284 TRAVELS 
The whole compafs of their mufic confifts of five notes, and with 
thefe five notes they play, they dance, and recite their poetry or 
vcrfes. It is eafy to imagine the melancholy and monotonous 
effeCt of their mufic, as well as the impoffibility of improving it, 
until they fihall abandon this five-ftringed inflrument. But bar¬ 
barous and half civilized nations are no lefs frugal of their mental 
than of their corporeal enjoyments: they can difpenfe with the 
refinements of mufic as eafily as they are reconciled to fimplicity 
and uniformity in their diet and mode of life. 
The introduction of the violin has operated fome change in the 
national mufic of that country. The extent of that inflrument 
feems to have roufed the genius of the Finlanders, and the mufic 
they play on the violin has acquired a character different from that 
which they perform on the hcirpii. I will prefent my reader with 
fome fpecimens of national mufic in the Appendix, where they 
will have an opportunity of feeing the nature of that ancient me¬ 
lody called runa , which is certainly difcriminated by a character 
not to be met wfith in any other fpecies of mufic. It confifts in 
two periods, or bars of five crotchets each, which make two 
periods of eight notes: and I have divided that melody into two 
parts, in order to accommodate myfelf to the peculiarity of their 
verfe, each of which has eight fyllables, and two of them com" 
plete the tune, as may be feen in the Appendix, No. I. 
CHAPTER 
