Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/207

 DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 195

but as a solid fact," is beyond my comprehension. I apprehend that a deep gulf separates us as to what constitutes a solid fact. There is not even room here for an hypothesis.

Dr. Hatt's discussion of the Kalewala is based more on an attempt to sustain his theory than on objective evidence. I had occasion myself to read this work repeatedly and at different times, and considerable literature about it. The book of Comparetti on which I chiefly relied is justly regarded as a classic throughout the civilized world, and it may be expected that a man who devoted a lifelong and serious study to this vast and complex subject knows at least as much about it as Hatt. Naturally there is much controversial matter and divergence of opinion with respect to the Kalewala, in the same manner as in the case of the Homeric poems, the Rigveda, or the Avesta. Dr. Hatt passes off his own ideas as " the truth about Kalewala" (p. 127) and denies categorically that it represents a true and perfect picture of the Finn prior to their christianization. May it not be that his judgment is influenced by the fact that the Kalewala runs counter to his theories, for it does not contain the faintest allusion to domesticated reindeer, while the wild reindeer was an object of the hunt, while sledge-driving is most frequently mentioned, but the sledges are always drawn by horses (my article,

p. igi). 1

Little troubled Lemminkainen,

And he spoke the words which follow: "Make a, snowshoe left to run with,

And a right one to put forward!

I must chase the elk on snowshoes,

In the distant field of Hiisi."

XIII, 59-64. "Let the men who live in Lapland,

Help me all to bring the elk home;

And let all the Lapland women

Set to work to wash the kettles;

And let all the Lapland children

Hasten forth to gather splinters;

And let all the Lapland kettles

Help to cook the elk when captured." etc.

But the third time he rushed onward,

Then he reached the elk of Hiisi.

Then he took a pole of maple,

And he made a birchen collar;

Hiisi's elk he tethered with it,

��1 I select several passages (translation of W. F. Kirby) in support of my above statement. If all this is not realism of cultural conditions, the Kalewala assuredly is pretty well consistent in its madness.

�� �