At Sonnontouan was located the Jesuit mission of La Conception.
36 (p. 117).--A similar description of Ataentsic and Jouskeha is given by Sagard (_Canada_, Tross ed., pp. 452-455), from whom Brébeuf seems to have obtained part of the information given in the text--two sentences being the same, word for word, as in Sagard--an appropriation easily explained, in view of Brébeuf's recent arrival among the Hurons, and consequent difficulties in obtaining a knowledge of their beliefs. Sagard says that they told him that "this God Youskeha existed before this Universe, which, with all that was therein, he had created; that, although he grew old, like all things in this world, he did not lose his being and his power; and that, when he became old, he had power to rejuvenate himself in a moment, and to transform himself into a young man of twenty-five or thirty years; thus he never died, and remained immortal, although, like other human beings, he was to some extent subject to corporeal necessities."
Lafitau (_Mœurs des Sauvages_, t. i., pp. 244, 401) also mentions Ataentsic--"the Queen of the Manes"--but names her grandson Tharonhiaouagon. Parkman thinks this latter personage (also written Tarenyowagon) was a divinity peculiar to the Iroquois Five Nations. Brinton discusses these legends at length in _American Hero-Myths_ (Phila., 1882), pp. 53-62; and also in _Myths of the New World_ (3rd ed.), pp. 156, 203-205; in the latter work, he considers that Taronhiawagon was but Jouskeha (Ioskeha) under another name, and explains the stories of all these deities as myths of the Sun and Moon, of Night and Day, of the conflict between light and darkness. Cf. Parkman's _Jesuits_, lxxv.-lxxvii., and the outline of Huron cosmogony given by Hale in _Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore_, vol. i., pp. 177-183; see also Cusick's account of the creation, in Beauchamp's _Iroquois Trail_, pp. 1-5.
37 (p. 121).--For references on the subject of the immortality of souls, see vol. vi., _note_ 17.
38 (p. 125).--Scanonaenrat (where was the mission of St. Michael) was one of the largest towns of the Huron country--itself comprising the entire nation of the Tohontahenrats. It was on the forest trail leading from the upper mission towns in Tiny township to Teanaustayé (St. Joseph), and about 1¼ leagues from the latter (_Relation_ for 1639). Du Creux's map places it at a short distance northwest of the small body of water now known as Orr Lake; and there are extensive remains in the tract between this lake and the modern village of Waverley that correspond very well with the numerous references to St. Michael in the _Relations_. Here have been found, in a space about two miles square, traces of a large town, and of half a dozen others, smaller, but similar. With each of these sites there is, instead of the usual ossuary, a cemetery of isolated graves. In this respect the Tohontahenrats appear to have differed from the other Huron nations, who adopted the ossuary almost to the exclusion of every other mode of burial. One small ossuary, however, was found in this tract in 1895 (_Ontario Archæol. Rept._, 1894-95, p. 42). Among its contents were four brass finger-rings, on which can be distinctly seen the cross and the initials I. H. S. Patches of ground strewn with iron tomahawks--indubitable signs of Indian conflict--are common in this neighborhood, confirming the Jesuits' accounts of the battles of 1648-50, when seven hundred Huron warriors were quartered here (_Relation_ for 1649, chap. iii.), and suggesting other conflicts which these chroniclers had probably overlooked in the general confusion of that period. Several farms in the first concession of Medonté township (lots 68 to 74 inclusive), in the immediate neighborhood of St. Michael, abound in this class of relics. Dr. Taché's location of this mission town, as given in the map of the Huron country in Parkman's _Jesuits_, is several miles from the correct position.--A. F. HUNTER.