Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/86

 A KIND OF WORSHIP OF THE DEAD IN FINLAND.

(From the Researches in Finnish Mythology by the late Prof. Julius Krohn.)

Finns in Finland are divided into two tribes, the Tavasts and the Carels. The former, who had settled in the west part of the country, came under the influence of the Swedish rule, and the occidental division of the latter again became dependents of the Russian empire, and of the Oriental church. Only three of their westmost countries were separated from the rest of Carelia and surrendered to Sweden in 1323. Of these countries two were situated at the seaboard, but the third one, called Savo, lay in the interior of the country by the lake Saimac, the outflow of which is through the cataract of Matra, the second Niagara in the world. This population in Savo became the proper colonists of the interior of Finland. The Tavasts, as well as the Carels, certainly made long shooting and fishing expeditions into the wilderness, but they always returned to their native places, where they lived in large village communities. The Savolax people again appreciated more individual liberty and independent ' household. As soon as the native place had become unable to satisfy this want, they moved farther into the country. Their own hunting-grounds soon were inhabited, and they did not find any other expedient than to occupy the wildernesses in Tavastia and Carelia.

This could naturally not be done in a friendly manner, but the Savolax people often had to endure bloody attacks from both sides. Nevertheless their colony made great progress in the 16th and 17th centuries, so that besides their original territory by the lake Saimaa at present almost all of Finland north of the 62d and 63d degrees of latitude is inhabited by a population from Savolax. But this is not 64