neglect to turn this impression to their advantage; they undertake, for example, to cure the barrenness of women: they perform a magical operation in the bath which seldom fails. This superstitious simplicity is without doubt the cause of the contempt which the northern Finns entertain towards the southern, and especially the inhabitants of the Tawast land. The word Hämälainen, which is the Finnish name of the Tawasters, is in the whole of East Bothnia synonymous with foolish, and hence the Finnish proverb "menna Hämäläna,” to go to Hämälä, that is, "to become a fool."

In the middle ages the name of Finn was synonymous with sorcerer it was generally believed that this people had a particular intercourse with the devil. There are still sorcerers in Finland; but even the most skilful among them believe that the Lappes are far superior to them; they call a very experienced dealer in the black art"a true Lapp," or " se on koko Lappi;" they even undertake secret journeys into the Lappish country when they require any important advice. The Finnish sorcerers can discover stolen goods, strayed cattle, and can fortell the prosperous or the unlucky issue of any undertaking by peeping into a brandy-glass. They are physicians, and heal even absent persons, if merely some of the clothes or furniture of the sick are brought to them. These sages are visited from very distant places: they are always furnished with a variety of amulets, for instance, human skulls, bones, earth from the churchyard, snakes'-heads, and the like. The churches, churchyards, and burial-grounds, called kalmits, which are found here and there in woods and upon islands, and are looked upon as remains of the former Lappish inhabitants of the country, and for which the superstitious have great veneration, are the magazines from which these credulous people fetch their implements. Bodies are cut by them in pieces. The wizards if provoked fall into a rage, gnash their teeth ; their hair stands on end; they jump, stamp with their feet, and behave like madmen. Their so called "enchanting songs" or runot are their most powerful means. The Finns when heathens sang hymns to the honour of their gods, which were considered sacred and influential. This practice could not be overcome at the conversion of the people to Christianity,

which was done by force. The songs therefore have descended from pagan times, but have received various additions during the reign of the Catholic religion; they are undoubtedly older than any other Finnish songs. The followers of this superstition think that they can subdue and rule over all elements, bodies, and animals, if they can but investigate their concealed and mystical origin, and can make them the subject of their songs. These are, however, gradually becoming obsolete, and during the last generation the belief of their efficacy has much lessened. Those who are famous and experienced in the knowledge of their incantations bequeath this lore to their children, so that they are generally peculiar to certain families. The thaumaturgus generally carries his implements in a bag, and is hence called a sack-man. It is remarkable that these Finnish sorcerers fall or throw themselves into a state of stupor or enthusiasm, from which they cannot even be awakened by fire; during this time their souls roam about, and investigate hidden things, which they disclose at their return. It would be curious to inquire why these superstitious ideas and representations are so similar amongst all the nations of the north. The conjurors of the Finnish nations, the shamans of the Tartars, the angekoks of the Greenlanders, all act exactly in the same way. This is the remark of M. Rühs. We may further observe that superstitious habits and customs very similar, and almost precisely parallel, have been described among the native races of Africa.

1

SECTION VII. Of the Tribes of Tschudes in the northern and central Provinces of the European Empire of Russia.

We have already observed that there were various tribes of people scattered through the northern parts of the Russian empire, distinguished both in language and manners from the Slavonian nations, who in ancient times dwelt in their vicinity, and bordered on them towards the south. When the Slavonians became more civilised and more powerful, through the influence of foreign intercourse, and through the military prowess of Scandinavian chieftains, they gradually reduced

* Finnland und seine Bewohner, von Rühs.

the aboriginal hordes, whom they termed Tschudes or Barbarians, and drove them further northwards. In the earliest periods of authentic history in these countries, the Tschudes occupied, as we learn from Nestor and Lomonosow, a line stretching from Lake Peipus near the borders of Esthonia, commonly called "Tschudskoïe Ozero," or the Lake of Tschudes, directly eastward. Relics of this people are found in some parts of the Uwalli, or the mountain-chain of Waldai. They extended thence eastward to the shores of the White Sea and the rivers Dwina and Petschora or to the Biamaland of the Sagas. The term Tschudes scarcely implied among the old Russians a national distinction, and it is probable that the writers who first gave this name in common to many scattered nations were not aware of their real affinity. This has been proved by a comparison of their dialects; and we are now assured that the different Tschudish tribes spread through the north of Russia are branches of one race, which is a particular stem of the same stock whence originated the Iotuns of the Baltic countries.

Many numerous and extensive Tschude races appear to have been exterminated or lost in the early Russian warfare, and perhaps in the late wars between the Russians and the Tartars or Mongolians. The principal Tschudish tribes now subsisting in separate masses of people in Russia may be reduced under the following heads: 1. The Permian or northern branch; 2. The southern or Bulgarian.

Paragraph 1.-Permian branch.

