_Messusipu_ is derived, says Squier, from the Algonkin words _Messu_, _Messi_, or _Michi_ (great), and _Sipu_ (river). The name _Mississippi_ is of Algonkin origin, and has the same etymology,--it means "great river." Among the Algonkin tribes living to the north and along the eastern shore of the Mississippi, the Sauks called it _Mecha-sapo_, the Menomonees _Mecha-sepua_, the Kicapoos _Meche-sepe_, the Chippeways _Meze-zebe_, and the Ottawas _Missis-sepi_; _Mecha_, _Meche_, _Meze_, _Missis_, meaning "great," and _sapo_, _sepua_, _sepe_, _zebe_, and _sepi_, "river." (Wisconsin Hist. Col., ix., 301.) The Lenape word _Messusipu_ must therefore refer to the Mississippi. Yet we may suppose that Rafinesque had written the word by mistake in his copy of the Wallum Olum, a supposition which gains strength from the fact that _Messusipu_ plainly appears in his manuscript to have been changed to _Namasipi_. Had he been comparing his copy with the original "painted sticks" or some other Indian authority not mentioned? or did he merely borrow the word _Namasipi_ from Heckewelder? Again we may suppose the word _Messusipu_ to have been an indefinite term applied by the Lenape to more than one of the great streams crossed by them in their migrations. [N] See Appendix. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lenape Stone, by H. C. Mercer