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THROUGH FINLAND. 317
one of thefe a female peafant defcribes herfelf at work in thefe
words: |
Paiwat py6rin petkeleifsa
Kiwen puufla kiikuttelen.
Fix’d to this mill all day I ftand,
And turn the ftone with patient hand.
Thefe fongs, called jauho runot, or mill-fongs, are for the mott
part fung to a flow plaintive air. If two women are employed at
the mill, they are fung in parts by both of them; but when they
relieve each other, fhe only fings who works. Thefe fongs are
compofed on a variety of fubjeéts; fometimes grave and ferious,
at other times ludicrous and fatyrical ; one while a love ftory, and
not infrequently the praifes: of fome heroic ation.
Love, which is the great bufinefs of the fex, is, as may well be
fuppofed, the topic upon which the energies of the Finnith poetefs
are chiefly exercifed ; it is, however, not an eafy matter to procure
fpecimens of thefe fongs, as they are generally fung by the young
women at meetings, to which men are rarely or never admitted.
Mr. Franzen of Abo prefented me with a fong, the compofition
of a country girl, a native of Oftro: Bothnia; and the fervant of
the magifter or the clergyman of the village, where fhe had con-
ftantly refided. It 1s compofed on the oecafion of her lover’s ab-
fence, in a ftyle of natural fimplicity, {trong fentiment, and bold
figure, to attain which, more cultivated underftandings fometimes
labour in vain. The thought in the fecond ftanza, if not altoge-
ther
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