210 l>HILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1727. 



mines with success; because several sorts of damps extinguish fire, and some 

 fuhninate, and are dangerous, when fire conies near them; and even in com- 

 n)on stagnant air, fire will not keep in long. 



An Account of the Nonvegian Finns, or Finlanders. By Peter Kinck, Esq. 

 ]SI°400, p. 357. 



Jn the confines of Norway which border upon Sweden, live a people called 

 Finns, whose habitation is in the woods and forests, and who are some of 

 them under the Danish, some under the Swedish jurisdiction; of whose origin, 

 nature, and manner of life, the following is some account. 



1. Their original was from Swedish Finland, eastward of the sea of Bothnia, 

 from whence, by want of the necessaries of life, they formerly transported 

 themselves into Sweden and Norway, where in the forests they got leave to 

 build and inhabit. Finland formerly was not so well cultivated as at present; 

 so that the produce of the earth was not sufficient to subsist the numbers of 

 people born there; hence many of them, as the Goths and Vandals, were 

 obliged to seek out new quarters: and though these people have for the most 

 part kept to their native language, yet have they made several alterations in 

 their manners and ways of living. 



Though the much greater part of them both understand and speak the Nor- 

 wegian tongue, as well as the Swedish, yet they mostly use their own, which 

 has not the least affinity or resemblance of either the other two. For example, 

 the Swedes and Danes, in numbering, tell 1, 2, 3, een, toe, tree, they in theirs 

 tell yx, kax, kolime; and as the first, for give me bread, say giv mig brod, 

 they say alia mina leip, &c. And on hearing them converse together, it is 

 surprising to conceive how they understand each other, as they speak so very 

 low, that they can scarcely be heard by others. 



2. They are generally low of stature, but strong and hardy, and healthy ; 

 their eyes are lively, their noses high, and their teeth even and white, their 

 feet short. The women are generally so strong of constitution, that in child- 

 bearing they seldom need any assistance, and soon return to the business of 

 the family again, except here and there a weakly constitution. They are ge- 

 nerally ignorant and silly ; but this must be attributed to the little converse 

 they have with each other, and the rest of the world ; since the men, whose 

 affairs call them often to trafiic with their neighbours, and in different pro- 

 vinces, are of good natural parts, sharp, and look well to their interest. They 

 are frugal, parsimonious and humble, fearful of giving offence, and very re- 

 spectful to their superiors: they will work whole days without any food, if they 

 can only have tobacco to smoke or chew. 



