PATTERSON ON NEWFOUNDLAND DIALECT. Ixix 



generally affected their language. Still there are a few words in use 

 which seem to have come in that way, for example, callibogus, a 

 mixture of spruce beer and rum ; a scalawag, a scamp ; tomahawk, the 

 name by which the American shingling hatchet is known ; catamaran, 

 a word originally denoting a raft of three logs lashed together, used 

 first in the East and afterwards in the West Indies ; but in Newfound- 

 land used to denote a woodshed, and when side sleighs were first intro- 

 duced, applied to them ; and xcrod, in New England escrod, a fresh 

 young codfish boiled. 



There is a word common in names on the coasts of Newfoundland 

 and Labrador to which I must advert It is the word tickle, used to 

 denote a narrow passage of some length, usually between an island and 

 the mainland, sometimes large enough to afford shelter for vessels, and 

 sometimes so small as to be navigable only by boats. On the east 

 coast of Newfoundland there are six or eight such places, known by 

 particular appellations, as North Tickle, Main Tickle, &c., and the Coast 

 Pilot notes over a dozen such places on the Labrador coast. We have 

 other names formed from them as Tickle Point or Tickle Bay. In two 

 or three instances in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick we have such a 

 place known sometimes as a tickle, but commonly as a tittle, which I 

 deem L\ corruption of it. I have never seen a conjecture as to the 

 meaning or origin of the word, but myself proposed the following 

 explanation.* The first explorers of the coast referred to were the 

 Portuguese, who gave names to the leading places on these shores, a 

 number of which remain to the present day. A large proportion of 

 these were the names of places in Portugal or the Western Islands, from 

 which they carried on much of their trade. Now on the coast of 

 Portugal may be seen a point called Santa Tekla. It is a narrow 

 projection some miles in length, inside of which is a lengthy basin, 

 narrowed by an island. As there were few good harbors on the coast 

 of that country, this formed a favorite resort for shelter, particularly 

 to her fishermen. What more natural than that they should give the 

 name to places here of similar appearance and serving the same purpose. 

 The slight change from Tekla to Tickle will not appear strange to any 

 person who knows into what different forms foreign words have -been 

 changed when adopted by Englishmen. 



* Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, vni. (2). 144. 



