118 THE HUEON RACE AND ITS UEAD-FOBM. 



Erie. Of these, the Hurons, when first brought to the knowledge of 

 the French, were found settled in palisaded villages around Lake 

 Simcoe, — or Ouentarono, as it appears to have been called. 



The name Huron, like that of Iroquois, is of French formation, 

 though of more uncertain origin. " Quelles hures !" exclaimed an 

 astonished Frenchman, at the sight of a party of them decorated 

 according to their highest savage art : and hence, says one of the Jesuit 

 fathers, came the name. Another derivation traces it to the koui, or 

 familiar ending of all Indian orations, already referred to, and the 

 common termination ono, or onon, as the French give it, signifying 

 people. They appear to have called themselves Ouendat, or, according 

 to English pronunciation, Wyandots. They consisted of four septs or 

 nations : the Attighaouentans, or Nation of the Bear, — the chief 

 member of the league, — the Attignenonghaes, the Ahrendarrhonons, 

 and the Tohotaenrats : occupying thirty-two villages, when visited by 

 the Jesuit Missionaries, in 1639. To those a fifth nation : the Tion- 

 nontates, or Tionontones, was united at a later date. But the term 

 nation is apt to lead to an exaggerated idea of numbers. Br^beuf 

 reckoned them in all, in 1635, at thirty thousand ; and they are stated 

 in the Relation of 1660 at thirty-five thousand. The five nations of 

 the Iroquois were estimated by La Hontan, about the same time, as 

 numbering in all seventy thousand ; but all such estimates were neces- 

 sarily based on very imperfect data. The number of Huron towns 

 changed from time to time under the vicissitudes of war and disease j 

 and the Tohotaenrats only occupied a single pallisaded village. 



Agriculture was sedulously pursued by all the members of the con- 

 federation ; and indeed one of the hardships dwelt on by the French 

 Missionaries who visited their villages is that they could rarely get 

 any animal food; but lived principally on sagamite, a preparation of 

 pounded Indian corn and smoked fish boiled together. A pumpkin 

 baked in the hot ashes, or Indian corn roasted in the ear, varied such 

 entertainment in the autumn ; and when the Jesuits settled among 

 them as a permanent mission, they learned to hunt for themselves. 

 The rivers and lakes of the Huron country still abound in fish ; nor is 

 the game even yet exterminated in neighbouring regions. But the 

 untiring vigilance of their Iroquois foe greatly restricted their hunting 

 grounds, and forced them to the diligent cultivation of the soil. To 

 this was probably due such traces of incipient civilization as are sug- 

 gested to us by 'numerous traces of systematic agricultural labour. 



