320 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



system of worship destroyed by the Asi, but nothing 

 to disprove that the whole did not come from the east ; 

 that region whence their mythological kindred, the 

 Jotun, are to arrive from, in the ship Nagelfar, at the 

 last day of the world's existence.* 



Immediately on the north of the Suomi, are the 

 tribes of Laps, who speak a dialect of the same lan- 

 guage, although they are almost pure Hyperboreans. 

 The somewhat equal intermixture of this race with a 

 Gothic people, constitutes the real basis of the Finnic 

 subtypical stem, since others, more to the eastward 

 with Slavonic, and again with Caucasian Yeta tribes, 

 produce the same result. Thus, it may be assumed, the 

 Hunnic power was likewise generated in Asia from 

 eastern Caucasians, mixed with Hyperboreans; for 

 when interunion occurs, the Caucasian type so readily 

 becomes superior, that it is soon doubtful whether any 

 Mongolic blood can be externally observed to be pre- 

 sent. This is in Asia the case with the fair Ostiaks of 

 Siberia the Wotiaks and Tscheremisses the Mord- 

 wines and Wogules ; and, in a less degree, among the 

 Permeans or Syrians of Russia, and even the Ghoor- 

 kas of the Himalayas are accounted Zwergi, or of 

 dwarf race. 



* The Finns, like the American Savages, have feasts of 

 the bear hunt, mystical notions of his origin, and like 

 them, give him by-names, - believing in his superhuman 

 knowledge. 



