Magic Songs of the West Finns, Vol. I

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Eastern and Western Finns. The first of these epochs may take us back some three thousand years, whereas documentary history only accounts for about a quarter of that time, and for our purpose can almost be left out of consideration. In Folk-lore the Finns take an important place, and as I believe that in this country not very much is known about the Eastern groups and their exact relation to the Western, the first volume of this work may serve as a general introduction to a knowledge of all the pre- and proto-historic Finns in Europe, viewed as an organic whole, though now broken up into isolated groups. It need hardly be said that in trying to reconstruct the unrecorded history of a people on the basis of facts furnished by philology, archæology, and other branches of knowledge, there is nearly always an ill-starred vein of uncertainty traversing every conclusion at which we may arrive; and it affords only a

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[Karissa Oleyanin]

modicum of comfort to remember that the same is true of nearly all documentary history that reposes on the evidence of only one or two witnesses. All that we can generally expect, then, is to reach conclusions that are probable from the present standpoint of knowledge, and to feel fortunate when that humble aim can be attained; for in the course of our inquiry many questions will present themselves that can only be answered, if at all, with many reserves. The only consolation is that it will not always be so. The work of the trained students now labouring in the fields of prehistoric archæology and Finnish philology will some day bear fruit, and to future generations much that is now obscure, or even quite dark, in the history of the past, will become distinct, or at least comparatively clear.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE WESTERN FINNS.

The Finns of Finland (Suomi) call themselves Suomalaiset, and are broadly divided into two branches, the Tavastlanders (Hämäläiset) and the Karelians (Karjalaiset). The former occupy the south-west of Finland; the latter fill not only the northern and eastern parts of the country, but stretch into Russia as far east as the west coast of Lake Onega, and thence in a straight line northwards to the White Sea, The Finns, however, are not the only inhabitants of the Grand Duchy. Along the west coast from Bothnia, southwards and along the south coast as far as the Russian frontier, there is a fringe of country inhabited by a Swedish-speaking people, forming about 14 per cent. of the whole population, the descendants, for the most part, of Swedish settlers that

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[Karissa Oleyanin]

have arrived at various unrecorded periods. Though there is no natural boundary to the north between the Finns and Lapps, the latter are not now found within the limits of the Grand Duchy save in the district round Lake Enare.

Formerly the Finns covered a still larger area than at present. In the middle of the ninth century we learn from Ohthere's account to King Alfred that Qvens (Kainulaiset, a Karelian tribe) lived somewhere in the north of Sweden. Using light portable boats, they took advantage of the long narrow lakes to get far up country, then crossed the Fells and made raids

[Karissa Oleyanin]

upon the Northmen, who sometimes retaliated. In the north of Sweden the old name survives in the Kalix river, which is known to the Finns as Kainuhunjoki or the Qven river. Far to the east the same explorer found the mouth of the Northern Dvina well populated by a people he calls Beormas, who are generally believed to have been Karelians. At any rate, according to Sjögren an examination of the place-names in the government of Archangel reveals the fact that Karelians once

[Karissa Oleyanin]

resided not only at the mouth of the river, and as far south as the district of Šenkursk, the most southern district in the above government, but also as far east as the basins of the Pinega and the Mezen, and that as late as the fifteenth century the south coast of the White Sea was termed by the Russians 'the Karelian coast.' 1 Under various names three small groups of Karelians are found in Ingria, which forms the northern and north-western part of the government of St. Petersburg. They are believed to have migrated from Finland at the end of the eleventh or the beginning of the twelfth century.

Beyond the limits of the Grand Duchy live three other


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[Karissa Oleyanin]

divisions of the Finns: the Vepsas or Northern Čudes, the Votes (Vatjalarset) or Southern Čudes, and the Esthonians (Virolaiset). The Northern Čudes occupy the north-west of the Bielozersk and the west of the Tikhvinsk districts, all the upper basin of the Ojat, and eastwards into Vitegorsk. Sjögren estimated their number at fully 21,000, though formerly they were more numerous. From documentary and other evidence there is reason to believe, that, in the eleventh century, Finns, known to the Russian chronicler as Em, Yem, lived on the east side of Lake Onega, where abundant traces of their presence have been left in local names. There is written testimony to the effect that as late as the middle of the thirteenth century Čudes (Vepsas) and Karelians lived on the north-east of Lake Kubinsk, in the government of Vologda. And in the middle of the fourteenth century a Russian monk, who founded a monastery at the south-east corner of Lake Onega, mentions that Čudes and Lapps lived in the vicinity of the lake. 1

