vbl. sb. U.S. Also wigwassing. [f. Algonkin wigwas birch-bark (canoe) + -ING1.] The spearing of eels or fish from a canoe by torchlight.
1883. Goode, Amer. Fishes, 436. Vast quantities [of suckers] are taken … by spearing by torchlight or ‘weequashing.’
1901. A. F. Chamberlain, in Jrnl. Amer. Folk-lore, Oct., 267. The word weequashing, or wigwassing, would seem to be derived … from wigwas, a widespread Algonkian … term for ‘birch bark,’ the immediate source of the word being Passamaquoddy or Micmac.
