THROUGH FINLAND. 
3 l 7 
one of thefe a female peafant defcribes herfelf at work in thefe 
words: 
Paiwat pyorin petkeleifsa 
Kiwen puuffa klikuttelem 
Fix’d to this mill all day I Hand, 
And turn the (lone with patient hand. 
Thefe fongs, called jauho runot, or mill-fongs, are for the moll' 
part fung to a flow plaintive air. If two women are employed at 
the mill, they are fung in parts by both of them ; but when they 
relieve each other, (he only fings who works. Thefe fongs are 
compofed on a variety of fubjedls; fometimes grave and ferious, 
at other times ludicrous and fatyrical; one while a love (lory, and 
not infrequently the praifes of (ome heroic action. 
Love, which is the great bufinefs of the fex, is, as may well be 
fuppofed, the topic upon which the energies of the Finnifh poetefs 
are chiefly exercifed ; it is> however, not an eafy matter to procure 
fpecimens of thefe fongs, as they are generally fung by the young 
women at meetings, to which men are rarely or never admitted. 
Mr. Franzen of Abo prefented me with a-fong, the compofition 
of a country girl, a native of Oftro-Bothnia, and the fervant of 
the magifter or the clergyman of the village, where fhe had con- 
ftantly refided. It is compofed on the oecafion of her lover’s ab- 
fence, in a ftyle of natural fimplicity, ftrong fentiment, and bold 
figure, to attain which, more cultivated under (landings fometimes 
labour in vain. The thought in the fecond (lanza, if not altoge¬ 
ther 
