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Correspondence from William Brooks Cabot to Fannie Hardy Eckstorm ca. 1930-1946, part 2 (ms158_b1f017_002.11.pdf)
-tant names, but may be different: is not easy to be sure of the meaning.
Reskahegan I won't touch, nothing suggests & it is a half day job with the urge on to hunt cognates. Ska- & Skwa- are the last forms I shall ever get really tamed, though they slowly unravel. Your Indians are slow about it, there is often a standing up idea, or going ahead. I have accepted Skowhegan as a rendezvous, where you stay before a hunt, rather a meeting place. Squakwatick (Passam.) was a meeting pl., big peace meeting.
Your -higan for tools etc. is right as far as it goes, but the bottom of the -gans & -kans is use as a passive verbal ending: something is done: as a Cree told me "kan is some thing made [one underlined]", there is a personal agency. Kikañn is a made field. He'gan in place names is commonly a low place, passage, where you go - The personal agency appears. With us here I think ground that looks [one underlined] like a made field may be called a -kan, but I think you will find the passive idea always in your words.
Very Sincerely
W. B. Cabot.
[Postscript written along the left margin of the page:]
Nudena's [?] Latin is mostly easy, I read a good bit of it in school. But if he had used French one could have carried his meanings into our big French-Indian dicts. where they would have been expanded out. - - I hope to meet Mr. Barry.
Description: Letters concerning Indian languages, culture, and history.
Link to document in Digital Maine
Language: English
Date: ca. 1930-1946
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