[ganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 405 



Chief Deny's form of the name, unlike Rand's, is obviously in the diminutive 

 form, for the TJ is the same as CHEECH, meaning LITTLE. He says, moreover, 

 that the name belongs to the pond near the church at Boisdale, and that the name 

 MIGTJITJOEGATI (obviously the exact equivalent of Rand's form), is a word 

 but they do not use it. Since these names with their diminutives go in pairs, I have 

 no doubt that the Indians formerly applied the name MÏKCHÏKCH-WÂ-KA'DI-K, 

 to some larger pond on the coast, perhaps one of those towards Boisdale Barachois, 

 or this Barchois itself , though now the name has gone out of use among them. Father 

 MacPherson, in his letter, expresses the name as MTGJEEJAWAYGODEEJK. 



Mira. 



The name of a well-known River, Lake, Bay, and Village in eastern Cape 

 Breton. 



It appears first in 1685 as Miray, applied to the Bay and a Cape on its south side, 

 on the Jumeau map of 1685 (photographic copy in the Champlain Society's edition 

 of Father le Clercq's New Relation of Gapesia, 10) . On Bellin's fine map of the Islands, 

 of 1744 it appears as MIRAY, for the Lake, and MIRÉ, fortheBay, whenceit was 

 adopted naturally on the English maps as MIRAY, from which the transition to 

 MIRA was easy, though this form is comparatively recent. Meantime, however, 

 ap important document of 1713, an application for land, used a form of the name 

 which seems to suggest its own origin, viz., MOULACADIE, which is described as, 

 "the first river in entering the lake Choulacadie on the right hand" (Murdoch, 

 History of Nova Scotia, I, 338). Now the lake called Choulacadie, as shown else- 

 where in this paper (page 426), can be no other than that now called Mira, and there- 

 fore the first river on the right in entering it would be the large stream now called 

 Salmon River. Considering, now, the close association of these names, and remem- 

 bering that the French always adopted as R the sound which the Indians pronounce 

 L, there would seem no reasonable doubt that MIRA is simply the altered MOOLA 

 of an abbreviated MOOLACADIE. An identical transformation, as will later be 

 shown inxietail, occurred in the name of the Northwest Miramichi, which the Indians 

 call MOOLMUNOKUN, but which occurs in French documents as MIRMENAGAN. 

 I take it that the Indians really applied the name CHOULACADIE only to the 

 present Mira River, the French extending it to the Lake, while the Indian name 

 MOULACADIE belonged originally to Salmon River only, but later, in its simplified 

 form MIRA, became extended to the Lake and the River thence to the sea, 

 displacing the older CHOULACADIE. 



We seek now the origin of MOULACADIE. This is made quite clear by Chief 

 Denys of Eskasoni, who, interviewed for me by Father MacPherson, gives the 

 Micmac name forSalmon River, the one emptying into Mira Lake, as POLAMOEI- 

 GATIG, with the meaning SALMON'S RIVER. Since POLAMEOIGATIG is 

 perfect aboriginal Indian, I suppose there is no doubt it is the true Indian name of 

 Salmon River, not a translation of the English name into Indian; while the English 

 name is either a translation of the Indian, or given independently in description of the 

 same feature. The latter part of this word is the obvious equivalent of our -A- 

 KA'DI-K or-ACADIE. The former part is the Micmac word for SALMON, 

 which Rand gives in the form POlAMOO {First Reading Book, 54). Now P and 

 M are sounds often interchanged in Micmac, so that PÛLÂMOO can as well be 

 written MÛLÀMOO, and our word would become MOOLAMOO-ACADIE. But, 

 as so many words in the present paper will illustrate, there is a constant tendency 

 to abbreviation in these compounds through omission of some syllables; wherefore, 

 in view of the collective evidence, it seems quite clear that MOOL-ACADIE is simply 

 the condensed form of MOOLAMOO-ACADIE. 



