Lafitau (Mœurs des Sauvages, t. i., pp. 244, 401) also mentions Ataentsic—"the Queen of the Manes"—but names her grandson Tharonhiaouagon. Parkman thinks this latter personage (also written Tarenyowagon) was a divinity peculiar to the Iroquois Five Nations. Brinton discusses these legends at length in American Hero-Myths (Phila., 1882), pp. 53-62; and also in Myths of the New World (3rd ed.), pp. 156, 203-205; in the latter work, he considers that Taronhiawagon was but Jouskeha (Ioskeha) under another name, and explains the stories of all these deities as myths of the Sun and Moon, of Night and Day, of the conflict between light and darkness. Cf. Parkman's Jesuits, lxxv.-lxxvii., and the outline of Huron cosmogony given by Hale in Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. i., pp. 177-183; see also Cusick's account of the creation, in Beauchamp's Iroquois Trail, pp. 1-5.
[37] (p. [121]).—For references on the subject of the immortality of souls, see vol. [vi.], note [17].
[38] (p. [125]).—Scanonaenrat (where was the mission of St. Michael) was one of the largest towns of the Huron country—itself comprising the entire nation of the Tohontahenrats. It was on the forest trail leading from the upper mission towns in Tiny township to Teanaustayé (St. Joseph), and about 1¼ leagues from the latter (Relation for 1639). Du Creux's map places it at a short distance northwest of the small body of water now known as Orr Lake; and there are extensive remains in the tract between this lake and the modern village of Waverley that correspond very well with the numerous references to St. Michael in the Relations. Here have been found, in a space about two miles square, traces of a large town, and of half a dozen others, smaller, but similar. With each of these sites there is, instead of the usual ossuary, a cemetery of isolated graves. In this respect the Tohontahenrats appear to have differed from the other Huron nations, who adopted the ossuary almost to the exclusion of every other mode of burial. One small ossuary, however, was found in this tract in 1895 (Ontario Archæol. Rept., 1894-95, p. 42). Among its contents were four brass finger-rings, on which can be distinctly seen the cross and the initials I. H. S. Patches of ground strewn with iron tomahawks—indubitable signs of Indian conflict—are common in this neighborhood, confirming the Jesuits' accounts of the battles of 1648-50, when seven hundred Huron warriors were quartered here (Relation for 1649, chap. iii.), and suggesting other conflicts which these chroniclers had probably overlooked in the general confusion of that period. Several farms in the first concession of Medonté township (lots 68 to 74 inclusive), in the immediate neighborhood of St. Michael, abound in this class of relics. Dr. Taché's location of this mission town, as given in the map of the Huron country in Parkman's Jesuits, is several miles from the correct position.—A. F. Hunter.
[39] (p. [125]).—Lake of the Hiroquois: see vol. [i.], note [67].
[40] (p. [135]).—See Hunter's note on the Tobacco Nation, vol. [v.], note [18]. Hale found, in 1872-74 (Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore, vol. i., p. 178), among the Wyandots of the Anderdon Reserve, "the most archaic form of the Huron-Iroquois speech that had yet been discovered. I believe it to be the dialect which was spoken by the tribe formerly known to the French colonists as the 'Tobacco People' (Nation du Petun), but among the Hurons and Iroquois as the Tionontates (corrupted by the English to Dionondaddies), which means, apparently, 'people beyond the hills.'"
[41] (p. [139]).—Neutral Nation (Atiwandaronks): see note [34], ante. Their villages were situated north of Lake Erie, mainly on the western side of Niagara (Onguiaahra) River. The Récollet La Roche-Daillon, writing in 1627, says (Shea's Le Clercq, vol. i., pp. 265, 266) that the Neutrals had then twenty-eight towns, cities, and villages, under one renowned chief, Souharissen, who "acquired this honor and power by his courage, and by having been repeatedly at war with seventeen nations that are their enemies, and taken heads or brought in prisoners from them all." Coyne writes us: "The early reports and maps show clearly that they occupied the entire north shore of Lake Erie, from river to river, besides extending a short distance east of the Niagara. There can be no reasonable doubt that the numerous earthworks and village sites from Detroit to Buffalo, on the north shore, are remains of the Neutral tribes or nation. Sanson's map of 1656, and Du Creux's of 1660, are perfectly clear on this point, and entirely consistent with Lalemant's relation of the visit of Brébeuf and Chaumonot to this nation in 1640-41, as well as with Champlain's brief reference and Daillon's letter describing his sojourn there in 1626-27." Beauchamp writes: "A fort and cemetery in Cambria, Niagara county, I consider a town of the Neutrals. It contains French articles, and there were no Seneca towns in that vicinity at any time." Cf. the description of these remains given by O. Turner, in Pioneer History of Holland Purchase (Buffalo, 1850), pp. 26-28.
Morgan says (Iroq. League, p. 41, note): "The Neuter nation were known to the Iroquois as the 'Cat Nation'—the word itself, Je-go-sa-sa, signifying 'a wild cat' Charlevoix has assigned this name to the Eries." Marshall thinks, in his Niagara Frontier (rev. ed., Buffalo, 1881), p. 6, that "the Neutral Nation were called Kah-kwas by the Senecas, and were exterminated by them as early as 1651." Beauchamp differs from this opinion, saying: "On the map of 1680, the Kakouagoga, 'a nation destroyed,' is placed near Buffalo, but no mention is made of the Eries; for this reason I think Marshall mistaken in identifying the Kah-kwas with the Neutrals."
For a more detailed account of this tribe, see Harris's Flint-Workers, cited in note [34], ante; and Coyne's Country of the Neutrals.
[42] (p. [139]).—The village of Onentisati (Onnentisati) was situated about midway on the west side of Tiny township. In the Ontario Archæological Museum are some relics taken from a bone-pit at the supposed site of Onentisati—three portions of beavers' jaws with teeth, two bone awls, one trumpet-mouthed pipe-head, and one of cylindrical shape.—A. F. Hunter.
[43] (p. [141]).—François Petit-Pré was one of the Jesuit engagés; he remained with the missionaries in the Huron country during several years, and was the only Frenchman at the mission who escaped the pestilence of 1637. The registers of Three Rivers mention him as present there in 1635, and again in 1641. The river Petit-Pré, in Montmorency county, Que. (granted to Jean de Lauson, in 1652), may have been named for him.