OF THE HUMAN FAMILY. 63 



primitive form of consanguinity of tliis branch of the Ih-alian family tiian that of 

 the Finns. The two peoples speak closely allied dialects of the same stock lan- 

 guage. 



Mr. Leas remarks upon the system as follows: "The system of relationship now 

 in use among the Esthonians is nearly the same as our own, the terms being few, 

 and extending only to the nearest kindred. You will notice from the annexed 

 schedule that the native Esthonian has no condensed form of expression, as with 

 us, for the principal relationships. For example, instead of calling his father's 

 brother his uncle, he says, ' my father's brother ;' and instead of calling his father's 

 or his mother's sister his aunt, he says, 'my father's sister,' or 'my mother's 

 sister ;' and instead of condensing the phrase, ' mother's sister's husband' into 

 tmde, he says, ' my mother's sister's husband.' In like manner, instead of calling 

 his son's wife his daughter-in-law, he would say, mbvu pocrj naine, that is, ' my 

 son's wife ;' and so on with the other relationships." 



He thus gives, in a few words, the substance and the characteristics of the 

 Esthonian system. Having no terms in their language for uncle or aunt, nephew 

 or niece, or cousin, and no classification of kindred of any kind, they describe them 

 by a combination of the primary terms. It is, therefore, the Erse and Gaelic 

 method, pure and simple, and the only instance in which it has been found without 

 the circle of the Aryan family. The terms of relationship are, for the most part, 

 the same, under dialectical changes, as the Finnish; from which the inference 

 arises that the system, with the terms, came down to each from the same original 

 source. Since the Esthonian form is the simpler of the two, it seems to be a 



even now are extremely ignorant and uneducated, abounding in superstitions, and bitterly opposed 

 to all modern improvements. That the line of succession in their original chiefs was from the father 

 to his eldest son (and not elective), seems probable from the fact that to this day all the property 

 of the father descends to the eldest son, the other children inherited nothing ; and this rule prevails 

 outside of the Russian law. The people are 'hewers of wood and drawers of water,' having no 

 part whatever either in making laws, or in the administration of the general or provincial govern- 

 ment. The old German nobility make and execute all the laws of the province, under the Emperor, 

 who permits them to do so ; nor are the peasantry possessed of any wealth worth mentioning. The 

 land of the province is owned by the German nobles, who have divided it into estates of immense 

 dimensions, called Knights' Estates, some of which are twenty and thirty miles square ; and none, 

 I believe has less than eight or ten miles square. These estates can neither be reduced below what 

 is called a Knight's estate, which is some three or four thousand acres ; nor can any man purchase 

 an estate in the province except he be an Esthonian nobleman. The most distinguished Russian, 

 of whatever rank, could not purchase an Esthonian estate, unless the Esthonian nobility first admitted 

 him as a member of their body ; and as the Esthonians proper are peasants, and none of them noble- 

 men, so none possess estates. They rent the land and cultivate it, and in payment give either work 

 or money. Each estate has one, two, or three thousand acres of land immediately around the resi- 

 dence of the nobleman, which he cultivates himself through the labor of the peasants, the balance 

 being parcelled out in peasant farms of one or two hundred acres. The peasant farmers, if they pay 

 in work, which is generally the case, send their sons, wives, and daughters to work for the nobleman, 

 who, in this manner, without personal labor, secures the ample cultivation of that part of the estate 

 which remains for his own use, as first stated. The peasants live in small wood houses without 

 chimneys, which are filled with smoke the entire winter, and live on black bread, milk, and sail 

 They have stoically resisted all the kind efforts of the nobility to give them chimneys to their houses, 

 declaring, as they do, that it is a destructive innovation, only tending to destroy their lives." 



