MANNERS AND CUSTOMS./ 



475 



ordinary establishments, and the 

 progress they are capable of yet 

 making in agriculture, and, con- 

 sequently, in the arts of life, is 

 proved by the peasants of Tornea, 

 Uleoborg, and Cajaneborg. Even 

 the pernicious influence of a sea 

 life, the expectation of profit, 

 without laying by any thing for 

 times of want, has never manifest- 

 ed itself among the Quiins to the 

 extent which it has among the 

 Norwegians and Finns ; and 

 hence it is possible enough that 

 they will in time not only drive 

 the Finns from their districts, but 

 also the Norwegians themselves. 

 The prosperity of the country will 

 lose nothing by it. Why this 

 people is called Quans here is as 

 little known as the origin of Lappe 

 and Finner; but they are all equally 

 ancient. The old Icelandic sagas 

 speak of Quans and Quanland : 

 even Eigla (Torfaus I. 160.) lays 

 down the situation of the coun- 

 try pretty accurately. She says, 

 " Eastwards from Nummedalen 

 (at Drontheim), lies Jiimteland, 

 then, farther eastwards, Helsinge- 

 land, then Quanland, then Fin- 

 land, and lastly Carelen. Under 

 this was probably understood the 

 greatest part of the present Fin- 

 land, and it has been so laid 

 down by Schcining and Bayer in 

 their maps. The name disap- 

 pcired after King Erich the Saint 

 took possession of the country in 

 the middle of the twelfth century, 

 and subjected it to his authority ; 

 and now tlie general name of Fin- 

 land and Fin is ail that remains in 

 Sweden. Tlic oldest Geographer 

 of the North, Adam Von Bremen, 

 had heard something of this coun- 

 J try, but being unacquainted with 

 tiic correct Icelandic writers, he 



was deceived by the name : he 

 transformed Quaiier into Quiner 

 (women), and Quanland into 

 Qiiindeland (the land of women) ; 

 and he was hence induced to lay 

 down here an Amazonian country, 

 which the native writers never 

 dreamt of. This was eagerly laid 

 hold of by Rudbeck and his scho- 

 lars, who imputed to this Amazon 

 land all that the Greek writers had 

 related of the Scythian Amazons. 

 Schoning has hardly been able to 

 extirpate these romantic notionsby 

 his excellent treatises (Gamle Geo- 

 graphic, p. 6't) ; for even in recent 

 times a Magister Eneroth wished 

 to prove that the Amazons did 

 not inhabit Osterbottn, but the 

 Swedish province of Norrland; and 

 we cannot lielp being grieved at 

 seeing similar things repeated in the 

 last edition of Tuneld's Swedish 

 Geography, notwithstanding the 

 learned Giorwell is given out as its 

 editor. 



The Quans were a quarrelsome 

 people ; they frequently came over 

 from the Bothnian Gulf to Fin- 

 mark and Nordland, and com- 

 mitted depredations on the Nor- 

 wegians and Finns, which they in 

 turn endeavoured torepay by their 

 predatory incursions as far as Care- 

 len. Is it to this momentary ap- 

 pearance that they owe their name 

 in this country ? Or must the 

 Finlanders have another name, as 

 the Laplanders had already taken 

 possession of that of Finn ; the 

 name actually disappears when 

 both people are no longer in imme- 

 diate contact. Even in Helegland 

 nothing is known of Quiins, and 

 still less is known of them in the 

 south of Norway, or of the coun- 

 try inhabited by the Laplanders. 

 The Swedish practice is there I'ol- 



