MASCOU'TINS, an Indian tribe of the Algonquin family, very well known in the 17th c., and appearing constantly in the history of the early French settlers. Their habitat was the country about the northern lakes, and they were found on the Wis consin and Fox rivers about 1669, and later on in the vicinity of the Ohio, in what is now Indiana. They appear to have been on friendly terms with the Kickapoos, Foxes, and Marais, but quarreled with the Ottawas. In 1765 they attacked a party under the English col. Croghau on the Wabash river, and in 1777 endeavored to perform an act of treachery affecting col. Clarke, an American officer operating in their country. As early'as 1712 they had united with the Kickapoos and Foxes against the French. Indeed, this tribe appears to have antagonized the whites from the time of the first settlement, inciting other tribes to join them in their warfare. By the Hurons the Mascoutins were called, in their own language, Asistaeronon, the "fire-nation;" but the name Mascoutia is said to mean prairie. Since the last century the Mascoutins have died out as a sepa
rate organization, and are not now known to the U. S. government as a tribe. It is, however, probable that they are still represented on some of the reservations.
MAS-tNi., a t. of NeoToland, Africa, capital of the country of Baairmi, iu lat. 11° 35' n., long. 16° e., about 1060 m. s.e. of lake Tchad. It covers an area 7 m. in circumfer ence, and was formerly much larger. Its present reduced condition has been induced by disastrous civil and foreian wars. Only about half the area of the town is inhabited. The palace of the sultan, who is reported to have from 300 to 400 wives, consists of irregular clusters of clay buildings, and huts surrounded by a wall built of baked bricks. The town is walled, and has 9 gates. It has on the whole a dilapidated appearance.— Barth's Travels in Central Africa.