of the councils. In this as in
other American savage nations, the rule governing the transmission of
hereditary honours and possessions was through the female line.

Beyond the Huron villages, south of Nottawasaga Bay--so named probably
from the Nottaways, a branch of the same family, driven by war to the
south--we come to the Tionotates or Tobacco tribe, who were kin in
language and customs to their neighbours and afterwards joined their
confederacy. The Neutral Nation, or Attiwandaronks of Iroquois stock,
had their homes on the north shore of Lake Erie, and reached even as
far as the Niagara. They were extremely cruel, and kept for a long
while their position of neutrality between the Hurons and Five Nations.
To the south of Lake Erie rose the smoke of the fires of the Eries,
generally translated "Cats," but, properly speaking, the "Raccoons."
Like the Andastes, near the Susquehanna, mentioned in a previous
chapter, they were famous warriors, and for years held their own
against the Iroquois, but {118} eventually both these nations yielded
to the fury of the relentless confederacy.

We have now come to the western door of the "long house"
(_Ho-de-no-sote_) of the Iroquois, who called themselves "the people of
the long house" (_Ho-de-no-sau-nee_), because they dwelt in a line of
villages of "long houses," reaching from the Genesee to the Mohawk,
where the eastern door looked toward the Hudson and Lake Champlain.
The name by which they have been best known is considered by Charlevoix
and other writers to be originally French; derived from "Hiro" (I have
spoken)--the conclusion of all their harangues--and Koue, an
exclamation of sorrow when it was prolonged, and of joy when pronounced
shortly. They comprised five nations, living by the lakes, that still
bear their names in the State of New York, in the following order as we
go east from Niagara:

IROQUOIS NATIONS. ENGLISH NAMES. FRENCH NAMES.

Nundawaeona ) Seneca Tsonnontouans
Great hill people )

Gueugwehono ) Cayuga Goyogouin
People of the marsh )

Onundaegaono ) Onondaga Onnontague
People of the hills )

Onayotekaeono ) Oneida Onneyote
Granite people )

Gaeneaegaono ) Mohawk Agnier
Possessors of the flint )

[Illustration: Iroquois