HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK IROQUOIS 159 



to ill early writings. These persons had special dnties and privi- 

 leges, and one dance was called after them. The false faces and 

 medicine societies do not correspond to them, thongh these have 

 peculiar functions and honors. 



Two of their national names were foreign to their language 

 and came from their enemies. Mohawk is not an Iroquois word, 

 nor could a Mohawk once pronounce it. For some time the 

 Algonquin family lay between the Dutch and that nation, and 

 both they and the English accepted the names known to those 

 living near them. The Dutch called them Maquas or Bears, 

 that clan being prominent. Hence Father Bruyas wrote : '' Gan- 

 niagwari, A she bear; This is the name of the Mohawks." Their 

 accepted name, however, was Canienga, At the Flint, or People 

 of the Flint ; commonly given as Annies or Agniers by the 

 French. This was connected with the idea of striking fire with 

 a steel, and the steel became their national symbol. As this was 

 an early name they may have learned to use the steel from 

 Cartier or others in Canada, long before the rest had any contact 

 with Europeans, and Sir William Johnson derived their name 

 from the steel itself. Bruyas gave kannia for gunflint, which is 

 near the French form of the national name. As for our horn- 

 stone, usually termed flint, it was as abundant in all the other 

 Iroquois territory as among the Mohawks. The use of this with 

 the steel made a distinction. 



The Dutch divided the Iroquois into Maquas and Senecas, 

 Champlain into Iroquois and Entouhonorons, and later French 

 writers into lower and upper Iroquois. They had everywhere, a 

 terrible reputation, which others should have shared. Roger 

 Williams said : " The Maguauogs, or Men-eaters, that live three 

 or four hundred miles west from us, make a delicious monstrous 

 dish of the heads and brains of their enemies." Their common 

 name of Mohawk came from another given by their enemies, 

 Mohowaug, They eat Living Creatures. 



Besides the national title each nation had a council name by 

 which it was addressed in public conferences. David Cusick 

 gave this for the Mohawks as Te-haw-re-ho-geh, A Speech 



