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properly morass [1]. Ssum in old Russian, is the same
word, and is likewise applied to both Finns and
Lapps [2]. The Fenni of Germany, spoken of by
Tacitus, the Finnar of Scandinavia, are but
translated names expressing the same idea, which
recurs besides in the denominations of several Fennic
tribes [3], marking the nature of their original
dwelling places, and applicable to them in a great degree
at this day. This national name is therefore really
of common application; it belonged even of old to
all Northern Europe. Although Tacitus, according
to his conception, places the Finns nearly in
the present Lithuania, and Ptolemy stations his on
the Vistula, this need not prevent us from supposing
that the Fennic population extended to the
extreme north, for the whole of Northern Europe
had no existence for the Romans, and the reports
which reached them as to its inhabitants relate to
regions lying much farther to the south. As the
geographical knowledge of the ancients increased,
the Finns appear further to the north, inhabiting
the Thule of Procopius and the Scanzia of Jordanes,
and in the account of the latter are divided
into several stems. It is difficult exactly to
distinguish Lapps and Finns in old times, since only
the latter general appellation is employed, as well
from the incompleteness of the accounts, as from
the very nature of the question, affecting a race
of men whose antiquity has no history apart from
that of their neighbours. If we look to their
present condition, a marked diversity appears. The
Finns still refuse to acknowledge their consanguinity
to the Laplanders; the latter think it an
honour that they can claim kindred with the Finns.
Every man who has himself resided among these
races in Northern Scandinavia, must have received
a lively impression of the great differences, both
physical and moral, prevailing between them.
Whatever weight may with reason be laid on these
variations of aspect, still the admitted and
indisputable affinity of their languages evinces on the
other hand that both belong to the same stock. A
singular mixture of selfishness, mistrust, and
childish feeling characterizes the Lapp; a decided
and energetic temperament, with a wariness that is
often sullen, the Finn. “The man by his tongue,
and the ox by his horn,” says the Finnish
proverb. The energy of the Finns applied to
cultivation, and clearing the ground by fire, a sort of
nomadic agriculture, appears to have been practised
by them from very early times. The Lapps of
the mountains, on the contrary, are so engrained
in their primitive wildness, that, despite the
provident spirit of Christianity, and the cares of a
paternal government, they offer the spectacle of a
people dying off before cultivation. Yet the
process of transition from one state to the other may
be observed. The old Quens and Carelians lived
in the forests after the fashion of the Lapps, chiefly
on the products of the chase, and from this cause
raha, skin, is used at present, both in the Finnish
and Lappic tongues, to denote money, the chief
representative of value. Not more than a century
and a half ago, the Finns in the interior of East
Bothnia and Kajana lived with their rein-deers
almost after the fashion of Laplanders [4]. Fisher
Lapps as they are called, often of Finnish extraction,
are still found in Kemi Lappmark [5]. Lapps
are first heard of within the limits of Scandinavia
in the twelfth century; this appellation seems to
have originated with the Finns themselves, and is
probably oldest on the other side of the Baltic.
Lapps, as a frontier people, which is implied in the
word [6], have been found among and near the Finns,
as far south as Esthland, and afterwards in Finland,
from the inner side of the gulf [7], to the Icy
Sea. From Upper Finland they were driven out by
the Tavastrians chiefly, in times not yet very
distant; this is that expulsion from Finland, of which
the Lapps themselves retain the tradition [8]. In
Northern Scandinavia we again meet with them,
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