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THROUGH FINLAND. - 283
the different effects produced by the mufic on perfons of different
conftitutions. One, for example, remained during the whole of
a fonata fixed and fteadfaft, his mouth open, his eyes ftaring,
without moving his eye-lids, and apparently ftruck with a ftupid
- aftonifhment: another, on the contrary, feemed to follow every
ftep of the melody with his whole body, and appeared to fuffer a
fort of mufical convulfion: but the moment we began to play
their runa every eye was drowned in tears, and the emotion was
general.
The runa is a piece of the moft ancient melody of Finland,
which is {till retained by this people, and fuited to their national
inftrument called the harpu, probably the original of our harp, or
a copy of the ancient cithara of the Greeks.
The inhabitants of Finland have certainly a very fenfitive turn
both for mufic and poetry. Indeed it fhould feem that thefe two
arts go together, but the Finlanders have not made the fame pro-
grefs in mufic as in poetry, on account of the imperfection of their
national inftrument, and the attachment and veneration with
which they have preferved it.
The harpu confifts of five ftrings ; and here we may obferve the
firft {tep in the origin of the arts. They had no idea of giving it
more chords than there are fingers on the hand. The chords are
a, b, c, d, e; and c being flat, the inftrument becomes tuned in
@ minor, the favourite note of all the northern nations. ‘The
chords are of metal, and not, like thofe of the violin and guitar,
fufceptible of being modulated by the fingers of the left hand.
O02 The
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