the league were linked together as by an eightfold chain.

[ 1 With a view to clearness, the above statement is made categorical.
It requires, however, to be qualified. It is not quite certain, that,
at the formation of the confederacy, there were eight clans, though there
is positive proof of the existence of seven. Neither is it certain, that,
at the separation, every clan was represented in every nation. Among the
Mohawks and Oneidas there is no positive proof of the existence of more
than three clans,--the Wolf, Bear, and Tortoise; though there is
presumptive evidence of the existence of several others.--See Morgan, 81,
note.

The eight clans of the Iroquois were as follows: Wolf, Bear, Beaver,
Tortoise, Deer, Snipe, Heron, Hawk. (Morgan, 79.) The clans of the
Snipe and the Heron are the same designated in an early French document
as La famille du Petit Pluvier and La famille du Grand Pluvier. (New
York Colonial Documents, IX. 47.) The anonymous author of this document
adds a ninth clan, that of the Potato, meaning the wild Indian potato,
Glycine apios. This clan, if it existed, was very inconspicuous, and of
little importance.

Remarkable analogies exist between Iroquois clanship and that of other
tribes. The eight clans of the Iroquois were separated into two
divisions, four in each. Originally, marriage was interdicted between
all the members of the same division, but in time the interdict was
limited to the members of the individual clans. Another tribe, the
Choctaws, remote from the Iroquois, and radically different in language,
had also eight clans, similarly divided, with a similar interdict of
marriage.--Gallatin, Synopsis, 109.