FINNS FIRE. 



197 



The population is densest on the coasts ; the 

 Ulterior or this extensive country is very thinly 

 peopled; some parts are without inhabitants, and 

 some are incapable of supporting a dense population, 

 on account of the extreme cold. The strong fortres- 

 ses of Finland render it very important for Russia. 

 The inhabitants are mostlyFinns, with a few Russians, 

 Germans, and Swedes. 



FINNS. This race of men, about 2,400,000 in 

 number, extending from the Scandinavian peninsula, 

 along the northern coast of Europe, far into the north 

 of Asia, thence to the VVolga and the Caspian sea, 

 is an object of interesting inquiry. Tacitus was 

 acquainted with a race called Fenni, whose favourite 

 residence was the woods and morasses of the north. 

 They called themselves the inhabitants of the morasses 

 (in their language Suamolainen) , and their principal 

 occupation was hunting and fishing. It is worthy of 

 remark, that the scattered Finnish tribes have always 

 retained the national physiognomy, character, lan- 

 guage, and manners to such a degree as to be easily 

 recognised. They have no independent history. In 

 their simple, wandering life, they were the easy prey 

 of the Norwegians, Swedes, and Russians. The Nor- 

 wegians first subdued Finmark. Their expeditions 

 against the Permians, a tribe of Finns on the White 

 sea, continued till the princes of Novgorod had made 

 themselves masters of Permia and the trade thither, 

 and the Norwegians themselves were occupied with 

 the incursions of the Mongols. The Russians next 

 began to extend their authority in the territory of the 

 Finns; Karelia and all Permia fell under their power, 

 and, in the fourteenth century, the natives saw the 

 cross erected on the shores of the White sea, by 

 bishop Stephen, and the shining temple of the great 

 god lomala destroyed. All Lapmark, and the Finns 

 in the east, on the Wolga and in Siberia, were 

 reduced by the Russians, who also drove back the 

 Norwegians, when the latter attempted to maintain 

 their earlier encroachments in Lapmark. Last of 

 all, the Swedes attacked the Finns residing, on their 

 borders. In the middle of the twelfth century, St 

 Eric converted the inhabitants of 'the present Finland, 

 and, a century later, the Swedes subdued Tavastland, 

 and also the parts of Karelia and Lapland not 

 belonging to Russia. The subjugation of the Finnish 

 tribes in the north was now complete ; twelve tribes, 

 wholly or in part, became subjects of Russia, the 

 Laplanders, Finns, Esthonians, Livonians, Tschere- 

 misses, Tschuvasches, Mordvines, Votiacks, Pirmi- 

 acks, Siryanes, Vogules, and Ostiacks of the Obi. 

 To these may be added the Tepteri, consisting of 

 several Finnish tribes, principally the Tscheremisses, 

 Tschuvasches and Mordvines, and. some Tartars. 

 The Finns are of a small size, but robust. They are 

 characterized by a flat countenance, with sunken 

 cheeks, dark-gray eyes, a thin beard, brownish 

 yellow hair, and a swarthy complexion. This 

 description is not universally applicable, however, as 

 the Finns have been much improved by cultivation ; 

 yet the general characteristics of their physiognomy 

 remain unchanged. The Tscheremisses and Tschu- 

 vasches, in their bodily structure, are more like theTar- 

 tars ; but the Mordvines are more like the Russians, 

 and the Vogules like the Calmucks. The Finns are 

 principally Christians, and profess either Lutheranism 

 or the religion of the G reek church. But among the 

 Tscheremisses, Mordvines, Votiacks, and Vogules 

 there are some heathens who profess Shamanism. A 

 part of the Finns are engaged in agriculture, and 

 have attained a certain degree of refinement, par- 

 ticularly the Finns, properly so called ; another por- 

 tion of them lead a wandering life, supporting them- 

 selves by the breeding of cattle, hunting, and fishing. 

 Filthiness and indolence are characteristics of a large 



number of the Finnish tribe. The Finns, in a nar- 

 rower sense, are a grave, laborious, industrious 

 people, inured to every hardship ; fearless, brave, 

 firm, but self-willed and obstinate ; they are, withal, 

 very kind and hospitable. They are not wanting 

 in intelligence, and are very fond of poetry and 

 music. A Finnish Grammar lias been written by 

 Strahlmann. 



FIORD, the end of several Danish and Swedish 

 eographical names, means an arm of the sea, a nar- 

 row strait, a firth. 



FIR-TREE. See Pine. 



FIRE. The all-consuming energy of fire, the 

 first and most important agent of civilization, the 

 similarity of its effects to those of the sun, its inti- 

 mate connexion with light, its terrible and yet bene- 

 ficent power, the beauty of the constantly changing 

 flame, its many colours and shapes, easily explain 

 how it happened that, in times when cause and 

 effect, form and essence, were not yet distinctly sepa- 

 rated, fire became an object of religious veneration, 

 a distinguished element in mythology, an expressive 

 symbol in poetry, and an important agent in the 

 systems of cosmogony. It obtained a place among 

 the elements, and was for a long time considered to 

 be a constituent part in the composition of all bodies, 

 and to require only the concurrence of favourable 

 circumstances to develope its activity. It was early 

 thought that fire showed itself in its elementary 

 form in electrical phenomena. At a later period, 

 it was believed to be the source of all chemica 1 

 action, and, as such, was called phlogistigue. It was 

 finally confounded with light, and became, as it were, 

 the principal agent of the universe 



Ignis ubique latet, naturam amplectitur omnem, 

 Cuncta parit, renorat, dividit, unit et alit. 



Those agents, differing in their qualities from other 

 bodies, and sometimes called imponderable agents, 

 under whatever light they may be viewed, open a 

 vast field for speculation ; and it is not surprising 

 that some philosophers should have seen only differ- 

 ent modifications of the same matter, where others 

 have thought to recognise the influence of different 

 kinds of matter ; thus the effects of fire have been 

 attributed to a vibratory motion of the particles of 

 matter, or to the undulations of ether. When natu- 

 ral philosophy was treated in the schools, theories 

 were adopted to which little attention is paid in the 

 present age, when all science is founded on facts and 

 observations. Caloric, be it a material agent or 

 the consequence of vibratory motion, is at present 

 considered the cause of the phenomena which were 

 formerly ascribed to fire. Nevertheless, the nature 

 of the one is as unknown to us as that of the other 

 was to the ancients. The substitution of one of 

 these terms for the other has, however, introduced 

 a greater precision of language, and cause and effect 

 are no longer confounded under the same name. 

 See Caloric, and Combustion. 



The word fire, with different epithets, or ignis 

 (Latin), has been used for the spontaneous or casual 

 combustion of gaseous substances. Such is the ignis 

 fatuus, the jack-with-the-lantern, or will-with-the- 

 wisp, observed in places where animal matter is in a 

 state of putrefaction. Such are also the exhalations, 

 called fire-damps (see Damps), which are frequently 

 seen in coal mines in the form of whitish flakes, and 

 are kindled by the approach of flame, and produce 

 terrible explosions, which may be prevented by cur- 

 rents of air, or more completely by Sir Humphrey 

 Davy's safety-lamp, explained under Damps. The 

 former phenomenon is attributed to phosphureted 

 hydrogen gas, which takes fire on exposure to the 

 atmosphere, and the latter to carbonated hydro- 



