowal of place names, the only reference known to me on this principle or topic by an authority: (before 1740) "For with them the way used was to call "Every place or Person by a name taken from "something remarkable in it or attending "it. Thus the place where I dwell is in Indian "called Nempanick-licka-muk ; in English, The Place "of Thunderclefts, because there was once a tree "there split in pieces by the thunder." This name never had any legal life as far as I am aware in describing land where he dwelt and that further reminds me to suggest this: the probable instability of place names in Indian life. For example above cited by