man neighbours, but from an unknown source. Their arts, their customs and manners, their religion, their poetry, their habits of thought, their whole manner of existence were peculiar and distinct from anything appertaining to the southern nations of Europe. In the character of the Finns we contemplate the earliest civilisation of Northern Europe. The investigation of their history is interesting, since it affords an opportunity of comparing the primitive inhabitants of this part of the world with the aborigines of remote countries in other continents. In many particulars the ancient people of Europe may be said to stand nearly on a level with the native tribes of Africa, in parts where the foreign religion of Islàm and the arts of the Arabs have not modified the original character of the African race. If we compare them with the natives of Sulimana, or Dahomeh, or Ashanti, or with some of the nations of Southern Africa, we shall be struck with the resemblance which in some points displays itself. In a few particulars we shall admit that the people of the North have the advantage, while in many they are decidedly below the Africans.

The conquest of Finnland by the Swedes was undertaken about the middle of the twelfth century, and was completed before the close of the thirteenth.* Before the invasion of their country, and even prior to any intercourse with the Swedes, the Finns had become a settled people, and, as we have observed, practised agriculture. Eleven centuries had intervened between the time when they were described by Tacitus as savages, and the period of their conquest by the Swedes.

The Finns were, before their subjugation, entirely ignorant of the art of writing, and therefore we have no written document illustrating their ancient history. It appears that they had originally, like most other nations, ancient historical sagas or poetical traditions, but of these they lost remembrance during the long and bloody wars with the Swedes, which devastated their country. The monkish chronicles compiled

* Rühs, Finnland und seine Bewohner.-Dissert. Academ. de anno suscepti a rege Erico Sancto imperii et expeditionis in Finniam motæ G. F. Bohm. Aboæ. 1797.-M. Pauli Juusten. Chr. nicl. Episcop. Finnland. Aboæ.

after their conquest in the fourteenth century, contain fictions copied from the Danish Saxo and the Swede Johannes Magnus. The principal resources for estimating the social character and illustrating the history of the people, are the study of their language and a comparison of the Finns with the Esthonians, a people nearly allied to them, of whose early condition we are somewhat better informed. Of these resources M. Rühs has availed himself in his ingenious researches into the history of Finnland and its inhabitants, a work containing many striking observations illustrative of the character of that people.* From this I shall extract some particulars relating to the moral characteristics of the Finnish race.

SECTION IV. Of the Arts and Civilisation and the Social State of the Finnish Race at the era of their conquest by the Swedes.

The Finns appear to have had no princes or rulers at the era of their conquest; for the Swedish historians speak of no victories over kings or military chieftains. Their resistance was by desultory efforts without concert for mutual aid. The Finnish language has borrowed from the Swedish terms for king, ruler, magistrate, judge, kingdom. The only words relating to any kind of public ordinance to be found in their language are wero, custom, tax; and sakko, penance. Perhaps the heads of families exacted a sort of tribute from their slaves and dependents, and subjected them to penal chastisement. The only distinctions of rank that can be expressed in their language are those of wapa, freeman; and slaves or servants, brya, paloelya, whose chief employment was in warfare or robbery, and whose condition, though servile, was but little different from that of freemen. The expressions for town, market, street, are taken with some slight modifications from the Swedish, as well as the denominations of different trades and arts, as that of tailor, turner, painter, tanner; a proof that the things with which these terms are connected were unknown to the ancient Finns. On the other hand, kamgari, a weaver, and

* Finnland und seine Bewohner, Deutsch übersetzt.

seppa, a smith, appear to be old Finnish words, and prove that these arts existed of old among them. For all the works and implements belonging to husbandry, including agriculture and the pasture of cattle, the Finns have a complete stock of indigenous expressions formed from words proper to their own speech. The Finns appear to have been particularly attached to agriculture; and accordingly after the conquest, when certain dues were exacted for the bishop and priesthood, the native Finns were ordered to contribute their part in corn, while the Swedish colonists, who coming from Helsingland, were accustomed to pasturage, paid their portion in butter. The Finns have a particular word for butter, viz. woi. The term for cheese is borrowed from the Swedish. They are not unacquainted with metals and the art of working them. Rauta for iron, tekaes for steel, vaski for copper, hopia for silver, are genuine Finnish terms; for gold, tin, and lead they have no names but such as are borrowed. That the Finns knew of old the art of smelting iron, found probably in their bogs, and which in the native state is called hölmä, appears from a variety of terms of art of genuine Finnish origin, and from old songs which ascribe the discovery to the gods. Finnish swords are renowned in the Islandic sagas, and it is worthy of notice that tradition ascribes to Finns and Ehstians the discovery of various mines in Sweden. They appear to have been acquainted with some kinds of trade, for they had words for selling and buying. There is even an expression in the Finnish language for money, which, however, originally signified a hide, a sense which it yet retains in the Lapponic dialect. Probably the old Finns used hides as a standard of value, as the Slavi on the Baltic used linen, and the Icelanders fish and rough cloth for the same purpose. All these circumstances indicate that the Finnish nation was no longer in the rudest stage of barbarism, but had made some steps in progressive civilisation. It might be inferred from the existence of such words in the genuine Finnish speech as kylâ, a village; kylâ kenedâ, a circle of villages; kenájâ, a term afterwards used to designate a sort of assize-court, that some kinds of civil association had been established among the Finns. Most of these expressions are common to them and their kindred the Ehsti,

