Magic Songs of the West Finns, Vol. I

[Karissa Oleyanin]

animals or with sods of turf and was entered by a door that very likely faced towards the south. Such a primitive dwelling still survives as an outhouse for cooking in the F. kota and the portable Lapp tent, goatte. The name, though not the original shape and structure of the house, is still preserved by the Mordvins, Čeremis, the Permian group, and the Ostiaks, and therefore takes us back to the first period. For the rigorous winters of the north such a habitation was manifestly quite insufficient, and to protect themselves better against cold they lived in winter

[Karissa Oleyanin]

in huts that were partly underground. An excavation of suitable size was dug with some kind of rude implement to a sufficient depth, was roofed over with poles and then covered with sods of turf. Such a dwelling is termed gort by the Permians, and is found in great numbers in the government of Vologda in groups of from ten to fifteen; it is also known to the Ostiaks under the name of tal χot or 'winter hut.' As the F. huone 'a house, a room,' seems to have meant 'a warm, snug place,' 1 it may originally have been an underground winter hut.

Though there is no common word for village, it is not

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likely the ancient Finns lived permanently in isolated dwellings far from neighbours.

As a word for 'fire' (F. tuli) is common to all the Ugrians, the East and West Finns, it may almost be inferred that it was neither sacred nor an object of worship, though its warmth must have been appreciated. For 'door' there are two sets of words: F. ovi, Vog. ävi, eu, Ost. ou, and F. uksi, Lap. uks, ufsa, Z. ödz´ös, ös, öbös, V. ös. The only common words for an enclosure of any sort

[Karissa Oleyanin]

outside the house seems to be F. piha 'courtyard,' Č. peče 'a fence.' 1 For outhouses and storehouses, though there are often native words, yet each term is confined to a single group. A place fortified by a rampart and ditch to serve as a refuge from attack was unknown in remote prehistoric times, though in the protohistoric period forts were much used by the Ugrians and by both branches of the Finns. The furniture of the hut was almost nil; tables, chairs, stools, etc., were unknown, but they had prepared skins of animals to spread on the ground for sleeping and sitting upon, and were therefore not so badly off after all.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

Besides looking after the children the women had a variety of occupations. With half-closed eyes smarting from the smoke that filled the hut, they plied their coarse bone needles (F. äimä, L. aibme, Č. im, Z. jem) threaded with sinew, (F. suoni, L. suodna, M. san, V. and Z. sön, Vog. tan) while making boots (F. kenkä, L. gam, M. kämä, kem, Z. köm) or other articles of dress. Or taking up a bundle of fibre made from some kind of nettle by means of a spindle and whorl, (F. keträ, M. kištir, Č. šidir, V. čers, Z. čörs) they span (F. punoa, L. padnam, M. ponan) it into thread (F. syy. V. and Z. si) and wound

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it into a ball (F. kerä, M. kirnä). This could be used in two ways; for 'sewing with wide stitches,' (F. kursia, E. M. kurǰe) 1 or for weaving (F. kutoa, L. goδδet, M. kodams, Č. kuo, V. kunị, Z. kịnị). The loom of course was a very rude and simple apparatus, but they attached the threads of the warp (F. loimi; M. limä) to one end of it, worked in the woof (F. kude, L. goδa, V. kuon, Z.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

it into a ball (F. kerä, M. kirnä). This could be used in two ways; for 'sewing with wide stitches,' (F. kursia, E. M. kurǰe) 1 or for weaving (F. kutoa, L. goδδet, M. kodams, Č. kuo, V. kunị, Z. kịnị). The loom of course was a very rude and simple apparatus, but they attached the threads of the warp (F. loimi; M. limä) to one end of it, worked in the woof (F. kude, L. goδa, V. kuon, Z.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

kịan; M. añks = ats in Esth. ats-pōl 'a shuttle' 2) and thus manufactured woven stuff (F. kutama, M. kotf, V. kuon, Z. kịan). Perhaps the shuttle was not used as there is no common term for it, though several native ones are to be found. Though sewing and making boots must have been practised in the first period, the existing words all belong to the first half of the second period, as well as the terms for spinning and weaving.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

The cookery was decidedly plain. Fish and flesh were generally eaten raw, but fat meat must have formed the basis of the 'broth' (F'. liemi, L. liebma, M. M. läm, E. M. lem 'grease,' Vog. lom) they had learnt to prepare, and this must have been boiled in some kind of pot that would resist fire or into which hot stones could be dropped. For holding liquids there were wooden bowls (F. malja, M.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

mal´anka), 3 and for solids they had plaited baskets (F. vakka, M. vakan (?)). Like all inhabitants of the north the prehistoric Finns of the first period, when they could get it, ate fat (F. vol, M. vai, Č. ü, V. vöi, Z. vịi, O. voi, Vog. voi); in later times the word was also used for 'butter.' There is no common word for 'milk,' showing there were no domestic milking animals in the first period. But before the end of the second period the Mordvins and

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West Finns had learnt how 'to milk' (F. lypsää, Z. lịstịnị 1 = M. lofsa, 'milk'), and to churn (F. pyöhtää, M. pištoms) 2 the milk into butter.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

The oldest prehistoric weapons were the bow and arrow, the words for which with little change are found in the Ugrian, East and West Finnish languages. Whether the bow was simple or compound we do not know. At any rate the Ostiaks, who are far from being a progressive or inventive people, used in the thirteenth or fourteenth century and still use a bow composed of two kinds of

[Karissa Oleyanin]

wood fastened together with fish glue and then bound round with birch bark. The lower half was of very hard pine, the upper part of birch. Though the string is now made of hemp, in ancient times it was doubtless of sinew. 3 Besides the pointed arrow they also used the blunt-headed kind, F. vasama, though there is no common word for it. F. veitsi 'a knife,' which corresponds with M. iñks 'a scraper,' 4 and F. ora, M. ura, uro 'an awl' or instrument for boring holes may originally have been flint or bone instruments.

[Karissa Oleyanin]

In winter the hunting expeditions were made on long wooden snow-skates (F. suksi, M. soks, Ost. toχ, Vog. tout). In summer they travelled in 'boats' (F, veneh, L. vanās, M. venš) which they 'rowed' (F. soutaa, Vog. tovantam) and steered with a 'paddle or steering oar,' (F. mela, L. mœlle, M. milä). But this class of boat and paddle belongs to the later half of the second period. The sleigh appears to have come into use at a much later time as there is

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nothing in common between the East and West Finns in this respect, though F. ohja, M. vožja, 'a rein' if genuine and not loan words, 1 indicate that driving was known by the close of the second period. A primitive mode of catching fish would be to dam up a small stream with a 'dam or weir' (F. pato, N. Ost. pot),