12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



sociated with the glories of the Hanseatic League, and to this day it 

 impresses one as distinctly German in appearance. 



Further to the north still, along the shores of the Gulf of Finland 

 are the Finns, suhjects of Sweden for many years, but conquered by 

 Eussia in 1809. Their culture is distinctly Teutonic and on coming 

 from Eussia to Finland one is at once struck by the absence of the 

 Eussian or Byzantine architecture in the churches; similarly the ubi- 

 quitous uniform of Petersburg is also absent. Altogether it is a world 

 non-Eussian, despite the fact that it has formed a part of the Eussian 

 empire for 105 years. The Finns are a non-European stock, Mon- 

 golian in origin, and physically differ considerably from the Eussians. 

 They are taller and belong to the long-headed type and the eyes are al- 

 most uniformly blue. They have had a constant struggle with a poor 

 soil, an adverse climate and an overpowerful neighbor. Yet in Fin- 

 land all can read, and very few are to be found who can not write also. 

 One can not but be impressed with the industry and pluck of this 

 valiant little people, and feel in sympathy with the Finnish economists 

 who see in the geographic location and the magnificent water power of 

 their country the basis for a great development in the future. 



The Finns appear further as the principal people over the entire 

 area of northern Eussia, excepting the stunted and wandering Lapps 

 with their reindeer, and the Samoyads — a heathen fisher folk of the 

 northeast. Indeed this region was theirs till the Great Eussian con- 

 quered it. Petersburg itself is set down in the midst of a Finnisli 

 country; a land of marsh and forest occupied by Finnish peasants, 

 Teutonic in culture. Indeed from the ethnic standpoint the old name 

 of the Eussian capital is more in accord with historic and even actual 

 conditions than its present one of Petrograd, which is of course the 

 Eussian instead of German for the city of Peter. The conquest of 

 northern Eussia by the Muscovites did not bring with it any war of 

 annihilation or wholesale migration. Slav and Finn have existed side 

 by side for generations, the latter being subjected to a gradual process 

 of absorption by the Great Eussian. The Finns in their little villages 

 hold out stubbornly against it, women being particularly tenacious in 

 retaining the old customs. 



MacKenzie Wallace says. 



On the other hand, like women in general when they do begin to change, they 

 change more rapidly. The men adopt the Russian costimie gradually; women 

 adopt it at once. As soon as a single woman gets a gaudy dress every other 

 woman in the village feels envious and impatient till she has one likewise. 



He tells of having tried in vain to buy a female tribal costume in 

 several villages and finally going on to another expecting the same diffi- 

 culty. Accordingly he had his inn-keeper make known his quest and 

 the very liberal terms he was ready to offer. This time the result was 

 startingly different. To give his own words: 



