[ganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 403 



{Collections of the Connecticut Historical Society, II, 1870, 25). This name could be 

 written in our modern alphabet as ANMSUAK-KANTI, or, more simply and 

 pronounceably, ANMESUAKANTI, or, better yet, in a simple form available for 

 future local use, MESAKANTE, to which can be assigned the meaning ALEWIVES- 

 PLACE. The appropriateness of the name to the place seems attested by the 

 description given, as above noted, by Wm. Allen who says that the falls continued 

 to be a noted fishing place for several years after the settlers took possession. 



The name recalls a puzzle in the aboriginal place-nomenclature of the region. 

 Father Rasle, in his Abnaki Dictionary, 493, gives under Noms, — AGHENIBÉKKI, 

 la rivière d'ANMESSKKANTTI, seeming to show that the Sandy River was called 

 AGHENIBÉKKI; and as Father Rasle's mission, where his Dictionary was written, 

 was for many years at Norrigewock close to the mouth of Sandy River, he could 

 hardly have been mistaken in regard to the names of these places. Yet AGHENI- 

 BEKKI and KENNEBEQUI, which Father Rasle himself applies to the main 

 Kennebec, can hardly be wholly different words. Therefore we must conclude that 

 either (1), the preliminary A of the former word involves some root that differentiates 

 the name from Kennebec through some qualification, such as meaning in reverse 

 direction to the Kennebec (which course it has in part) or something of that sort, or 

 else (2), the name Kennebec was used aboriginally for the main Kennebec up to 

 Sandy River and for the latter River to its head, the main stream to Moosehead Lake 

 bearing a different name. For such a usage we have excellent analogy elsewhere, 

 for the Indians applied the name Scoodic to the main Saint Croix up to the Great 

 Forks, and thence up the West Branch, although the eastern branch is in every way 

 the main stream, while precisely the same usage prevailed, I believe, in regard to the 

 main Saint John River, called Woolastook, and its western branch in which the name 

 survives as Aroostook. An explanation for these three apparent anomalies would 

 easily be found if we could suppose that the names were in all cases given to the 

 western branches by the first Indian immigrants who reached them in their migration 

 from the southwest, after which the extension of the name to the main river below 

 would be perfectly natural; and the usage thus established would naturally persist 

 indefinitely. In the case of the Kennebec, however, this possibility seems excluded 

 by the fact that the name Kennebec almost certainly describes the tidal part of the 

 river, as will be shown in the next number of this series. I have no doubt that future 

 intensive comparative study will solve this problem with others. Meantime, it is 

 well to have the problem and its data on record and in mind. 



MESKEGUACADIE. (1). The Micmac name for Grand Pré, near Wolfville, 

 in Nova Scotia, given as UMSKEGU-ACADI meaning GREAT MEADOW, in a 

 note in Collections of the Maine Historical Society, I, 1865, 27, which, however, 

 clearly rests upon information supplied by Rand. The derivation of the name 

 seems clear, for the latter part is evidently our familiar combination -A-KA'DI-(K), 

 already explained (page 380), while the former part is as clearly the Micmac 

 'MSKEGOOL, meaning GRASS (Rand, English- Micmac Dictionary, 123), making 

 the word in full 'MSKEGOO-A-KA'DI-(K), meaning literally, GRASS-ITS-OC- 

 CURRENCE- (PLACE), which is obviously descriptive of the same feature which has 

 given the place the French name of Grand Pré, or Great Meadow. There is not, 

 however, in the word, any root for GREAT, though this is simulated by the 'MSKE, 

 which suggests MËSKEEK {op. cit. 124), meaning GREAT; but the 'MSKE is an 

 essential part of the word for GRASS. 



This name is clearly a case of the elevation of a topographical term into a place- 

 name (consult pages 381 and 432), for Rand gives the combination also as a topo- 

 graphical term {op. cit. 123,167). Chamberlain gives a Maliseet equivalent as 

 UM-SKIK'-WE-KAT', meaning HAY FIELD {Maliseet Vocabulary, 49). 



