160 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 73 
cause they lived at the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee Riv- 
ers, the former evidently because their settlement was on a bluff or 
hill. It is still retained in the form Nanna Hubba and in the same 
locality. 1 Since Iberville does not mention this tribe and speaks of 
encountering the Tohome at the very same place, 2 it is probable that 
they were sometimes considered a part of the latter. 
The Mobile are, of course, the identical tribe with which De Soto 
had such a sanguinary encounter. The meaning of the name, prop- 
erly pronounced Mowil, is uncertain; Mr. Halbert suggests that it is 
from the Choctaw moeli, to skim, and also to paddle. Since De 
Soto's time the tribe had moved much nearer the sea, probably in 
consequence of that encounter and as a result of later wars with 
the Alabama. On the French map of De Crenay there is a place 
marked " Vieux Mobiliens" on the south side of the Alabama, 
apparently close to Pine Barren Creek, between Wilcox and Dallas 
Counties, Alabama. 3 This was probably a station occupied by the 
Mobile tribe between the time of De Soto and the period of Iberville. 
Nothing positive is known regarding the history of the Tohome 
before they appear in the French narratives. On the De Crenay 
map above alluded to, however, there is a short affluent of the 
Alabama below where Montgomery now stands called "Alike Thome, " 
evidently identical with the creek now known as Catoma, the name of 
which is probably corrupted from Auke Thome. Auke is evidently 
oke, the Alabama word for "water" or "stream", and the Thome is the 
spelling for the Tohome tribe used on the same map. The natural 
conclusion is that the creek was named for the tribe and marked a site 
which they had formerly occupied. 4 Thus they, like the Mobile, 
would appear to have come from the neighborhood of the Alabama 
country. 
Iberville says that Tohome means " Little Chief , " but he is evidently 
mistaken. 5 "Little Chief" would require an entirely distinct combi- 
nation in Choctaw or any related language; the nearest Choctaw 
word is perhaps tomi, tommi, or tombi, which signifies "to shine," or 
"radiant," or "sunshine," but we really know nothing about the 
meaning of the tribal name. 
In April, 1700, Iberville ascended Pascagoula River to visit the 
tribes upon it, and there he learned that the village of the Mobile 
was three days' journey farther on toward the northeast and that 
they numbered 300 men. The Tohome were said to be one day's 
journey beyond on the same river of the Mobile and they also were 
said to have 300 men. 
i Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 107. 
2 Margry, Dec, IV, p. 514. 
3 Hamilton, Col. Mobile, p. 190 and plate 5; see footnote, page L59. 
« Ibid. Mr. llalbcrt has suggested that Thome - may be from a Choctaw word referred to just below and 
may have nothing to do with the tribe, but I believe he is in error. 
5 Margry, Dec. iv, p. 514. 
