222 NATURAL H I STORY of NORWAY. 



matter of fuch obfcurity, which is filled, like the hiftories of 

 other countries, with confufed accounts^ and uncertain conjec- 

 ture ; what it amounts to in fhort is this, namely, that the moft 

 ancient or firft inhabitants of Norway left the country juft before 

 the birth of Chrift, and incorporated with a fwarm of Afers, or 

 Afiatics, that came into the north, condu&ed by Othin, who 

 made himfelf matter of the firft, or Celto-Scythian inhabitants. 

 The Laplanders and Finlanders, are doubtlefs, the progeny of 

 the ancient Norwegians, who then retired farther north, to that 

 extenfive chain of mountains called Kolen, and to Lapland or 

 Finmark, which extend on both fides of thofe mountains. There 

 the defcendants of the firft Norwegians ftill obferve the manners 

 and cuftoms of their anceftors ; from which they deviate in no- 

 thing but in fome little cultivation of their lands, and live chiefly 

 by hunting, and procuring grafs for their rain-deer. Thefe ani- 

 mals fupply them with food, cloaths, and covering for their huts, 

 or tents, which they move, according to their liking, from place 

 to place. Thus did the ancient Germans live, according to Ta- 

 citus j not to mention the patriarchs of old, who thus migrated, 

 and changed their habitations in the eaftern countries. 

 Thefe were The Afers, or Othin's followers, which moft probably were 

 Afes or o- 7 driven out of Afia by Pompey the Great, and ipread themfelves 

 lowers. to the north, as far as they found inhabitable countries ; but did 

 not envy the ancient inhabitants of Norway their retreat among 

 the cold mountains of Kolen and Finmark, the eaftern fide of 

 which was peopled, on the fame motive, by fugitives from Swe~ 

 den and Finland, near the Bothnic bay, who have given the 

 country and people their name in common, as they had met with 

 the fame hard fate of being expelled from their country by the 

 Afers. It is uncertain, however, whether thefe two kinds of fu- 

 gitives have coalefced into one people - y for to this day there is 

 a difference in their language, and fome Finlanders fpeak Queenfk, 

 or Quaenfk, but what language that is I cannot fay ; but if I may 

 be allowed to conjecture, I fuppofe it to be the language of the 

 ancient Norwegians, who were united with the Finlanders from 

 the Swedifh fide. 



2 The 



