CONCERNING LAPLAND. 
295 
of cuftom, and the incurability of prejudices, we fhall not be fur- 
prifed that the Laplanders fhould prefer the polytheifm of their 
anceftors even to the chriftian religion. 
The deities they worfhipped may be divided into four daffes. 
The firlT were fuper-celeftial: thefe were named Radien At-zhie, 
and Radien Kiedde. Then followed celeftial: thefe were called 
j Beiwe, Ailekes , and Ailekes-Olmak. Of the third clafs fome were 
fub-celeftial, and inhabitants of air. The chief of thefe was 
named Maderatja: this deity was fuppofed to keep the region of 
the air neareft the fun; others that inhabited the region below 
the fun, were denominated Maderakka and Horagalles ; thofe nearer 
the earth were diftinguifhed by the name of Sarakka and Jukf- 
Akka. The deities of this clafs were fo placed that they might 
be at hand to affift mankind when called upon. The gods of the 
fourth and laft clafs were fubterranean, and dwelt beneath the 
earth. Of thofe neareft the furface, were Saiwo, Saiwo-Olmak, 
Saiwo-GuelJa, and Jabme Akko. Such as occupied the infernal re¬ 
gions, which the Laplanders fuppofed to be in the very bowels of 
the earth, were called Rota , Fudno , Mubben , and Paha Fngel, 
Thefe infernal deities, Rota and the reft, though confidered as 
evil-difpofed towards mankind, were neverthelefs worfhipped by 
the people ; and poffibly for that very reafon, in order to depre¬ 
cate and avert their malice. 
Radien Atzhie , of the clafs of fuper-celeftials, was the chief di¬ 
vinity, or the Jupiter of the Lapland theology; he held dominion 
over all the reft, his name Radien implying fovereign power, and 
the 
