92 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



{Journal of American Folk Lore, VIII, 1895, 206). Comparing, now, this form with 

 those given by the early records above cited, all of which were made more or less 

 independently of one another, and taken, in most cases at least, independently 

 from the Indians, it is evident that they all agree, and therefore we possess the 

 aboriginal form of the name, which may best be expressed as PAN-WE'-OK. If, 

 now, we compare this form with the aboriginal form of the word Pokiok, earlier 

 given (page 2), viz., POK-\\'Ê-OK, it is obvious that the two words are identical 

 except for the first syllable. This identity, indeed, is confirmed by the striking 

 similarity in the terminations of the two names in their various early uses as recorded 

 on pages 2 and 11 of this paper. In the case of both words the whites have thrown 

 the accent forward to the first syllable, though in the case of PAN-WE'-OCK the 

 Indians appear to have kept the original pronunciation more exactly than in 

 POK-WE'-OK. The two words then seem identical except for the first syllable, 

 and the latter part of the word would mean, as in Pokiok, RUNS OUT (page 3). 

 Accordingly we turn now to seek the meaning of the root PAN. Here we are helped 

 at once by the Indian explanations of the word, for they say it means OPEN, or 

 OPENS OUT, as I have obtained the meaning form them. Thus the word clears up, 

 for there is in the closely allied Micmac a root PAN, or BAN, or PON, meaning 

 OPEN, as shown by its use in that signification in a nvmiber of words which follow, 

 while a similar root is found also in the allied Abnaki, as will be shown a few pages 

 later (page 19) in connection with the word Penobscot, which involves the same 

 root. PAN, then, would seem to mean OPEN, and the significance and appropriate- 

 ness of the name will be evident at once to anyone having acquaintance with the 

 physical characteristics of that place; for just here the Nashwaak valley, which is 

 comparatively narrow both above and below this place, broadens or opens out into 

 an extensive basin, filled with wide intervales in the midst of which the Penniac 

 Stream joins the Nashwaak. This stream, therefore, is specially distinguished 

 among the tributaries of the Nashwaak by emptying or running out in the midst 

 of an open basin, and in this fact I have no question we have the correct explanation 

 of the name, which aboriginally would have been BAN-WEÔ-K, meaning OPEN- 

 RUNS OUT-PLACE. The word is thus the precise opposite of POKIOK. 



Other Explanations of the Word. — The only other explanation I have 

 found for the name is that given by Edward Jack in the paper above cited, where 

 he makes it mean LEVEL LAND BROOK. While incorrect in form, I think this 

 meaning is really based upon the correct idea, the open basin being here expressed 

 in terms of the extensive flat intervale lands which are correlated with its open 

 character. 



Summary. — The name PENNIAC is of Micmac Indian origin, a corruption of 

 BAN-WÈ'-ÔK, involving the roots BAN-WÈÔ-K, meaning literally OPEN-RUNS 

 OUT-PLACE, or, in more general terms, THE STREAM THAT RUNS OUT IN 

 AN OPEN BASIN. 



Other Acadian Place-names involving the root BAN, meaning OPEN, 



of Penniac. 



PENOBSCOT. Discussed separately below. 



PONHOOK. The name applied on our maps, and in local use, to two long 

 lakes on the Saint Croix River, a branch of the Avon River, in central Nova Scotia. 

 This name is explained by Rand {Reader, 97) as derived from BANOOK, meaning 

 THE RIVER OPENS OUT INTO A LAKE; and in his Micmac- English Dictionary, 

 31, he gives a number of words fully confirmatory of this meaning, one of which, 



