The nation, however, did not give that name to the stream except in the sense of occupation as the seat of their possessions to ; them it was the O-hyo^hi-yo'ge, ''Large, chief or principal river" (Hewitt) ; written by Van Curler in 1635, Vyoge and Oyoghi, and by Bruyas "Ohioge, a la riviere," now written Ohio as the name of one of the rivers of the west, nor did they apply the word Mohawk to themselves ; that title was conferred upon them by their Algonquian enemies, as explained by Roger Williams, who wrote in 1646, "Mohozvaiig-sitck, or Mauquazuog, from Moho, 'to eat,' the cannibals or men-eaters," the reference being to the custom of the nation in eating the bodies of enemies who might fall into its hands, a custom of which the Huron nations, of which it was a branch, seem to have been especially guilty. To themselves they gave the much more pleasant name Canniengas, from Kannia, "Flint," Which they adopted as their national emblem and delineated it in their official signatures, signifying, in that connection, "People of the Flint." When and why they adopted this national emblem is a matter of conjecture. Presumably it was generations prior to the incoming of Europeans and from the discovery of the fire-producing qualities of the flint, which was certainly known to them and to other Indian nations^ in pre-historic times. When the flint

^ Arent Van Curler, in 1635, in his "Journal of a Visit to the Seneca Country," wrote : "I was shown a parcel of flint-stones with which they make a fire when in the forest. These stones would do very well for flint-lock guns."