300 
I'OBACCO NATION AND NEI'TRALS 
The Tobacco people, or Tioiiontati (“There the mountain 
stands”), and the Neutralsd were in all tlieir customs hardly dis- 
ting;uishable from the Hurons whose disasters they shared. The 
Tobacco nation was far less numerous than the Neutral, having; only 
nine villag,es (in 1040) to the latter's twenty-eig;ht (in 162(3), They 
had very little direct contact with Euroj)eans, for the Hurons, fearful 
of losing; their trade as middlemen, would not allow any passage 
through their territories to the (Ottawa river aiul the Frencli settle- 
ments in (Quebec, and the uj^per St. Lawrence was blocked by the 
Iroquois.- The Neutrals, l>ut not the Tobacco people, waged fierce 
wars against some Algonkian tribes in Illinois, atul treated their 
prisoners with unexamplefl cruelty, torturing even the women, wliom 
other Iro(]uoian tribes nearly always spared and adojited into tlieir 
families. Tlie Neutrals, too, had the strange custom, unknown else- 
where in Canada, of killing every animal they encountered, whether 
or not they needed it for food, lest it should carry a warning to other 
animals of its kind and keep them out of I’each when food was needed. 
IROQUOIS 
The constitution of the League of the Iroquois (“Real adders”, 
a name given to them by some neighbomlng Algonkians) has been 
outlined in an earlier chapter; and the map on page 290 shows the 
approximate locations and bouiularies, about 1600 A.L)., of the five 
tribes or nations that made up the confederacy. In order from east 
to west they were as follows: 
(1) Mohawk: “Man-eaters.” 
(2) Oneida: “A rock set uji and standing.” 
(3) Onondaga: “On the hill or mountain.” 
(4) (kiyuga: “Where locusts were taken out.” 
(5) Seneca: A distorted variant of Oneida, the two names hav- 
ing a common origin. 
All these tribes closely resembled in their customs and beliefs 
the Huron and other Iroquoian tribes that they destroyed in south- 
1 The name tliat the Neutral.s applied to their ronfederaey is not known, althoncli wo know the 
names of some of the constituent tribes. The Hurons called tiiem .\ttiw.nndaronk, “People who speak 
a slightly different tonKue”; and ih.e Neutrals applied the .same name to the Hurons. “ .Jesuit Relations,” 
vol. 21, p. 193. The Tobacco nation consisted apparently of one tribe only, subriivided into two 
clans, the deer and the wolf, 
2 According to Sagard (p. 807) the Xeulrals would Iiave found it difficult to use the St, T.awrence 
route because they were not skilful in the use of canoes. 
