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looked aipon as the firft, and which has a fort of 

 pre-eminence over the other two, in which thofe 

 of this tribe are treated as brothers, whereas 

 amongft themfelves they treat one another as cou- 

 fins. Thefe tribes are mixed, without being con- 

 founded, each of them having a diftinct chief in 

 every village : and in fuch affairs as concern the 

 whole nation, thefe chiefs affenible to deliberate 

 upon it. Every tribe bears the name of fome ani- 

 mal, the whole nation having alfo its own, whofe 

 name it takes, and whofe figure is their bearing or 

 enfigns armorial ; and when they fign any treaties, 

 it is always by drawing thofe figures upon them, 

 except when for particular reafons they caufe fub- 

 ftitute fome other. 



Thus, the Huron nation is the nation of the 

 porcupine : its firft tribe bears the name of the 

 bear, or of the roe-buck, authors varying on this 

 head-, the other two have the wolf and tortoife 

 for their animals •, laftly, every town has its own 

 particular animal, and it is probably this variety 

 which has milled the authors of fome accounts. 

 It is alfo proper to obferve, that befides thefe dif- 

 tincYions of nations, tribes, and towns, by animals, 

 there are alfo others founded on fome cuftom, or 

 particular event : as for in (lance, the Tionnonta- 

 tez Hurons, who are of the firft tribe, commonly 

 call themfelves the tobacco nation ; and we have a 

 treaty in which thefe Indians, who were then fettled 

 at Michillimakinac, have put for their mark the 

 figure of a beaver. 



The Iroquois nation has the fame animals with 

 the Huron, of which it appears to be a colony, with 

 this difference, that the family of the tortoife is fplit 

 into two branches, calkd the great and little tor- 

 toife. 



