CONCERNING LAPLAND. 
145 
of ages, he thinks himfelf julfified in comprehending under the 
name of Laplanders all the people dwelling upon the coafts of 
Finland and Norland, who lead a paftoral life, like the other in¬ 
habitants of Norway, as well as thofe families w r hich wander about 
from mountain to mountain with their rein-deer. 
With refpeft to the point in queftion, namely, the defcent of 
the Laplanders from the Scythians, afterwards called Tartars, the 
Bilhop of Drontheim, in his Annotations, obferves, that the Finns, 
the neareft anceftors of the Laplanders, are mentioned by Ptolomy, 
the geographer, and by the Roman hiftorian Tacitus, whofe de- 
fcription of the Finns, the Bilhop might have added, is applicable 
in the moR Rriking and important inRances, to the mountain 
Laplanders, and the fhepherds of Norland and Finmark of the 
prefent day. 
The Bilhop, while he conliders the Laplanders and Finlanders 
as originally the Finns or the Finni of Ptolomy and Tacitus, fup- 
pofes the Finns themfelves to be defcended from the Scythians or 
Tartars, and from that tribe or nation of Tartars known by the 
name of Samoeids. The Norwegian, Swedilh, and Ruffian Lap¬ 
landers, he holds to be the fame people. 
The Finlanders, or Finnilh Laplanders, are offended, Bilhop 
Gunner tells us, at being called Laplanders. This he accounts 
for with Scheffer, by fuppofing lap to be a term of reproach.* 
* The Laplanders feem to have been known to Herodotus and other ancient 
writers, who have given them the names of Cynocephali, Troglodytes and Pyg¬ 
mies. It is fuppofed that their prefent name was given to them by the Swedes, 
who made the firft and principal conqueft of their country. It is faid to be de- 
Vo L. 11. U lived 
