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quite clear. We can only guess that part of the
present Scandinavian population of Finland is
descended from Scandinavians who were there some
thousand years before the Finns arrived. What is
certain is that some Finnish tribes were here about
A.D. 700.
While the Tavasts and Carelians did not differ
greatly at first, and soon amalgamated in certain parts
of the country, the Lapps or Laplanders remained
an entirely separate race. Their language resembles
Finnish, as it does other Ural-Altaic languages; but
they themselves are totally different in physical
appearance, mental development, and manner of life. They
seem to have got their language from their more
civilised neighbours. They are Arctic nomads; while
the Finns, even when they first came into the country,
had domestic animals and some knowledge of
agriculture, as may be seen in their old national epics, the
Kalevala. The Lapps came early into the country,
and at a later period were to be found in the interior;
but they invariably retired northwards when the Finns
advanced, and rarely amalgamated with them in any
way. In modern times the Lapps are more settled —
though exclusively in the north — and often take
service with the Finns, so that more admixture takes
place; but the total Lapp population in Finland is
only about one thousand, and most of the reindeer
(formerly almost exclusively the property of the
Laplanders) belong now to the Finns. Only a small number
of Lapps continue to move about with these animals,
which are admirably adapted to this northern climate.
The Gipsies of Finland are more numerous than the
Lapps, but less amenable to control; they came from
Sweden in the sixteenth century, and now number nearly
two thousand. In modern Sweden they hardly exist,
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