Scripto | Page Revision | Transcription

�Boston, October 6, 1930

Dear Mrs. Eckstorm I am vastly intrigued by your forcible confession of faith in Penaquid. I have never been there, but I look upon it as an old friend from much reading about it. There too, I have always been an amateur student of the Indian tongue as a part of my flair for philology. I may have exposed my kindergarten views on some of your Maine words to you in the past. I have always been in somewhat extended correspondence with so-called experts-the late [?] [?] particularly of Sag Harbor N.Y. (deceased) also Prof. [?]. It is a dangerous plaything for an amateur. But if one thing I am convinced that it is futile for any 'expert' to fasten a scientific (underscored) definition to a place name without personal knowledge of the terrain. I hate to criticise [?] who have made study of the construction of the Indian tongue a specialty, but I [?] amazed at their definitions. If the Indian could do no better than they report his descriptive power as [?] place names,, I wonder the Indians [?] knew where they were at.

For example -[?] the name of Portland. [?] was given me-"the great ridge place",-that is like an animals back. It is admitted [?] in the various dialects, the syllables following Mach-means variously, [?] and camp. But how would an Indian know when he had arrived at the great ridge place? Portland has two hills at each end of