1644,[81] and correctly translates the prefix _matche_ by 'bad,' but
adds: "What _Biguatus_ means, I do not know." Purchas mentions
'_Chebegnadose_,' as an Indian town on the 'Apananawapeske' or
Penobscot.[82] Râle gives, as the name of the place on "the river
where M. de Gastin [Castine] is," _Matsibig[oo]ad[oo]ssek_, and on his
authority we may accept this form as nearly representing the original.
The analysis now becomes more easy. _Matsi-a[n]baga[oo]at-ek_, means
'at the bad-shelter place,--bad _covert_ or cove;' and
_matsi-a[n]baga[oo]at[oo]s-ek_ the diminutive, 'at the small
bad-shelter place.' About two miles and a half above the mouth of the
Kenebec was a place called by the Indians '_Abagadusset_' or
'_Abequaduset_'--the same name without the prefix--meaning 'at the
cove, or place of shelter.'

[Footnote 81: Printed in note to Savage's Winthrop's Journal, ii.
180.]

[Footnote 82: See Thornton's Ancient Pemaquid, in Maine Hist.
Collections, v. 156.]

* * * * *

The adjectivals employed in the composition of Algonkin names are very
numerous, and hardly admit of classification. Noun, adjective, adverb
or even an active verb may, with slight change of form, serve as a
prefix. But, as was before remarked, every prefix, strictly
considered, is an adverb or must be construed as an adverb,--the
synthesis which serves as a name having generally the verb form. Some
of the most common of these prefixes have been mentioned on preceding
pages. A few others, whose meanings are less obvious and have been