a bridal pair. At first, the head of the bear, which had been hanged on a tree, and then the rest of the body, was brought in with pea-soup. A number of other festivals, which also were carried on with amusements, were of Christian origin; and many superstitious customs performed in them, which an ignorant person might easily consider to be remains of heathenism, are nothing more than notions, representations, and relics received from Catholic times, and which may likewise be found in Germany among the ignorant people, only somewhat modified. Whether these ancient feasts were solemnised in large and general assemblies of the people, or only of single families and villages, is not apparent. "It is maintained that the Finnlanders knew no sacrifices, because the language possesses no native word to mark this performance; but the notion of proving his gratitude to the superior beings by offerings of gifts, is so suitable to the uncultivated son of nature, that so striking a deviation ought not to be received without further ground. There are besides many proofs, which have partly been quoted, that these people really offered to their gods, and many things in their old songs point it out. All other Finnish races, even the Laplanders and Ostiaks, consecrate to the beings of a superior nature, at least bones and the horns of reindeers."

Of the Religion of the Lappes.

As the Lappes were in other respects much more barbarous than the Finns, so their ideas connected with religion appear to have been more rude and undeveloped: they were confined to the first, simple, and vague notions usually recognised among savage nations, without the ornaments of allegory or mythology, which the imagination supplies as soon as the mental faculties are in some degree cultivated. We hear scarcely anything among the Lappes of a distribution of offices among various orders of beings, the creations of a poetical fancy. Hope and fear, and the common moral feelings of mankind,conscience and the sentiment of good or ill desert, have given origin among the Lappes as among the Finns, or rather to the common ancestors of both tribes before their separation, and before the higher culture of the Finns had given a greater developement

to their ideas,--to the belief in certain unseen agents both good and evil, as the authors of reward or punishment to mankind. The fundamental parts of this superstitious belief are the same among both races, and even the names of some of the principal gods are nearly the same; but the Lappes had much less variety in their theology than the Finns. For the Finnish Jumalat and Parkel, the Lappes have Jubmel, who is one being, and Parkel, a mischievous imp or devil, of whom stories are told not unlike the vulgar fables related of the devil among the ignorant in most countries of Europe.* Their mythology consists in fabulous accounts of the warfare of Jubmel and Parkel. Jubmel is the author of life, Parkel of death. "A certain Laplander related to the missionary Högström, that Parkel once made an iron chain, with which he bound Jubmel, and buried him under a great hill, but the latter escaped, and enthralled his adversary. The Lappes believe that there is a third supernatural being, of mixed nature. Parkel made him on a rock without Jumbel's knowledge, but the latter discovered him and bred him up. Being thus son of Parkel and foster-son of Jubmel, he partakes of the nature of both. His chief business is to kill evil spirits: this he does with his bow, which is the rainbow. The name given to this third divinity by the Lappes is Tiermes, meaning thunder.†

The Lappes worship rude images made of the stocks of trees, and particularly large upright stones erected upon hills, on little islands near lakes or waterfalls, or other places held sacred. They give no account of the erection of these stones, but say that they were placed there by God at the creation. This is perhaps a modern idea. These upright stones are termed Seiteh.§

It is said that these images of wood and stone were cut occasionally into a rude likeness of the human form, but this was not general. It was usual to consecrate them by anointing

See Högström, Historische Beschreibung.

+ Scheffer's Hist. of Lapland, ch. x. p. 93. Engl. edition of 1704.

Scheffer's Hist. of Lapland. This account is confirmed by the treatise on the Lapponic superstitions, cited above.

§ Seite, pl. Seiteh. "Lapides sive imagines lapideæ aut ligneæ quas cultu religioso prosequuti sunt olim Lappones." (Ihre, Lex. Lapponicum.)

them, and laws are known to have been made in Sweden

against the practice of anointing stones. It has been thought that the Lappes worship the sun and fire. Högström says that he could find no proof of any such practice; and he observes that the sun has so little influence in Lapland that it is not likely to be the object of worship.

The Laplanders appear to have had some obscure notion of a future state; they imagined the dead to leave behind them manes or ghosts, which haunted particular places, and of which they were afraid,* and they performed sacrifices in honour of them.

It has been denied, as we have remarked, by some that the Finns performed sacrifices to the gods, but we are assured by Samuel Rheen and other writers cited by Scheffer, that the Lappes certainly performed such sacrifices at stated times, and that they offered reindeers, and on other occasions, cats, dogs, lambs, and hens. The worship of the gods was performed by the singing of hymns and a loud beating of their enchanted and magical drums.

