The name of the _Cayugas_ (in French _Goyogouin_) is variously pronounced by the Iroquois themselves. I wrote it as I heard it, at different times, from members of the various tribes. _Koyúkweñ, Koiúkwe, Kwaiúkweñ, Kayúkwe._ A Cayuga chief made it _Kayúkwa,_ which is very near the usual English pronunciation of the word. Of its purport no satisfactory account could be obtained. One interpreter rendered it "the fruit country," another "the place where canoes are drawn out." Cusick, the historian, translates it "a mountain rising from the water." Mr. Morgan was told that it meant "the mucky land." We can only infer that the interpreters were seeking, by vague resemblances, to recover a lost meaning.
The _Senecas_, who were called by the French _Tsonontouan_ or _Sonnontouan_, bore among the Iroquois various names, but all apparently derived from the words which appear in that appellation,--_ononta_, hill, and _kowa_ or _kowane,_ great. The Caniengas called them _Tsonontowane_; the Oneidas abridged the word to _Tsontowana_; the Cayugas corrupted it to _Onondewa_; and the Onondagas contracted it yet farther, to _Nontona_. The Senecas called themselves variously _Sonontowa, Onontewa,_ and _Nondewa._ _Sonontowane_ is probably the most correct form.
The word _Seneca_ is supposed to be of Algonkin origin, and like _Mohawk_, to have been given as an expression of dislike, or rather of hostility. _Sinako_, in the Delaware tongue, means properly "Stone Snakes;" but in this conjunction it is understood, according to the interpretation furnished to Mr. Squier, to signify "Mountain Snakes." [Footnote: _"Traditions of the Algonquins,"_ in Beach's _Indian Miscellany,_ p. 33.] The Delawares, it appears, were accustomed to term all their enemies "snakes." In this case they simply translated the native name of the Iroquois tribe (the "Mountain People"), and added this uncomplimentary epithet. As the name, unlike the word Mohawk, is readily pronounced by the people to whom it was given, and as they seem to have in some measure accepted it, there is not the same reason for objecting to its use as exists in the case of the latter word,--more especially as there is no absolute certainty that it is not really an Iroquois word. It bears, in its present form, a close resemblance to the honorable "Council name" of the Onondagas,--_Sennakehte,_ "the title-givers;" a fact which may perhaps have made the western nation more willing to adopt it.