THE INDIANS 219 



of the people lays quick hold of the possibilities of the nick- 

 name. 



Not infrequently the name of a child is given from some 

 trait or chance occurrence. The name Mattawayshish, 

 " Play bear/' belonging to an Indian first seen by the writer 

 as a tall old man, dignified though feeble, was doubtless 

 given by the mother to the little boy who played behind the 

 bushes in days long gone. 



A short, active man with a peg-top build was nicknamed 

 Mistnouk, from the great triangular fly known in Maine as 

 the moose-fly. A stranger from across some far water 

 was dubbed " Over-sea" or its Indian equivalent. 1 Indian 

 rebaptisms, as to name, are not uncommon, especially 

 in connection with younger men of no especial standing. 

 Many of the Montagnais have French names. Neverthe- 

 less, as many as half the people, it may be, speak only the 

 aboriginal tongue; their names, with those of many others, 

 are naturally still of the vernacular. 



As regards the language as a whole, it is probable that 

 few but its actual students realize its scope and resources. 

 Notwithstanding the number of names both of places and 

 persons which we have accepted from the race, it would 

 not be far wrong to say that the chance person of cultiva- 

 tion, if told that the Indian language consisted of a few 

 uncouth words of limited import, would assent as a matter 

 of course. It is true that their field of observation as com- 

 pared with that of modern civilization is limited. The 

 swelling tide of our technical vocabularies, our now half- 

 inanimate burden of metaphysical terms, have scarcely 



1 A northern Indian had a name meaning " Man-in- the-Moon." 



