418 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Indian Pëstûtnwôkâ'dyïk, the plural of the participial formation Pëstùmwôk-âd 

 'he who catches the pollock-fish' from Pëskùtùm-wùk 'pollock-fish,' +-âd, participial 

 ending." (Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, XXXVIII, 1899, 181), 

 and he repeats the statement in his introduction to Leland and Prince's Kuloskap 

 the Master, 1902, 23, in the form, — "The name Passamaquoddy is a purely local 

 term, meaning 'spearers of pollock fish' (peskâtum). The correct form is Peskumokâ- 

 dyik." Professor Prince thus makes the place-name a secondary derivative from 

 that of the Indian tribe, in exact reverse of the usual conception. As a mere amateur 

 in these studies I am not prepared to debate Prince's ideas from the philological 

 side, though his explanation seems to be forced, and his failure to recognize the root 

 -AKADI remarkable; but I am quite content to rest the case upon the accumulation 

 of evidence given in this paper, which does not seem to me at all weakened by any- 

 thing in his interpretation. Possibly he was influenced by the well-known fact that 

 the totem of the Passamaquoddy tribe is a canoe containing two Indians in pursuit 

 of a pollock {these Transactions, V, 1887, ii, 3). 



The third of the other explanations, however, involved error throughout. It 

 was introduced by Father Vetromile, who, in his book The Abnakis and their History, 

 1866, 54, writes, in connection with the St. Croix, — "Its real Indian name is Peskada- 



miukkanti (which word he credits to Charlevoix), it goes up into the open fields 



hence Scoodic-lakes, open-field-lakes, explained as open by fire, 5c/footè meaning _^fe." 

 In order thus to connect Peskadamiukkanti with Scoodic, the old name of the Saint 

 Croix, Father Vetromile apparently considered that the eskada of this word is equiva- 

 lent to scoodic, for which there is no evidence whatsoever. Besides, no roots in the 

 former word can possibly be made to mean either OPEN or FIELDS. In fact, 

 however, the origin of Father Vetromile's meaning for Peskadamiukkanti is easy to 

 find, for more than one earlier writer had assigned to the word Scoodic the meaning 

 OPEN FIELDS, the opening being done by FIRE, a matter that will later be 

 discussed. Accordingly it seems clear that Father Vetromile's memory played him 

 a trick, afifixing the meaning to the wrong word. This is all confirmed by the fact 

 that he then goes on to say that the Passamaquoddies derive their name from this 

 word "and not from the word Quoddy, haddock, as it is erroneously believed." What 

 authority can we grant to a person, who, a supposed student of the Indians, and 

 author of a book and paper on the Indian language, can accept Quoddy as the Indian 

 name of the haddock ? After this it is not surprising to find him saying, "We know 

 from ancient writers that the Micmacs did not know the cod-fish, and this was 

 probably the case with the Etchimins." Against this statement we need only set 

 the testimony of the most ancient of all the writers who came into direct contact with 

 the Micmacs, Lescarbot, who gives in his works a Micmac name for the cod {Histoire 

 de la Nouvelle France, Liv. 3, ch. 7) . And besides the bones of the cod are found abund- 

 antly in the ancient Indian shellheaps {Bulletin of the Natural History Society of 

 New Brunswick, No. Ill, 1884, 24, and other publications). Yet such is the foun- 

 dation of the greater part of the material in Father Vetromile's book, the prominence 

 of which has given it an influence far beyond its worth. Its explanation of the 

 word is repeated in Knowlton's Annals of Calais, Maine, etc., 1875, 12, and I think 

 I have seen it in other publications as well. 



Quite diff'erent is the fourth explanation, that which Father Maurault adduces 

 in his Histoire des Abenakis of 1866, where, on page 6, he says (translated), — "The 

 Abenakis call the River Saint Croix ' paskatamiS kanji,' river which is difficult to 

 perceive, and which is seen as if through the dusk" (rivière qu'il est difficile d'aper- 

 cevoir et que l'on vit voit comme à travers les ténèbres) and makes this the origin of 

 the name Passamaquoddy. The Indian form suggests the influence of Charlevoix's 

 word, but may possibly have been taken independently from the Abenakis among 



