286 NATURAL HISTORY of NORWAY. 



eorio confe&us," that is, every perfon gives according to his abi- 

 lities, the richeft people generally give fifteen fkins of the mar- 

 tin, five of rein-deer, one bear's fkin, and ten bufhels of feathers, 

 with a jacket made of bears and otters-fkin, and two cables, 

 each fixty ells long, one made of whales-flan, the other of the 

 fkin of fea-calves. 



The taxes which the Finlaplanders, or the mountain Fins pay to 

 the king's receiver confift, to this day, of fkins. Thefe Finlanders 

 are quite a diffincl: nation from the Norwegians, and they do not 

 only inhabit the north-fide of the mountains, but likewife the 

 fouth-fide, and particularly thofe rocks, that part Sweden and 

 Norway : they alfo live in the woods, and on the barren tops of the 

 mountains. They are good markfmen, and live partly by. hunt- 

 ing, and partly by cutting down the woods, clearing the ground, 

 and fowing rye, from which they are called Rye-Finlanders. They 

 do their country a good deal of damage by this pra&ice, for 

 many fine woods are deftroyed by them, and the overfeers con- 

 nive at it for a fmall bribe. Thofe that get their living by 

 hunting, do lefs hurt to the community, only that way of life 

 makes their habitations unfettjed, and their fupplies uncertain ; 

 and in their diflrefs they fometimes of a fudden fall upon the 

 farmers, and partly by threats, and partly by begging, oblige them 

 to relieve their neceffities. In time of war they are employed 

 as guides, and fometimes as fpies and fcouts, for they will find a 

 way, or make one, thro' the wildeft and thicker!: woods, and al- 

 moft impaffable mountains, and generally a fhort one. Thefe 

 people feem to me to be, in this country, fomething like the 

 Morlak nation, which wanders about the Dalmatian moun- 

 tains. They feldom forfake the tops of the rocks, and in time 

 of war are very ferviceable to the Venetians. They live chiefly 

 by hunting ; but I don't know whether they are looked upon in 

 as defpicable a light by the Dalmatians, as the Finlanders are by 

 the Norwegians, who command them like flaves, and treat them 

 with fuch contempt, as in other countries the people do the 

 Jews *. I have already treated of bird -catching, and how it is 



prac- 



* In former times, and before they forfook their original home by the Bothnic 

 gulph, the Fins lived then in contempt and poverty, according to the words of Ta- 

 citus de mor. Germanor. " Fennis mira feritas, fasda paupertas, non arma, non sequi, 

 non penates, victui herba, veftitui pelles, cubile humus. Sola in fagittis fpes, quas 



inopia 