beyond the gulf of Finnland, and the customs to which they relate may have existed before the separation of the tribes. From the Livonian Chronicle, attributed to the Lettish Henry, it appears that the Ehsti, though they lived yet in their native forests, without government, had certain associations for mutual defence, and meetings at which they determined on expeditions of robbery or warfare by sea or land, and that they occasionally confided a sort of limited authority for a time to the eldest, strongest, and most experienced. The representation drawn of other such barbarous races agrees in every respect to the state of the Finnlanders. The hardships of an agricultural life were enlivened by occasional festivities-birth, marriage, and funeral festivals. Drinking appears to have been the chief entertainment on these occasions, and hence the expressions kailà juoda, pijjaisia juoda, to drink, that is to celebrate marriages and funerals. Wine was unknown even by name, and even now in Finnland wine is called Saxen wiena, Saxen or German wine; Germans being called by the Finns Saxat. For beer of various sorts they have indigenous names, as well as for all the materials and processes employed in producing it, and for the various grains. Bees and honey and mead were also known to them, and have Finnish names. In their festivals, songs and instrumental music were a part of their diversions. On the nature of their songs or poetry I shall add in the following section such information as I can collect. It is very remarkable that these aborigines of northern Europe, unlike in this respect to the natives of Africa, had no notion of dancing; they had not a word in their language descriptive of this amusement, and the peasantry of Savolax and Karelia are still quite ignorant of it. The Tavasters on the coast, who have learnt to dance, have adopted the Swedish word tanzi or tanzan. Neither are they acquainted with any game or contest for gain, though it is observable that where they have been taught the practice by strangers, they are much devoted to it. Their diversions were principally exercises and feats of bodily strength and activity. As among other semibarbarous nations, women were degraded among the Finns. The fathers of families sold their daughters and sisters for a certain price to their lovers. To sell a maiden is the old

Finnish expression for giving a daughter in marriage. In an old song occur the lines: "He sold his daughter; he took a price for the maid." The bridegroom replies to an inquiry who had been the purchaser, "Thou wast sold to me; to me wast thou disposed of." The bride expresses indignation at the smallness of the price at which she was estimated, which was a war-horse to the father, a cow to the mother, a pair of oxen to the brother, and a sheep to her sister. Of gallantry and tenderness not a trace is to be found. The lot of married women was that of superior domestic slaves.

SECTION V.-Of the Religion and Poetry of the Finns and Lappes.

An inquiry into the religious notions and superstitions of the Finns seems likely to give us a further insight into their intellectual and moral state than the traits that are preserved of their external manners, arts, and customs. We can obtain but a very imperfect account of the religion, if it deserves that name, prevalent among the old pagan Finns, and yet there are perhaps more traces of it extant than those which remain from the mythology of the Celtic nations. This is owing to the comparative lateness of the period when the Finns were converted to Christianity; and to the fact that there were among the clergy who converted them some who took pains to collect the fragments of their ancient songs of Finnland before their memory had been entirely lost, and to preserve information respecting the superstitious customs of antiquity. By an investigation of these relics, northern antiquarians have succeeded in throwing a ray of light on the ancient Finnish superstitions. An inquiry into the degree of mental culture that existed among the ancient Finns is intimately connected with the ethnography of the aboriginal inhabitants of northern Europe, and I shall therefore lay before my readers such information respecting it as I have been able to collect, the sources of which are not to many persons easily accessible.

The Finnish word for song, runo, in the plural runot, whence runoniecka, a poet, bears but an accidental resemblance to