TEE OCCUPATION OF THE LAND 169 



and barn with some question as to which portions are 

 occupied by man and which by beasts, although the 

 impression should not be created that Finns com- 

 monly live in this manner. They are likely sedu- 

 lously to exclude the outer air from their dwellings, 

 and cases of tuberculosis are especially frequent 

 among them. Adjoining the farm-house is probably 

 the bath-house, where the bather steams himself 

 thoroughly by throwing water on heated stones in 

 the center of the floor, and perhaps terminates the 

 process by a roll in the snow outside. His live-stock 

 is as well housed as himself, and, although his thrift 

 may cause him to shear his sheep at least twice in the 

 year, involving a winter as well as a summer clip, 

 he seeks to make amends by withholding the shorn 

 brute from all contact with the outer air, a procedure 

 which is said often to result in serious respiratory 

 difficulties, but one which he is loath to abandon. 

 The wool so derived is frequently carded and spun 

 at home and knit into mittens and socks. There still 

 is considerable demand for the old-fashioned spin- 

 ning- vvneel, thought to be a relic of a well-nigh 

 forgotten art practiced by our grandmothers, but 

 still in use in many localities of northern Michigan. 

 The Finn, like the German, is musical, but what he 

 regards as music the American commonly frankly 

 spurns, because the native American is prone to mis- 

 understand Finnish art as well as Finnish character. 

 Finnish music seems usually to run in the minor key 

 as if consonant with the normal minor mood of the 

 race. The annual "saengarfests" held at various 



