340 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



and have the curious habit of expressing their thoughts aloud in 

 extempore sing-song 1 ." 



Similar traits have been noticed in the Samoyads, whom 

 Mr F. G. Jackson describes as an extremely sociable and hos- 

 pitable people, delighting in gossip, and much given to laughter 

 and merriment 2 . He gives their mean height as nearly 5 ft. 2 in., 

 which is about the same as that of the Lapps (Von Diiben, 5 ft. 

 2 in., others rather less), while that of the Finns averages 5 ft. 

 5 in. (Topinard). Although the general Mongol appearance is 

 much less pronounced in the Lapps than in the Samoyads, in 

 some respects low stature, flat face with peculiar round outline- 

 the latter reminded Mr Jackson of the Ziryanians, who are a 

 branch of the Beormas (Permian Finns), though like them now 

 much mixed with the Russians. The so-called prehistoric " Lapp 

 Graves," occurring throughout the southern parts of Scandinavia, 

 are now known from their contents to have belonged to the 

 Norse race, who appear to have occupied this region since the 

 New Stone Age, while the Lapp domain seems never to have 

 reached very much farther south than Trondhjem. 



All these facts, taken especially in connection with the late 

 arrival of the Finns themselves in Finland, lend 



Lapp 



Origins and support to the view that the Lapps are a branch, 

 not of the Suomalaiset, but of the Permian Finns, 

 and reached their present homes, not from Finland, but from 

 North Russia through the Kanin and Kola Peninsulas, if not 

 round the shores of the White Sea, at some remote period prior 

 to the occupation of Finland by its present inhabitants. This 

 assumption would also explain Ohthere's statement that Lapps 

 and Permians seemed to speak nearly the same language. The 

 resemblance is still close, though I am not competent to say to 

 which branch of the Finno-Ugrian family Lapp is most nearly 

 allied. 



Of the Mongol physical characters the Lapp still retains the 



round low skull (index 83), the prominent cheek- 



ment bones, somewhat flat features, and ungainly figure. 



The temperament, also, is still perhaps more Asiatic 



1 A Boat Journey to Inari, Viking Club, Feb. i, 1895. 

 77/i? Great Frozen Land, 1895, p. 61. 



