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CONCERNING LAPLAND. 295
of cuftom, and the incurability of prejudices, we fhall not be fur-
prifed that the Laplanders fhould prefer the polytheifm of their
anceitors even to the chriftian religion.
The deities they worfhipped may be divided into four claffes.
The firft were fuper-celeftial: thefe were named Radien Alzhie,
and Radien Kiedde. Then followed celeftial: thefe were called
Beiwe, Ailekes, and Ailekes-Olmak. Of the third clafs fome were
fub-celeftial, and inhabitants of air. The chief of thefe was
named Maderatja: this deity was fuppofed to keep the region of
the air neareft the fun; others that inhabited the region below
the fun, were denominated Maderakka and Horagalles ; thofe nearer
the earth were diftinguifhed by the name of Sarakka and Juk/-
Akka. The deities of this. clafs were fo placed that they might
be at hand to affift mankind when called upon. The gods of the
fourth and laft clafs were fubterranean, and dwelt beneath the
earth. Of thofe neareft the furface, were Saiwo, Saiwo-O/lmak,
Saiwo-Guella, and Jabme Akko. Such as occupied the infernal re-
gions, which the Laplanders fuppofed to be in the very bowels of
the earth, were called Rota, Fuduo, Mubben, and Paha Engel.
Thefe infernal deities, Rota and the reft, though confidered as
evil-difpofed towards mankind, were neverthelefs worfhipped by
the people ; and poflibly for that very reafon, in order to depre-
cate and avert their malice.
Radien Atzhie, of the clafs of fuper-celeftials, was the chief di-
vinity, or the Jupiter of the Lapland theology ; he held dominion
over all the reft, his name Radien implying foyereign power, and
the
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