[ganongI INDIAN PLACE-NOMENCLATURE. 273 



origin appears in the documents of the French period. The principal cases, in ad- 

 dition to Petitcodiac, are Tetagouche, said to be French Tête-à-gauche, Tatamagouche, 

 said to be Tête-à-ma-gauche, Minudie, said to be Main-à-Dieu, Skepody, said 

 to be Chapeau-Dieu, and the extinct Aucpac, said to be Aux Pâques; and in all of 

 these cases a plausible basis for the French origin is not wanting. Such explanations 

 find their support in the primitive wonder instinct which rises superior, in all except 

 the logically trained, to the critical truth-craving spirit. 



Had the Micmacs not found in the distinctive reverse bend, or bends, in this 

 River, a natural foundation for a name, they would no doubt have used a word de- 

 scriptive of its other very remarkable feature, its great tidal bore. The word for the 

 latter, however, viz., OOSOOËGOW (Rand, English- Micmac Dictionary, 40), is too 

 different to allow any theory that it is involved in the name Petitcodiac. But this 

 root is perhaps involved in a name applied on Bellin's maps of Acadia of 1744 to a 

 river in this vicinity, apparently the Petitcodiac (his Shepody and Memramcook 

 Rivers being transposed), viz., PADESCOU, the latter part of which, ESCOU, might 

 well represent a condencation of OOSOOËGOW. It would seem not improbable 

 that PADESCOU may represent a special name for the tidal estuary of the river, 

 while PET-KOOT-KOY-EK was the name for the entire river, or possibly, for the 

 upper part in description of the upper bend, though this is unlikely. But the name 

 PADESCOU does not reappear, and this is as far as I have been able to follow that 

 matter. 



Summary. The name PETITCODIAC is of Micmac Indian origin, a cor- 

 ruption of PET-KOOT-KOY-EK', which is a condensation of the roots EPET- 

 KUTOG-OYE-K, meaning literally BACK TURN-AROUND-BENDS-PLACE, 

 or, more generally, THE RIVER THAT BENDS AROUND BACK, in description 

 of the remarkable way in which it swings around to a reverse direction in relation 

 to the Bay of Fundy. 



A name which bears a suggestive resemblance to Petitcodiac is PICHKOT- 

 KOUET, applied to a River flowing into the eastern side of Grand Lake in south- 

 central New Brunswick, as given on a copy of the great Franquelin-de Meulles map 

 of 1686 (these Transactions, III, 1897, ii, 364). Since this stream leads over towards 

 Petitcodiac, in the general direction of the ancient route of travel, I have expressed 

 the opinion that the word might be a form of Petitcodiac, given to the stream be- 

 cause part of a route of travel to that river, precisely as the English gave the name 

 Cumberland Bay to a waterway which I thought to be the same, because it led 

 towards Fort Cumberland {these Transactions, II 1896, ii 229; V, 1899, ii, 248). 

 But I now know this idea to be groundless, for further study of the region has proved 

 that the name does not belong to Cumberland Bay at all (which indeed has a very 

 different Indian name and has no river), but belongs to Coal Creek, a small River 

 emptying into the head of the Lake. This is shown by a more exact study of the 

 stream on the map of 1686, which heads, as Coal Creek does, near a stream 

 and small Lake evidently intended for Lake Stream. More important, however, 

 is this fact, that inspection of my photographic copy of the map of 1686 shows that 

 the word really reads PICHKOLKOUEL (possibly PICHKOSKOUEL). Now 

 the modern Ma liseet name for Coal Creek is MESGOSGUELK (these Transactions, 

 II, 1896, ii, 227), which, with omission of the locative K could equally well be written 

 MESKOSKOUEL. Moreover M and P are interchangeable sounds in Indian 

 words, while the French usually represented by ICH the sound which we catch as 

 ES. There seems no doubt, accordingly, that the two words are identical. 