The name of the modern Permia preserves that of the old Biarmaland, celebrated in the sagas and in all the traditions of the north during the early middle ages of European history. Klaproth indeed attempted to draw a distinction between Permia and Biarmia ;* but it has been shown by the accurate researches of later writers, that the only real difference is the wide extent of the latter, and the narrow limitation of the former term.† Old Biarmia in the largest sense comprehended, together with the countries on the Kama, the modern Permia,

* Asia Polyglotta.

+ Depping, Histoire des Expeditions maritimes des Normands, vol. i. Müller's Ugrische Volkstamm, ii. p. 327.

all the northern tracts on the White Sea, from the Onega and the Duna to the Petschora and the borders of the Uralian chain. This was the country of the Bearmahs visited and described by Ottar to King Alfred,* who found there a civilized people cultivating the ground with skill and industry. Biarmaland seems to have been an early seat of the civilisation of the north, and it is not improbable that the ancient culture of the Finnish race was spread westward from that region. In the eleventh century it is known that there was on the Dwina a commercial town frequented during the summer by traders from Scandinavia. The Biarmi there sold to the Northmen not only peltry, salt, and iron, the produce of their country, but likewise Indian wares, which came to them by the old path of Eastern trade, through the medium of the Chasars and the Bulgarians. Tzordyn or Great Perm was, according to Strahlenberg, a great mart at this early period. This writer ob

serves that there are in no part of Russia more numerous ruins of fortresses and ancient tombs than in that region.‡ An unquestionable voucher for the real existence of an ancient trade with the East, are the great numbers of eastern coins which have been discovered in tombs and in other places through the whole extent of this country, from the lakes Ladoga and Onega to the Dwina.§ These coins, which have been carefully examined by many antiquarians in Germany and in Russia, are pieces of silver money belonging to chaliffs and other eastern princes who reigned before the year 1000 of

* Beyond the Dwina Ottar found the first tilled lands discovered in his voyage from Norway; all the rest till he came to the Dwina was a desert inhabited by fishermen, fowlers, and hunters. These were all Finnas, viz. Lappes. The Beormahs told him many things respecting their own and the neighbouring countries; and they appeared to him to speak the same language as the Finnas. (See Foster's Account of Northern Discoveries. Müller's Ugrische Volkstamm, b. i. p. 417.) + Strahlenberg, Hist. of Siberia, p. 189.

Strahlenberg, ubi supra. Also Klaproth, Asia Polyglotta.

§ Strahlenberg. See also a learned memoir by O. G. Tychsen, "von dem in den Gegenden des Baltischen Meeres so häufigen alten Arabischen Silbergelde," in Eichhorn's Repertorium für Bibl. und Mongenländische Literatur, Th. 6. The subject of these discoveries, and the circumstances which occasioned the accumulation of such coins in the north, have been discussed by many German and Russian writers, and particularly in a late work entitled "Die Handelszüge der Araber unter den Abassiden durch Afrika, Asia, und Ost-Europa, von Fried. Stüwe; Berlin, 1786; see pp. 172 and 272.

the Christian era; and many of them are silver Persian coins of the kind used by the Arabs before the year 695, when the Arabian or Saracen money was first cast. From these facts M. Frähn and other learned men have inferred that a great traffic by caravans was carried on during the middle ages through the eastern parts of Europe, between the northern coast then inhabited by Scandinavian and Finnish races, and the countries near the Euxine and the Caspian, which the arts and the refinement of southern Asia had recently penetrated.

The Pagan Biarmi on the Dwina worshipped the Solotta Babba or Golden Woman. They are said to have paid adoration to fire and other elements. According to the evidence collected by Müller, the Permian province was conquered in the twelth century by the warlike Nowgorodian; and it is recorded in the annals of Russia that in the year 1343 Permia was converted to the Christian religion by St. Stephen Permeki, who invented the Permian alphabet and founded a monastery at the mouth of the river Wym.:

*

It appears from Nestor's accounts, that a separate division. of this race, more nearly allied to the Finns, who occupied countries on the Duna in early times, moved towards the west. The Permians or Biarmi are recognised under the name of Permii as early as the eleventh century, and are identified with the Sauolocenses or Savolotchie.+ These people are the Tschudes of the Uwalli or Waldai mountains who are known to the Russians. They appear to have inhabited the country about the Ladoga and Onega lakes when the first attack was made upon them by a Russian prince in the year 1079.‡

There are three tribes of people still inhabiting parts of ancient Permia, and speaking dialects allied to the Finnish language these are the proper Permians, the Syrjæni, and the Wotiaks. The two former constitute in reality one people, and give themselves in common the designation of Komi or Komi-murt; murt signifying man. The Permians inhabit the

*All these points have been investigated with great research by M. Müller in his learned work, so often referred to, entitled "Der Ugrische Volkstamm. See b. i. p. 343; bd. ii. p. 327 et seqq.

The Sauolocenses and the Permii are mentioned by the commentator on Virgil, Julius Pomponius Sabinus. Schlözer's Nestor's Annals, ii. s. 43. Müller, ibid.

Tatischtschew bey Sögren, Mém. de l'Acad. des Sc. St. Pet. Müller, lib. cit.