400 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



would signify a stream that ends or joins with the main river at an alewive place, and 

 I venture to predict that in early times if now now, as detailed local knowledge will 

 test, this stream has an exceptionally good alewife fishery at its mouth or on its lower- 

 most course. Mrs. Eckstorm has sent me evidence that in early times, alewives ran 

 far higher up the Penobscot than this place. 



This leaves the termination S yet unexplained. Such a termination is unusual, 

 for most place-names of the Abenakis-Penobscots-Maliseets-Passamaquoddies and 

 Micmacs end, in their aboriginal forms, with the locative -K. But on the lower 

 Penobscot, and thereabouts, occurs a curious assemblage, a kind of island, of place- 

 names having the termination S, e.g., Matamiscontis, Patagumkis, Matagoodus 

 Quakis, Umbazookskus, Molunkus, Piscataquis, with some thirty others. In 

 several of these cases it is possible that the S represents an abbreviated SIS, meaning 

 LITTLE, as it certainly does in Seebois, which means "little river," but this cannot 

 be true of them all. We have an exactly analogous phenomenon in the Micmac 

 place-nomenclature of the North Coast of New Brunswick where many of the names 

 end in CH instead of the typical K found in the Southern Micmac territory, e.g., 

 Pokemouche, Tatamagouche, Restigouche, and many others where the termination 

 cannot possibly represent a diminutive. In the latter cases, as I have pointed out 

 in the previous paper of this series {Transactions, ii, 263-4), the CH seems 

 clearly to represent a softened K, and is therefore the terminal locative, quite equi- 

 valent to the usual K. It seems to me pretty clear that in the Penobscot names 

 above cited we have the same phenomenon, and that the final S, probably a relic 

 of an aboriginal SH, represents a softened form of the locative, a suggestion already 

 made in connection with the name Patagumkis in the preceding paper. But what a 

 problem in the Ethnology- Etymology of the earlier Indian immigrants do these 

 islands of the softened locatives represent! 



Thus, on the data here presented, the name MATAMISCONTIS would seem 

 to be a simplification of a Penobscot name MAT-AMESU-KANTI-SH, meaning 

 literally ENDS-ALEWIVES-OCCURRENCE-PLACE, or, more generally THE 

 STREAM THAT EMPTIES AT THE ALEWIVES PLACE. 



MECHAGAD ICH. The Micmac name for St. Anns, Cape Breton, according 

 to Rand, who gives the word as 'MCHÂGADÏCHK (First Reading Book, 99; English- 

 Micmac Dictionary, 250; Micmac-English Dictionary, 186, where it is misprinted 

 M'TCEGALITCK). Rand gives no meaning, but it is not difficult to find the one 

 which is most probable. The latter part of the name seems clearly to represent 

 our familiar combination -A-KA'DI-, earlier considered (page 380), with the terminal 

 CHK standing for a softened form of the locative K, and not involving abbreviated 

 CHEECH, meaning LITTLE, as might at first seem probable. As to the former 

 part'MCH, that may represent the condensed or abbreviated form of NUMAACH, 

 meaning FISH, but in accord with the ordinary usage of the termination A-KA'DI-K, 

 it more probably represents the abbreviation for some particular kind of fish. As to 

 the most probable kind, in view of the reputation of St. Anns, we think of the COD, 

 of which the Micmac name is PËJOO, (Rand, First Reading Book, 54). Now the 

 letters P and M are easily interchangeable in Micmac words, so that this word could 

 be sounded MEJ which is very close to the MCH of our name. Accordingly I 

 think it possible that this is the real origin of the name, which would be in full 

 PËJ-A-KA'DI-CHK, meaning literally COD-THEIR-OCCURRENCE-PLACE. 

 Possibly the name has connection with the Tuna, for which great fish St. Anns is 

 noted. 



This name is maybe related to the original form of CHACODI earlier considered 

 (page 389), and possibly is identical therewith. 



