Genealogical notes of Barnstable families - citizen hylbom blog

82 GENEALOGICAL NOTES OF BARNSTABLE FAMILIES.
In the naming of places, metaphor was seldom employed.
The few radical words of their language admitted of so many
different combinations, and changes in form, that it often is very
diflScult to decipher the meaning of names. They had some general
rules for compounding, and when the form of the radical
words is not essentially changed, the meaning can easily be
picked out.
Mish-ee signifies great when applied to an animal—if to a
man the first syllable was written mis, and if to an estate mus.
It was sometimes written mash often mas. The name Mash-pee
is from mish-ee and sapee, river. Mr. Holway who had a perfect
knowledge of the Indian says, Massapee (great river) is the correct
spelling. It is the same as Mississippi which we are accustomed
to see in a French dress. To those species of fish that
alternately live in the salt and in fresh water, the Indians prefixed
to their names mish ; that is, to the names of the herring,
the trout, the salmon, and also to the sturgeon. The reason of
this is, these fish come from the G'reaf waters to the small streams
and ponds. They are not natives, they are mtsfeee-fish—and the
places to which they resorted to spawn were Mish-ee-ah-tedke
lands. In forming the compound name, the "h" was dropped because
it was applied to an inanimate thing of a different gender
and for the same reason teake is changed to tic. The two syllables
"ee" and "ah" are dropped as unnecessary in the compound.
It is thus that the name Mistic is formed. It is a common name,
and is uniformly given to regions like that at the head of Oyster
Island Bay or Inlet, the First Herring River and the Indian
Ponds. It is applied to small streams and to still waters, particularly
where the herring and the trout resort, and also to the
places where the salmon, the sturgeon, and the bass are taken.
There is another reason, and perhaps the primary one. The
Indian always noted the color of objects. Mish-que was red.
The color of these fish is redish, especially after they are cured,
therefore he called them Mish-que, that is "red-fish." The color
of the water of all streams and ponds is not the same. In giving
names to streams and ponds he had reference to the color of the
water. Independent of other considerations, the First Herring
Brook, on account of the color of the water, may have been called
Mis-tic.
Co or Goa-tu-it. This name has been retained. It is derived
from quin-nee or co-no, long ah-teuke fields and the terminal
it or et, place, meaning long fields. It appears by the records
that when the purchase was made by the English, that there were
strips of good land that laid parallel to the river and pond.
These were the planting fields of the Indians, and in their sale
they reserved a large portion thereof for their own use, calling
them Coatuit or the Long Fields.