290 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



We have omitted to notice another characteristic 

 that marks the primaeval Finnic tribes, namely, their 

 dwellings, which once were in Europe similar to those 

 of the present Tschutski of Eastern Asia, and of the 

 North American Indians of the same stock. They are 

 figured in Catlin's Travels, and still more correctly in 

 those of Prince Maximilian of Wied. In the west 

 they were named Dan, Den, Tan, Ton, &c., denomina- 

 tions preserved in Denmark ; Danes Tannieres in Bel- 

 gium ; Tonningen in North Germany. They exist now 

 in Lapland, and among the Samoyeds ; are the origin 

 of the legends of the Bergmen, burrowing men, where 

 the forging Alfen dwelt, who were miners and sword 

 smiths in Asia, Scandinavia, and Germany, includ- 

 ing Carinthia, long the legendary dwelling of Laurin, 

 brother of the Norwegian Alperich, and the Asiatic 

 Sinnel, princes of a dwarfish people. Even the garden 

 of roses, the mysterious retreat, where the dwarf king, 

 with his subterranean powers, was vanquished by 

 Dietrich of Bern, the Gothic hero, might perhaps be 

 pointed out in the wonderful cavern of Adelsberg,* 



assume any shape, ascribed to the Budas or blacksmiths of 

 Abyssinia, to the Wehrwolf in Europe and Asia, the 

 Escolar of Portugal, and of Bassa Jaon, the mysterious 

 smith of the Basques, the Crewe, Blotmen, sacrificial priests 

 of the northern nations, who slew human victims; the 

 medicine men, exorcisers of North America, the Shamans 

 of Asia, and even the Druid Victimizers, wore wolf-skin 

 dresses, or at least girdles of that material. 



* This is close by the elevated Schneeberg. The Lay- 

 bach is twice lost in the earth, and again reappears. The 

 Zirknitz Lake, supplied by subterranean torrents, suddenly 



