THE HUMAN SPECIES. 317 



cumstantially, the national traditions, gods, and reli- 

 gious worship of the different nations, and among 

 others, of the Prussian. It is remarked, that no 

 people of the north was once so rich in literary mo- 

 numents ; for though a vast quantity of legends and 

 traditions still exist, there were thirty-one national 

 chronicles consulted by Hennenberger, all of which 

 have perished, excepting five, it is supposed by the 

 contempt of the Teutonic order of knights, and by the 

 neglect of the kings of Poland, who shared the ancient 

 archives. From the above, it is clear, that a vein of 

 indigenous civilization had worked on the Baltic, per- 

 haps drawing its remote source from Bactria, by com- 

 mercial Colchis, totally distinct from southern lore, 

 excepting in the degree which Greek and Roman in- 

 tercourse might have afforded, or Jewish wanderers, 

 who early found favour among the Finnic Tahtars of 

 Western Asia, may have introduced. 



THE FINNS OR SUOMI. 



CROSSING the Gulf of Finland, we come to the Suomi, 

 Finnelap, or Finn people, still so called, which, how- 

 ever, notwithstanding the rocky hills, innumerable 



tures. King Vanland, who wedded Drifva (trade), daugh- 

 ter of old King Snbe, may represent the peaceful mercan- 

 tile intercourse with the Venetic cities. Snb'e himself 

 gives an idea of ermines and peltry, or at least of the high 

 latitude where the trade was carried on. 



