which is printed in Todd's
_Illustrations of Gower and Chaucer_, p. 87. et seq., confirms the
accuracy of our correspondent's inference, that this is the marriage
licence of the poet, inasmuch as it shows that the Christian name of
Gower's wife was Agnes.--ED. "N. & Q."]

* * * * *

ASKA OR ASCA.

Throughout North America this dissyllable is found terminating names in
localities, occupied at the present day by Indian tribes speaking very
different languages; and, in these languages, with the exception of such
names, few analogous sounds exist. There are, besides, names terminating in
_esco_, _isco_, _isca_, _escaw_, _uscaw_, which, perhaps, may be placed in
the same category, being only accidental variations of _aska_, arising from
a difference of ear in those who first heard them pronounced by a native
tongue.

Are these names vernacular in any of the modern Indian languages? and, if
so, what is their real meaning? I propound these questions for solution by
any of the gentlemen at Fort Chepewyan, Norway House, &c. (since, no doubt,
"N. & Q." penetrates the Far West as well as the Far East), who may feel an
interest in the subject.

Apparently, they have been imposed by a people who occupied the whole
continent from sea to sea, as they occur from Hudson's Bay to Yucatan, and
from the Pacific to the Atlantic.

Were the American nations originally of one tongue? Humboldt, Du Ponceau,
and others have remarked that striking analogies of grammatical
construction exist in all American languages, from the Eskimo to the
Fuegian, although differing entirely in their roots. Dr. Prichard says,--

"There are peculiarities in the very nature of the American languages
which are likely to produce great variety in words, and to obliterate
in a comparatively short period the traces of resemblance."--_Phys.
Hist._ &c., vol. v. p. 317.

It may be only a curious coincidence, but it is undoubtedly true, that,
with scarcely one exception, all names (we might almost say _words_) so
terminating are more or less connected with water. The exception (if it
really be one) is _Masca_, which I have found among my old notes, followed
by the word _Montagne_; but nothing more, and I have forgotten all about
it.

For the rest, the varieties in isca, &c., spoken of before, are chiefly to
be found in the northern countries, towards Hudson's and James' Bay, &c.,
where the present sp