FINLAND: TOPOGEAPHY. 219 



Forsby, on the Gulf of Finland. The people mtirry only amongst themselves, 

 and have retained both their speech and national customs, thus keeping entirely 

 aloof from the surrounding Finns. Elsewhere the Swedes are met only in isolated 

 groups, generally mixing with the natives, and in the government of Nyland 

 speaking both Finnish and Swedish. The Swedes number altogether about 280,000. 



Formerly the educated Finns affected to despise their native speech, looking on 

 it as a sort of provincial patois, although it possessed a translation of the Bible 

 so early as 1548. But a national revival has since taken place, partly due to the 

 University of Abo, and Finnish literature is now emancipated from Scandinavian 

 tutelage. From this time both races have enjoyed absolutely equal privileges, and 

 since 1868 all schoolmasters, since 1872 all officials, have been bound to know Finnish. 



The earliest habitations of the Finns were little more than holes in the ground 

 roofed over. These were succeeded by the so-called hotas, circular enclosures 

 formed by poles resting against the trunk of a tree, some of which are still used as 

 penthouses. But as dwellings they were replaced by the porte-, resembling the 

 E-ussian izba, and formed by pine stems propped one against the other, without 

 windows or flues beyond narrow fissures, and a trap imder the roof to let the 

 smoke escape. An oven, a few utensils, cribs or troughs for the domestic animals, 

 such was the only furniture of hovels where man and beast lived huddled together. 

 Some of these primitive dwellings, such as they are described in the Karelian 

 songs, are still met ; but most of them have been enlarged, improved, separated 

 from the stables, and in other respects adapted to the requirements of a more 

 civilised existence. 



Topography. 



The oldest Finnish towns, Abo, Tavastehus, Wiborg, were grouped round the 

 strongholds erected to protect the invaders and the Christian converts. In the 

 north the country, possessing no strategic importance, was openly settled, stations 

 being established at the river mouths exclu!>ively for purposes of barter. 

 Torneà, facing the Swedish Haparanda across a branch of the river Tornea, is the 

 outport of the Lapps, where they come to sell their fish and reindeer tongues. 

 TJlcahorg, the Finnish Ulu, is a far more important place, being the outlet for the 

 resin, tar, and timber brought down by the river Uleâ (Ulu Joki). Farther 

 south, Brahestad (Brahin) has outstripped the old Swedish town of Gamla Karlehy, 

 and on the same coast of the Gulf of Bothnia are the ports of Jacohstad, or 

 Piefasaari, Ny Karlehy, Vasa, Nikolaisfad, Christinestad, BJôrnehorg, and JSfystad, 

 the last mentioned connected by submarine cable with Sweden. 



The oldest city in Finland is Abo (Turku), for centuries the bulwark of the 

 Swedish possessions on the east coast of the Baltic. Here was raised their first 

 stronghold, Abohus, which still commands the mouth of the Aura-joki below the 

 town. Its roadstead, sheltered on the west by a group of islets and rocks, is 

 conveniently situated near the south-west corner of the land, between the Gulfs of 

 Bothnia and Finland, and has consequently become one of the chief ports in these 

 waters. Ranking second in population, it takes the third place as a commercial 



