[Footnote: "The Senecas still cultivate tobacco. Its name signifies '_the only tobacco,'_ because they consider this variety superior to all others."--Morgan: _League of the Iroquois,_ p. 375.] It is possible that their northern neighbors may have given to them also a name derived from this industry. Another not improbable supposition might connect the name with that of a leading sept among them, the Bear clan. This clan, at least among the Caniengas, seems to have been better known than any other to their neighbors. The Algonkins knew that nation as the Maquas, or Bears. In the Canienga speech, bear is _ohkwari_; in Onondaga, the word becomes _ohkwai_, and in Cayuga, _iakwai_,--which also is not far from _Iroquois_. These conjectures--for they are nothing more--may both be wrong; but they will perhaps serve to show the direction in which the explanation of this perplexing word is to be sought. The name of _Mingo_ or _Mengwe,_ by which the Iroquois were known to the Delawares and the other southern Algonkins, is said to be a contraction of the Lenape word _Mahongwi_, meaning the "People of the Springs." [Footnote: E. G. Squier: _"Traditions of the Algonquins,"_ in Beach's Indian Miscellany, p. 28.] The Iroquois possessed the headwaters of the rivers which flowed through the country of the Delawares, and this explanation of the name may therefore be accepted as a probable one. The first of the Iroquois nations, the "oldest brother" of the confederacy, has been singularly unfortunate in the designations by which it has become generally known. The people have a fine, sonorous name of their own, said to be derived from that of one of their ancient towns. This name is _Kanienke_, "at the Flint." _Kansen_, in their language, signifies flint, and the final syllable is the same locative particle which we find in _Onontake,_ "at the mountain." In pronunciation and spelling, this, like other Indian words, is much varied, both by the natives themselves and by their white neighbors, becoming _Kanieke, Kanyenke, Canyangeh,_ and _Canienga._ The latter form, which accords with the sister names of Onondaga and Cayuga, has been adopted in the present volume. The Huron frequently drops the initial _k,_ or changes it to _y._ The Canienga people are styled in that speech _Yanyenge,_ a word which is evidently the origin of the name of _Agnier,_ by which this nation is known to the French.