[Karissa Oleyanin]

It is generally believed that the Vepsas, from their name and geographical position, represent the Ves of the Russian chronicle, a people that dwelt near Lake Bielozero. This seems probable enough, but since the time of Fraehn's edition of Ibn Fozlan they are also identified with the Visu of Arab travellers of the tenth and eleventh centuries. Fraehn, however, was misled by the similarity of the names Ves, Visu (Isu, Isui). Ibn Fozlan merely says that the Visu lived at a distance of three months’ journey from Bolgari, but Abu el Kassim, who visited Bolgari later, relates that he had been informed by the king of the Bolgars that a people called Visu lived at a distance of three months’ journey to the north of his country, and that


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[Karissa Oleyanin]

with them the night in summer did not last even an hour He adds that the Visu are adjacent to the country of the Yura (Ugra, Ugrians), which is bounded by the Sea of Darkness. 1 The only possible route to the north from Bolgari lay up the Kama, the Kolva, the Višerka, through Lake Čusovoe to the head of the Vogulka, where a short portage (volak) of about four and a half miles brings the traveller to the Volósnitsa, a

[Karissa Oleyanin]

navigable tributary of the Pečóra. Descending the river, he would at length reach the Usa, about lat. 66° N. As at lat. 66° 19' the night at the summer solstice is just about an hour long, the position of the Usa suits to a nicety the position of the Isu or Visu, according to the indications of Abu el Kassim. It may also be observed that up the Usa lies the regular route to Obdorsk, at the mouth of the Ob, then in the hands of the Yura or Ugrians of whom he makes mention. In all probability, then, the Isu or Visu were the same as the Pečórans of Nestor and early Russian chroniclers, and are now represented by the Zịrians.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

The Votes are now restricted to about thirty parishes in the north-west of Ingria. They are first mentioned by Nestor in 1069, and probably occupied the whole of Ingria till partly dispossessed by Karelians from Finland and by Russians from the south. The Esthonians call themselves 'Country people' (mā mēs, mnā rahvas), and are found in Esthonia (Viro) and the north of Livland nearly as far south as the river Salis, as well as in the islands of Dago and Oesel. The old Finnish inhabitants of West Livland and North Kurland have been almost entirely absorbed by the Letts, and their language is almost extinct, save along a narrow fringe of coast between Domesness and Lyserort.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

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GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE EASTERN FINNS.

From a linguistic point of view the Mordvins (Mordvá) stand nearest to the Western Finns. Though now in a highly dispersed condition they occupy a considerable area in the governments of Nižegorod, Kazán, Tambov, Penza, Simbirsk, and Saratov on the west side of the Volga, and of Ufá and Orenburg on the east side. They arc divided into two great divisions, the Mokša and the Erza, who predominate numerically. The latter occupy the south part of Nižegorod and

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Simbirsk, and extend into the governments of Tambov and Penza. They also constitute the principal contingent of the Mordvin population in the steppes beyond the Volga in the governments of Samára, Ufá, and Orenburg. The country on the west side of the Volga, where the Mordvins dwell, is still partly covered with huge forests, largely composed of deciduous trees, such as the oak, lime, maple, ash, etc.; and as late as the seventeenth century elks were hunted in the forest and beavers tenanted the streams. 1

[Karissa Oleyanin]

From an examination of the place-names Professor Smirnov has arrived at the conclusion that the original territory of the Mordvins was bounded on the north by the Volga, on the west by the Oká, the Mok^sa, and the Tsna, on the east by the Sura, while southwards they once occupied the governments of Oká, Kursk, and Vorónež. 2 Under the form 'Mordens' the Mordvin name first appears about the middle of the sixth century in a catalogue, given by Jordanes, of the peoples subjugated by Ermanaric, king of the Goths, about two hundred years earlier. Though their geographical position is in no way defined, it



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[Karissa Oleyanin]

seems likely that at any rate as early as the fourth century the Mordvins lived west of the Volga, though perhaps a little further south than at present. A proof that they have long been settled in the vicinity of the Volga is the fact that they call it the Rav, evidently the same as the Rha of Ptolemy.