of Western Indian Tribes, especially the Shoshonis. While suggestive and not entirely correct, perhaps, yet the theory pre- sented herein appears quite plausible, at least, more so than any previous contribution to this intricate investigation and is possessed with sufficient reasonableness to take the inquiry out of the realm of conjecture and place it in the field of probable historical data.
This word is of Indian origin and therefore its history is regarded as miraculous by many investigators. The meaning of many Indian names now current in American history and geography is grossly perverted because of the shallowness of sentimental inquirers. The inability of many writers to solve the meaning and fully understand the application of Indian words is due to their ignorance of the language and especially the nature of the American Indian. If so disposed we could take the poetical thunder out of many American names, the visionary meanings of which are so ancient that "the memory of man runneth not to the contrary". But "truth is always stranger than fiction". For example, the word "Mississippi" is of Indian origin and is said to mean Father of Waters, an eloquent thought that conveys a certain knowledge which the red man did not possess. The Indian had no fixed names for natural objects; when speaking of them he used descriptive terms, only. Eight-tenths of Indian geographical names were coined on the spot from some particular attribute which was most striking to his mind at the time he bestowed it. There- fore, when asked by the white man, the red man's name of a certain stream or mountain, he designated it by some peculiar characteristic which came to his mind when asked. When the early trapper inquired his name for the Boise river he called it "Wihinast", meaning boiling rapidly, from the chief peculiarity in view at that moment which was an eddy or whirlpool in the river; or while near a mountain peak during a storm as the thunder was making itself manifest, he called it "Tome-up Yaggi", meaning the clouds are crying; in other words "Thunder," giving us the geographical "Thunder Mountain".
