Note 274 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN.
Reading edition
“Kytan was an appellation of the greatest manito. The word signifies ‘greatest’ or ‘pre-eminent.’ See my note (p. 207) in Lechford’s Plaine Dealing (p. 120), where is mention of ‘Kitan, their good god.’ Roger Williams in a letter to Thomas Thorowgood, 1635, names ‘their god Kuttand to the south-west’ (Jewes in America, 1650, p. 6) but in his Key, he writes the name Cautantowit (To the Reader, p. 24.) i. e., Keihte-anito—‘greatest manito.’
“I have not met with the name Sanaconquam elsewhere: at least I do not remember seeing it except in Morton. The derivation is apparently from a word meaning to press upon, to op-press, to crush, or the like.” (Manuscript Letter of J. H. Trumbull, June 25, 1882.)
See, also, authorities referred to supra, p. 140, note, and also Ellis’s Red Man and White Man, pp. 134-9. Morell has a passage on the Indian’s methods of worship in his poem. (I. Mass. Hist. Coll., vol. i. p. 136.)