[ganong] INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE 443 



Father Vetromile in his book The Abnakis and their History, 1866, 45, 

 where we read: — 



I was at one time led to resolve Acadie into the two Abnaki words Aki-adie 

 (land of dogs). Yet, after more recent investigation, I consider it more natural to 

 trace it to the Micmac word academ (we dwell), or tedlacadem (where we dwell), that 

 is, our village. We have yet in Nova Scotia a place called Tracadie, which must be 

 the Indian word tedlacadem, or t'lacadem, where we dwell, and perhaps it is the original 

 word of Acadie. The principal river in Nova Scotia is called Shuben-acadie, river 

 where we dwell, or village-river. 



While this passage, Hke so many in Father Vetromile's work, 

 inchicling many that have been much quoted, contains much assump- 

 tion and error, he is correct, I believe, in one point, viz., the deri- 

 vation he gives for Tracadie (compare page 437 earlier). His main 

 explanation of Acadie, however, that it is identical with the latter 

 part of Tracadie, is quite negatived by the testimony which follows 

 in this paper. 



Somewhat similar is the explanation of Acadie given by Father 

 Pacifique, who, in his valuable little work, Une Tribu Privilégiée, of 

 1910, 3, wrote thus: — 



Acadie ou Arcadie, du mot micmac algatig: qui vient de algatigei, "s'établir, de- 

 meurer, camper çà et là"; pour indiquer un village ou une colonie particulière, ils 

 disaient etlagalig, de là Tracadie. {Acadie or Arcadie, from the Micmac word algatig, 

 which comes from algatigei, "to settle, reside, camp here and there;" in order to 

 indicate a village or particular settlement, they say etlagatig, whence Tracadie). 



In a recent letter to me, Father Pacifique repeats this derivation, 

 and identifies the termination of these words with the -acadie of the 

 many names to which the present paper is devoted. But I have 

 already given reason why I think that Tracadie is not connected with 

 the other -acadie names (page 436), while the historical evidence in 

 the following pages seems to me to show that neither is the -acadie 

 of Tracadie connected with our Acadie. 



The views of the origin of the word Acadie just given are not the 

 only explanations that have been offered, although they are much 

 the best known. Thus, in a rare little work entitled A Genuine 

 Account of Nova Scotia, published in London in 1750, we read: — 



When the French got possession of it, they called it L'Acadie, in allusion to 

 Arcadia in the Grecian Peloponnesus, but with what propriety I cannot pretend to 

 determine." 



This very same view is contained in Douglass' Summary 1755, 

 I, 305, and it is given in Williamson's History of Maine, I, 1839, 188. 

 Presumably it represents a pure guess, based simply upon the resem- 

 blances in the two words. 



Finally, for completeness, and, incidentally, recreation, we 

 may notice the explanation of the anonymous author of the book 



