[Footnote 51: Information respecting the Indian Tribes, &c., vol. iii. p. 526.]
_Madamiscomtis_ or _Mattammiscontis_, the name of a tributary of the Penobscot and of a town in Lincoln county, Me., was translated by Mr. Greenleaf, in 1823, "Young Alewive stream;" but it appears to represent _met-a[n]ms[oo]ak-ka[n]tti_, 'a place where there _has been_ (but is not now) plenty of alewives,' or to which they no longer resort. Compare Râle's _met-a[n]m[oo]ak_, "les poissons ont faites leurs oeufs; ils s'en sont allés; il n'y en a plus."
_Cobbosseecontee_ river, in the south part of Kennebec county, is named from a place near "the mouth of the stream, where it adjoineth itself to Kennebec river,"[52] and 'where there was plenty of sturgeons,'--_kabassak-ka[n]tti_.
[Footnote 52: Depositions in Coll. Me. Histor. Society, iv. 113.]
'_Peskadamioukkanti_' is given by Charlevoix, as the Indian name of "the river of the Etchemins," that is, the St. Croix,--a name which is now corrupted to _Passamaquoddy_; but this latter form of the name is probably derived from the _Etchemin_, while Charlevoix wrote the _Abnaki_ form. The Rev. Elijah Kellogg, in 1828,[53] gave, as the meaning of 'Passamaquoddie,' 'pollock fish,' and the Rev. Mr. Rand translates 'Pestumoo-kwoddy' by 'pollock ground.'[54] Cotton's vocabulary gives '_pâkonnótam_' for 'haddock.' Perhaps _peskadami[oo]k_, like _a[n]ms[oo]ak_, belonged to more than one species of fish.
[Footnote 53: 3 Mass. Hist. Coll., iii. 181.]
[Footnote 54: Dawson's Acadian Geology, 2d ed., (London, 1868), pp. 3, 8.]
Of Etchemin and Micmac words having a similar termination, we find among others,--
_Shubenacadie_ (_Chebenacardie_ on Charlevoix' map, and _Shebenacadia_ on Jeffry's map of 1775). One of the principal rivers of Nova Scotia, was so named because '_sipen-ak_ were plenty there.' Professor Dawson was informed by an "ancient Micmac patriarch," that "_Shuben_ or _Sgabun_ means ground-nuts or Indian potatoes," and by the Rev. Mr. Rand, of Hantsport, N.S., that "_segubbun_ is a ground-nut, and _Segubbuna-kaddy_ is the place or region of ground-nuts," &c.[55] It is not quite certain that _shuben_ and _segubbun_ denote the same esculent root. The Abnaki name of the wild potato or ground-nut was _pen_, pl. _penak_ (Chip. _opin-[=i]g_; Del. _obben-ak_); '_sipen_,' which is obviously the equivalent of _sheben_, Râle describes as "blanches, plus grosses que des _penak_:" and _sheep'n-ak_ is the modern Abnaki (Penobscot) name for the bulbous roots of the Yellow Lily (_Lilium Canadense_). Thoreau's Indian guide in the 'Maine Woods' told him that these bulbs "were good for soup, that is to cook with meat to thicken it,"--and taught him how to prepare them.[56] Josselyn mentions such "a water-lily, with yellow flowers," of which "the Indians eat the roots" boiled.[57]