With the celebrated work of Knud Leem upon the Lappes, a sort of official report was published, sent by missionaries from Drontheim, employed in the mission to the Lappes, on the ancient superstition. It is a very meagre document, deficient in important information, and chiefly filled with an account of the magic of the Laplanders.‡

SECTION VI. Of the Physical and Moral Characters of the Finns and Lappes.

Travellers, as I have observed, have been struck by the different aspects of the Finns and Lappes, and they have accounted for the phenomenon in different ways. Some cut the knot by refusing to admit evidence of their consanguinity, though such evidence has been found sufficient to satisfy unprejudiced persons. Others suppose the difference to have arisen from long separation, one tribe having entered Scandi+ Scheffer, iii.

• Scheffer.

De Finnorum Lapponumque Norvegicorum Religione Pagana tractatus singularis, E. J. Jesseus. Appended to Kn. Leem's Commentatio de Lapponibus Finmarchia. Copenhagen, 1767.

navia from the north, and the other from a southern climate, and the diversity having been kept up by different habits and physical conditions. This opinion was maintained by Von Buch, who observes that the Finns and Lappes, though kindred nations, are remarkably different in manners and physiognomy. "The Laplanders are small in general: a man of five feet eight inches in stature is not seen among many hundreds of them. The Finns, though they remain for centuries in the same country, do not become smaller than the Swedes and Norwegians. The cause, as this intelligent traveller thinks, is very obvious. It lies in the difference of habits modifying the physical conditions under which the two races exist. The Finns use hot baths and warm clothing. The Laplander never keeps himself in the degree of temperature necessary for the development of physical life."

Linnæus has thus briefly drawn the description of these two

races.

"Fennones corpore toroso, capillis flavis prolixis, oculorum iridibus fuscis."

"Lappones corpore parvo, capillis nigris, brevibus, rectis; oculorum iridibus nigrescentibus."

The diversities between them are not, however, always so strongly marked. Scheffer has observed, that these two nations have a considerable resemblance in person. He says, "their bodies and habits are very nearly the same.

The Finnlanders have well-set limbs, and so have the Laplanders; both have black hair, stern countenances, and broad faces; and what small difference there is between them, must be ascribed to their different diet and climate.”

Paragraph 1.-Description of the Lappes.

The following description of the Lappes has been given by the writer last cited:

"They are not only very short of stature, but extremely lean, so that it is the greatest rarity that can be, to meet with a fat man among them. This nation,' says Peter Claudi, 'is very lean, and without moisture; because the cold, which hinders their growth, dries up likewise the moisture of their body and blood. They are also very nimble and active.' Their

breasts are very broad, their waists slender: they have spindle shanks, but are extremely swift on foot. They are very stronglimbed, as Jovius observes; and Peter Claudi says, they exceed other men in strength, as appears by their bows, which a Norwegian can scarce bend above half. But they have no less activity than strength, the first of which is most conspicuous in their swimming over lakes and rivers, with incredible nimbleness; and they are so skilful in diving, that they will continue for a considerable time under water." Ziegler affirms, "that the Laplanders are so active, that with their quivers and arrows on their backs, they will throw themselves through a hoop, not above a cubit in diameter."

"As to the structure of their bodies, in particular, they have very thick heads, and prominent foreheads, hollow and large eyes, with short and flat noses, and wide mouths."

"Their hair is short, straight, and thin; and so is their beard, the hair of which scarcely covers their chins. The colour of the hair of both sexes is black, contrary to what the rest of the northern nations have, who are inclined to fairness. The hair of both sexes, says Tornæus, is black and hard; and among all the Laplanders that I ever saw, I met with but one who had yellowish hair. But this must be understood of Lulah Lappmark, for in Uma Lappmark are many with fair hair. Nicolaus Landius, a native of the Pitha Lappmark, assures us that the inhabitants of the Uma Lappmark are not only much taller, but also handsomer than those of Lulah Lappmark: they have such an aversion to the latter that they will seldom converse with them, even at their greatest fairs. Olaus Magnus says, that the females in these parts are handsome, their complexion being a mixture of white and red." This is confirmed by the testimony of Tornæus and of Scheffer himself.*

These variations in the complexion of the Lappes are not isolated phenomena. The following traits are given by Reynard, a traveller in Lappland in the seventeenth century. "The old people feel so little of the imbecilities of age, that they can

See the History of Lapland, by John Scheffer, Professor at Upsal, who was employed by the Chancellor of Sweden to travel into Lapland and write a history of that part of his master's dominions. Chap. v.