News and Reflections: Ancient eel-spearing gear close to home: "Nigogue" -- December 9, 2022

Photograph, "Nigogue," contributed by Joseph Jacquard, First Vice President, AAMS

The Acadians learned from the Mi'kmaq to use a nigogue. It is used to spear eels in the winter through the ice when the eels are buried in the mud. The photograph of a modern version of a nigogue was contributed by Association des Acadiens-Metis Souriquois First Vice President, Joseph Jacquard.

Past President Paul Tufts offers the following linguistic origins for the word nigogue.
Mi'kmaw word: "nikoq;" Acadian word: "nigogue;" French meaning: "lance anguille;" English word: eel spear.

In Geddes, J. Jr. (1908). Study of an Acadian-French Dialect Spoken on the North Shore of Baie de Chaleurs. M. Niemeyer, we find the following definition of nigog:

Referencing an article by A.F. Chamberlain that appeared in a 1902 edition of The Journal of American Folklore, "Algonkian Words in American English: A Study in the Contact of the White Man and the Indian," we find the Canadian French of the Maritime Provinces given as the origins of nigogue: