Tortoise clan seems to exist in a nascent form among the Onondagas. The
name of this clan is Hahnowa, which is the general word for tortoise;
but the clan is divided into two septs or subdivisions, the
Hanyatengona, or Great Tortoise, and the Nikahnowaksa, or Little
Tortoise, which together are held to constitute but one clan. How or why
the distinction is kept up I did not learn. In the Book of Rites the
Tortoise clan is also spoken of in the dual number--"the two clans of
the Tortoise." It is probable, therefore, that this partial subdivision
extended throughout the original Five Nations, and became complete among
the Tuscaroras.] the Bear, the Beaver, the Eel and the Snipe remain, as
among the Onondagas, Cayugas and Senecas.

We are naturally led to ask how it happens that only three clans are
found among the Caniengas and Oneidas, while the other nations have
eight. Mr. Morgan was inclined to think that the other five once existed
among the two former nations, and had become extinct. [Footnote:
_League of the Iroquois_, p. 81. Ancient Society, p. 92.] The
native annalists of those nations, however, affirm that no more than
three clans ever existed among them. This assertion is now confirmed,
indirectly but strongly, by the testimony of the Book of Rites, which
seems to show that only three clans were recognized in the whole
confederacy when the League was formed. All the towns of the united
nations were distributed among the three primary clans of the Wolf, the
Tortoise and the Bear. If the other clans existed, it was probably
merely as septs or divisions of these three. [Footnote: "The Turtle
family, or the Anowara, was the most noble of the whole League; next
came the Ochquari, or clan of the Bear, and the Oquacho, or that of the
Wolf. These three were so prominent that Zeisberger hardly recognizes
the others."--_De Sckweinitz's Life of Zeisberger_,
p.79. Zeisberger had been adopted into the nation of the Onondagas and