224 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [N. s., 22, 1920
designated. This was hardly the name by which the people of this village designated themselves, but as Springfield, down-river from Nonotuck, was the first locality about here known to the whites, who opened a trading-store in 1636, having reached the Connecticut at this place across country, through Quinsigamond (Worcester) and Quabaog (Brookfield), they would first hear of these up-river tribes from the local Indians that came about Master William Pynchon's store, who would naturally speak of them as nonotuck, the people up-river. When, twenty years afterwards, John Pynchon, son of William, bought the land of these up-river Indians, a part of his stipulation included the promise on the part of these same Nonotucks to remove across the big river, and leave the land in entire possession of the English.
4. CONCLUSION
There can be no doubt, then, that these "Indian corn-hills," still extant and plainly visible not only in these places that we have described but probably also in many others, are exactly what local tradition in some cases holds them to be genuine relics of Indian cultivation of the land. Their general appearance proves it, con- formable as it is to that which the hills in actual cultivation by the Indians must have presented, and differing wholly from that of fields in which any kind of white men's crops have been grown. The known identity in locality of the present remains in Northamp- ton with the site of the ancient Indian corn lands is another con- vincing proof. It is easily understood how conditions have insured their survival, in many cases with probably little change in appear- ance from that which they presented when they were first aban- doned, two and a half to three centuries ago.
It is likely that, if the fields in which they lie continue as waste land or used for no other than pasturage purposes, they will still be easily observable for at least as many centuries to come. We have found them varying considerably in size and shape and distance apart; and the authorities whom we have quoted describe still further variations. In size and shape, they are usually low roundish individual mounds, less than two feet in diameter, rising above the
�� �
