226 NATURAL HISTORY of N RWAT, 



mountains j and would not fuffer them to come down into the 

 valley. Judges xxxiv. which the faid writer admits of. This 

 author agrees with us in this Hypothefis, namely, that they were 

 the firft that took pofleilion of thofe parts after the flood *. 



We may farther learn from the Norvegian chronicles, that 

 thofe ancient inhabitants which were expelled, had particular 

 kings, or chiefs who prefided over them, befides the kings of 

 Norway to whom they were tributaries; for Mr. Jonas Ramus 

 in the life of king Hagen the Great, informs us, " that thole 

 of Finmark, had for a long time neglected to pay thofe taxes 

 which they ought to have paid to the kings of Norway. On this 

 account, king Hagen fent GiiTer Galde, an Icelander, to Fin- 

 Morten kingmarken, who executed his commiffion fo well, that Morten, king 

 " of the Finns went in perfon to king Hagen, who was then at 

 Nidros, and there paid him the taxes as he was in duty bound, 

 and gave farther aflurances of his fidelity and obedience. Hift. of 

 the kings of Norway, p. 3 04. 



SECT. II. 



The more modern Norvegians, like the reft of the northern 



nations, were a mixture of the remaining Celto-Scythians, and 



the new race of Afers, or Afiatics, who fpread and ftrengthened 



themfelves, by a more civilized manner of living, f fometimes 



under the government of one, and fometimes of many kings. 



Thefe both before and after chriftianity was introduced, but 



chiefly in the tenth century, under king Flarold Haarfager, who 



Of the tranf- fuppreffed all the petty kings, and confequently, raifed many 



Tany^Nor malecontents, fent feveral colonies out of the country to inhabit 



vanous mt ° Iceland, Greenland, Fasrorne, Hetland, and the Orkneys. 



countries m 

 different 



arorif * Gerhard Scheming, in the ancient Geography of Norway, fays, Sett. 3. p. 5. 



Europe. " That they formerly in the fouthern and weftern parts of our Peninfula, have been 



fo numerous, that they fent colonies to the Danifh iflands, and that Feyen took its 

 name from them (viz. Finns.) The great Hugo Grotius is of this opinion, and that 

 they muft have been the oldeft, and at firft the only inhabitants of Norway and Swe- 

 den, and have fince been driven by the anceftors of the prefent inhabitants who came 

 from Germany, to the moft barren parts of the North, as the ancient Britons were 

 forced by the Anglo-Saxons to leave England, and retire into Wales. 



■f See Chap. x. Seel:. 1, 2, 3. A fimilitude in the Norwegian Peafants manner of 

 living, and the Georgians, may perhaps ftrengthen the tradition, that the Afers, or 

 followers of Othin were Afiatics, and particularly that they were Mountaineers ex- 

 pelled by Pompey the Great, from Caucafus ? and Ararat, betwixt the Euxine, and 

 the Gafpian-fea, 



*Not 



