88 TRANSACTIONS iSqQ-'OO 



ed one of them, a man about thirty years of age, if he belonged 

 to any clan. "To the clan of the Wolf," was the prompt reply. 

 "That is because your father belonged to that clan ?" I enquired 

 again insidiously. "Oh no," replied the young Iroquois, "my 

 mother belongs to that clan. Clan always goes by the mother, 

 not by the father. ' ' 



A simple phenomenon which marks the evolution of our 

 Hurons from the patriarchal community and clanship of their 

 ancestors to the restricted family group of to-day, is the adoption 

 of distinct family names, transmitted from father to son. With 

 the ancient Hurons as with the ancient Iroquois, there really 

 did not exist any permanent family names, other than those of 

 the clans. Each individual was given a name descriptive of him- 

 self, corresponding to the first name with us, which he did not 

 transmit to his progeny. Bach clan had its list of proper 

 names which were its exclusive property ; so that every name 

 was not only a personal, but a clan designation as well.* After 

 the missionaries had converted the Hurons to the Faith, they intro- 

 duced Christian names. But these Christian names, like the 

 former were not transmissible from father to son. 



It was in the early years of the present century, that the 

 Hurons of Lorette began to adopt permanent family names. 

 As' for the Iroquois of Caughnawaga, it may be stated that 

 even now, as a rule, permanent family names transmissible from 

 father to son, are not in use. In latter years, some families, 

 from coming into closer contact with the whites, have adopted 

 names which are transmitted from father to son : Jocks, 

 Wilhams, Patton, Jacobs, Phillips, de la Ronde, de lyorimier, 

 d'Ailleboust, Beauvais, lycclerc, etc. But these are mainly to 

 facilitate intercourse with the whites, and their bearers still 

 continue in the tribe to be designated by their Christian names 

 supplemented by their Iroquois appellation. I made the 

 acquaintance of an Iroquois, 80 years of age, commonly desig- 

 nated to outsiders as "Old Sky." His name is "Rowi 

 Karonionti^" ; ("Rowi" for "lyouis," the Iroquois being unable 

 to pronounce the letter "ly" ; Karoniontie meaning "Flying 

 Sky"). Karoniontie 's son will not in all probability be known 



*Ontario Archseological Report, 1900; Connelly. 



