id="FNanchor_51_51"/>[51]

Madamiscomtis or Mattammiscontis, the name of a tributary of the Penobscot and of a town in Lincoln county, Me., was translated by Mr. Greenleaf, in 1823, "Young Alewive stream;" but it appears to represent met-aⁿms[oo]ak-kaⁿtti, 'a place where there has been (but is not now) plenty of alewives,' or to which they no longer resort. Compare Râle's met-aⁿm[oo]ak, "les poissons ont faites leurs œufs; ils s'en sont allés; il n'y en a plus."

Cobbosseecontee river, in the south part of Kennebec county, is named from a place near "the mouth of the stream, where it adjoineth itself to Kennebec river,"[52] and 'where there was plenty of sturgeons,'—kabassak-kaⁿtti.

'Peskadamioukkanti' is given by Charlevoix, as the Indian name of "the river of the Etchemins," that is, the St. Croix,—a name which is now corrupted to Passamaquoddy; but this latter form of the name is probably derived from the Etchemin, while Charlevoix wrote the Abnaki form. The Rev. Elijah Kellogg, in 1828,[53] gave, as the meaning of 'Passamaquoddie,' 'pollock fish,' and the Rev. Mr. Rand translates 'Pestumoo-kwoddy' by 'pollock ground.'[54] Cotton's vocabulary gives 'pâkonnótam' for 'haddock.' Perhaps peskadami[oo]k, like aⁿms[oo]ak, belonged to more than one species of fish.

Of Etchemin and Micmac words having a similar termination, we find among others,—

Shubenacadie (Chebenacardie on Charlevoix' map, and Shebenacadia on Jeffry's map of 1775). One of the principal rivers of Nova Scotia, was so named because 'sipen-ak were plenty there.' Professor Dawson was informed by an "ancient Micmac patriarch," that "Shuben or Sgabun means ground-nuts or Indian potatoes," and by the Rev. Mr. Rand, of Hantsport, N.S., that "segubbun is a ground-nut, and Segubbuna-kaddy is the place or region of ground-nuts," &c.[55] It is not quite certain that shuben and segubbun denote the same esculent root. The Abnaki name of the wild potato or ground-nut was pen, pl. penak (Chip. opin-īg; Del. obben-ak); 'sipen,' which is obviously the equivalent of sheben, Râle describes as "blanches, plus grosses que des penak:" and sheep'n-ak is the modern Abnaki (Penobscot) name for the bulbous roots of the Yellow Lily (Lilium Canadense). Thoreau's Indian guide in the 'Maine Woods' told him that these bulbs "were good for soup, that is to cook with meat to thicken it,"—and taught him how to prepare them.[56] Josselyn mentions such "a water-lily, with yellow flowers," of which "the Indians eat the roots" boiled.[57]

"Segoonuma-kaddy, place of gaspereaux; Gaspereau or Alewife River," "Boonamoo-kwoddy, Tom Cod ground," and "Kata-kaddy, eel-ground,"—are given by Professor Dawson, on Mr. Rand's authority. Segoonumak is the equivalent of Mass. and Narr. sequanamâuquock, 'spring (or early summer) fish,' by R. Williams translated 'bream.' And boonamoo,—the ponamo of Charlevoix (i. 127), who confounded it with some 'species of dog-fish (chien de mer),'—is the ap[oo]naⁿ-mes[oo] of Rasles and papônaumsu, 'winter fish,' of Roger Williams, 'which some call frost-fish,'—Morrhua pruinosa.

The frequent occurrence of this termination in Micmac, Etchemin and Abnaki local names gives probability to the conjecture, that it came to be regarded as a general name for the region which these tribes inhabited,—'L'arcadia,' 'l'Accadie,' and 'la Cadie,' of early geographers and voyagers. Dr. Kohl has not found this name on any earlier map than that published by Girolamo Ruscelli in 1561.[58] That it is of Indian origin there is hardly room for doubt, and of two or three possible derivations, that from the terminal -kâdi, -kodiah, or -kaⁿtti, is on the whole preferable. But this termination, in the sense of 'place of abundance' or in that of 'ground, land, or place,' cannot be used separately, as an independent word, in any one of the languages which have been mentioned; and it is singular that, in two or three instances, only this termination should have been preserved after the first and more important component of the name was lost.

There are two Abnaki words which are not unlike -kaⁿtti in sound, one or both of which may perhaps be found in some local names: (1) ka[oo]di, 'where he sleeps,' a lodging place of men or animals; and (2) ak[oo]daï[oo]i, in composition or as a prefix, ak[oo]dé, 'against the current,' up-stream; as in ned-ak[oo]té'hémen, 'I go up stream,' and [oo]derak[oo]daⁿnaⁿ, 'the fish go up stream.' Some such synthesis may have given names to fishing-places on tidal rivers, and I am more inclined to regard the name of 'Tracadie' or 'Tracody' as a corruption of [oo]derak[oo]daⁿ, than to derive it (with Professor Dawson[59] and the Rev. Mr. Rand) from "Tulluk-kaddy; probably, place of residence; dwelling place,"—or rather (for the termination requires this), where residences or dwellings are plenty,—where there is abundance of dwelling place. There is a Tracadie in Nova Scotia, another (Tregaté, of Champlain) on the coast of New Brunswick, a Tracody or Tracady Bay in Prince Edward's Island, and a Tracadigash Point in Chaleur Bay.

Thevet, in La Cosmographie universelle,[60] gives an account of his visit in 1556, to "one of the finest rivers in the whole world which we call Norumbegue, and the aborigines Agoncy,"—now Penobscot Bay. In 'Agoncy' we have, I conjecture, another form of the Abnaki -kaⁿtti, and an equivalent of 'Acadie.'

II. Names formed from a single ground-word or substantival,—with