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physical appearance and mental qualities; one, the
slightly darker and more vivacious Carelians of
Eastern Finland and of the adjoining parts of Russia
as far north as the Gulf of Bothnia; the other the
lighter-haired and square-set Tavasts of the west. Living
in the south-west corner of Finland were the Finns
proper (egentliga Finnar), who were closely connected
with the Tavasts. More or less related to these tribes
were some other Ural-Altaic tribes, who remained in
the interior of Russia, and also some tribes who
advanced simultaneously with these others towards the
Baltic — the Coures and Lives (who were related to the
Carelians), and the Esthonians (who were related to
the Tavasts and Finns proper). It has been suggested
that the Kajans (Kainulaiset in Finnish, Kvæns in
Norwegian; they are described by Othere, the
Norwegian skipper sent northwards to explore by Alfred
the Great) were another Finnish tribe living in the
country, according to the commonly accepted view,
before the coming of the Carelians and Tavasts. The
name of these Kvæns, which resembles the Swedish
“kvinna,” the Danish-Norwegian “kvinde” or “kvind,”
and the English “queen,” has given rise to numerous
myths about a northern nation consisting of Amazons,
or at least always governed by a woman. We certainly
find this tale several hundreds of years earlier in
Tacitus. These Kvæns are now generally supposed
to be identical with the Biarmians (the modern
“Permiens”), familiar in the old sagas, and either
Carelians, or related to the Carelians.
Long before these migrations took place, it is certain
that southern Finland was inhabited. On the coast,
and on the navigable rivers, and on that part of the
Bothnian coast which is now inhabited by Swedes, we
find numerous antiquities of the same kind as are
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