THE HUMAN SPECIES. 321 



alone can be considered as typical of the semi-intermixture of 

 the Hyperborean and Caucasian stocks. It is there alone that 

 the Lapland tongue finds so much affinity as to amount to a 

 decided similarity; there the great distinguishing mental char- 

 acteristic of the whole subtype is observed, in the permanence 

 and generality of iron mining propensities; the godlike office 

 of the forging smith, the constant poetical allusion to gold, 

 silver, and iron, are prominent ; and all the sorcery and incan- 

 tations of the Laplanders, short of their magical drums, even 

 now in vogue, — practices alike common to the kindred Shamans 

 of Asia and the Angekoks of Arctic America. Although the 

 Finnic race repudiates in national pride all consanguinity with 

 the Laplander, the northern portion almost equally reviles the 

 southern, because it is less conversant with the old nationali- 

 ties, and is more generally, if not altogether, tall, straight, and 

 fair-haired. On examination, we are assured that there is 

 equal distinctness in the cranial structure between them ; but, 

 as yet, no account of a thoroughly scientific inquiry in this 

 question appears to have reached middle Europe. 



They are, moreover, accused by the Swedes of being more 

 malevolent, a greater proportion of Finns occurring on the list 

 of malefactors than of natives of Sweden, when both countries 

 were under the same crown ; and though the linguistic affinities 

 were described, and the religious dogmas were supposed to be 

 sufficiently well known, the recent discovery of a Finnic poem, 

 named the Kalewala, shows that the sources of research in the 

 north are far from exhausted, and that their harmonious lan- 

 guage was anciently more polished than has been thought.* 



The ancient Finns were, however, mixed with Yeta races at 

 a very early period ; since a peaceful union between them is 



* Kalewala, or the adventures of Waina Moina, the god of verse, a 

 Finnic epic poem, in thirty-two runas, published by Professor Loenroth, 

 a Finn by nation. There is a French version of it by M. Leouzon le Due, 

 1846 ; but it is strange we hear of none in German, though the work is 

 regarded as perfectly genuine. 



