300 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



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 Tannie res in Belgium; 

 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, including 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 won- 

 derful cavern of Adelsberg * with its mysterious river, not 

 far from various mines, and particularly that of quicksilver, 

 about Idria. 



Having been checked in a western progress, perhaps by the 

 still remaining salt marshes, already interspersed with barren 

 sea sands, in north-western Asia, the Scythic Finns accumu- 

 lated and grew to nations of variously mixed character, not un- 

 like those already noticed in south-western Asia and Egypt ; 

 but it was ages later before they developed, and pushed on by 

 Lake Ladoga to the Baltic. Here, propelling the true Hyper- 

 boreans, they became Finn-laps, and next, the earlier Scandi- 

 navian inhabitants, at the same time that they formed also the 

 Esthonian, Biarmian, Prussian, and other maritime people. On 

 all these coasts, a certain affinity with, or pressure by, new 



* This is close by the elevated Schneeberg. The Laybach is twice 

 lost in the earth, and again reappears. The Zirknitz Lake, supplied by 

 subterranean torrents, suddenly becomes empty, and as rapidly fills again ; 

 where also the mysterious Proteus Angui7ius comes up from reservoirs of 

 everlasting night. The cavern, twelve miles in length, is adorned with 

 stalactites, forming halls, corridors, recesses, pillars, obelisks, hangings, 

 and even forms of animals, so strangely commixed, and of such enormous 

 proportions, that here the powers of enchantment were naturally believed 

 to have held their court. 



