They had very vague notions of a Supreme Being, their chief object of worship being Agreskoué, the God of War, who had to be propitiated with gifts and even by human sacrifices. Theirs has been described by General Clark as literally "devil worship." They had no priesthood as such, but each brave had his _oki_ or _manitou_, adopted after a protracted period of seclusion and fasting. They had their medicine men, who seemed to the missionaries to use diabolical arts in their incantations, spells and dances. Many of their sorcerers, however, were childish charlatans. They were immoral, thieves, liars, gamblers; they allowed their children to run wild, their women to grow up depraved and corrupt from girlhood. They were cruel and cannibals. The orgies of the dream feasts were unspeakably atrocious, especially after the introduction of "fire water." They were called by the French collectively "Iroquois," by the English the "Five Nations," whereas they styled themselves the _Hodenosaunee_, a People of the Long House, because of the shape of their lodges. They were joined by the Tuscaroras about 1721 and from then on they were called by the English the "Six Nations." As to their name the Bureau of American Ethnology derives it from an Algonquin word, "Iriakhoué," meaning "real adders." Charlevoix gives a descriptive derivation from _hero_, or _hiro_, meaning "I have spoken," with which they terminated their discourses with the suffix _que_, or some equivalent gutteral sound which expressed pain or pleasures, according to the intonation. Thus the French called them "Iroquois." The five nations were named as follows: (English) (French) (Iroquois) _The Five _Hodenosaunee_ Nations_ _Iroquois_ (People of the Long House) Mohawks, Agniers, Ganeagono (People of the Flint), Oneidas, Onneyutus, Oneyotekiano (Granite People), Onondagas, Onontagués, Onundagono (Hill People), Cayuga, Gogogouins, Gwengwhehons (Muckland People), Senecas. Tsonnontouans. Mundawono (Great Hill People). "The Six Nations, Indians in Canada," by J. B. Mackenzie, gives some modern characteristics of the Iroquois, observed on the Grand River, after a length of experience and intimate knowledge of the appearance and manners and racial customs, which may be quoted to illustrate the life of their ancestors of the period we are now treating. The reserve, the writer notices, comprises the Township of Tuscarora (about twelve miles square) with an insignificant strip of territory in the Township of Onondaga--both of these lying within the County of Brant and a small portion of the Township of Oneida, in the adjoining County of Haldimand.