Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/87

Rh enough. When the Swedish realm during the Thirty Years War was enlarged, a great many of these settlers were sent to the conquered provinces, as, for instance, to Livonia and Pomerania and particularly to Ingria, where, up to this day, the population around St. Petersburg is of Finnish and for the most part of Savolaxian extraction. They were also called by the Swedish Government to settle in the woody border-land between Sweden and Norway and the descendants of these Savolax people are still living in Vermland. Not even here was their disposition for colonization satisfied, but the Finns in Vermland took a very active part in the attempts at colonization made by the Swedish Government in the 17th century, on the banks of the River Delaware in America.

Concerning the Savolax people in the 16th century we know that, although they had long ago been converted to Christianity, they kept up many of their heathen customs and put up many of their carved idols in places where they intended to settle. Of another heathen custom, which was attended to immediately at the founding of a colony, there are still some memorials left. As they throw light upon the important question of the worship of the dead, and at the same time show how a religious cult can degenerate into a mere conventional custom, I take the liberty to call your attention to them for a few moments, ladies and gentlemen.

When one or several members of a tribe or family had moved to a new place of abode, the first care of the settlers was to select for the farm a place for "karsikko," that is to say, they left a grove of trees in a suitable place in the vicinity of the house. In this grove a tree was lopped when someone in the house died, and this was repeated for every one who died at the farm, for grown up people as well as for children, for members of the family as well as for servants. Prom the moment the first tree was lopped they began to sacrifice there to the dead. These sacrifices which were not performed separately for each of the dead persons, but for all of them together, were of many kinds. When a bullock was killed at the farm the first dish of cooked food was carried to the grove. When in spring the first fish was caught the dead person's share of the food must be set apart,