another huge log. These, however, may be merely explanations invented in
later times.

The Cayugas bore in Council the name of _Sotinonnawentona_, meaning
"the Great-Pipe People." In the singular it is
_Sononnawentona_. The root of the word is _kanonnawen_, which
in composition becomes _kanonnawenta_, meaning pipe, or calumet. It
is said that the chief who in the first Council represented the Cayugas
smoked a pipe of unusual size, which attracted the notice of the
"name-givers."

Finally the Seneca mountaineers, the _Sonnontowanas_, bore the
title, in the Canienga speech, of _Ronaninhohonti_, "the
Door-keepers," or literally, "they who are at the doorway." In the
singular this becomes _Roninhohonti_. In the Onondaga dialect it is
_Honinhohonta_. It is a verbal form, derived from _Kanhoha_,
door, and _ont_, to be. This name is undoubtedly coeval with the
formation of the League, and was bestowed as a title of honor. The
Senecas, at the western end of the "extended mansion," guarded the
entrance against the wild tribes in that quarter, whose hostility was
most to be dreaded.

The enumeration of the chiefs who formed the confederacy is closed by
the significant words, "and then, in later times, additions were made to
the great edifice." This is sufficient evidence that the Canienga "Book
of Rites" was composed in its present form after the Tuscaroras, and
possibly after the Nanticokes and Tuteloes, were received into the
League. The Tuscaroras were admitted in 1714; the two other nations
were received about the year 1753. [Footnote: The former date is well
known; for the latter, see _N. Y. Hist. Col._, Vol. 6, p. 311;