the least expected results of the decipherment of the Babylonian and Assyrian cuneiform inscriptions is that the most ancient language found in this style of writing is strongly allied to the idioms of the Uralo-Finnic race, and that many of its words and the greater part of its grammatical forms particularly resemble the Finlandish. It is therefore conjectured that the Finnic race was in possession of the Tigris and Euphrates basin more than 4,000 years ago; and in retracing the ideographs of the cuneiforms to the objects they originally represented, it is found that the region where this system of writing was invented was a northern clime; at least one totally different from that of Babylonia and Assyria, destitute, among other things, of large feline carnivora and of palm trees. The French ethnologist Quatrefages maintains in his recent work on La race prussienne that the Prussians proper are of Finnic descent, but apparently without sufficient evidence. Beloguet, on the other hand, argues, in his Ethnologie gauloise, that the pre-Aryan race which inhabited France must have been Finns; but this hypothesis also has no sufficient basis. Finnic elements are also discovered in the Basque language and in the remnants of the Etruscan. As Tacitus, however, speaks of Fenni among the German tribes, and as the Finnic languages are strongly intermixed with Celtic forms, it is probable that the Finns occupied at a remote time the low lands of Germany to the confines of Gaul. Certain it is that they inhabited for a long period the whole region between the Volga and the Ural rivers, and that the Magyar tribe dwelt in the district of the Kuma. The Finns also overran the southern portion of Sweden, and perhaps Jutland; but they were driven out of the country W. of the gulf of Bothnia as early as the 9th century.—The Finns of N. W. Russia belong either to the Greek or to the Lutheran church. Before the 12th century they adored numberless fetiches, besides a god of heaven and earth whom they called Yumala, Yumula, or Yumara, according to the dialect of the tribe, and also Num on the E. shore of the White sea. The other Finnic deities were tribal gods adopted in the course of migration and development. In Finland there are about 1,500,000 Finns proper, many of whom have adopted the civilization of the Swedes, their former conquerors, but are reluctant to become Russianized. The peasants of the interior still live in a very rude and simple manner. The dialect of this branch of the Finnic race is considered one of the most harmonious and softest languages spoken. (See Finland, Language and Literature.)
Peasants of Finland.
The Finns proper are subdivided into Tavasts and Karelians. The Tavasts, who inhabit the S. W. districts of Finland, are great agriculturists, besides paying much attention to breeding cattle. They are nevertheless one of the poorest and humblest branches of the whole race. They designate themselves as Flamalaiseth, and are estimated to number about 600,000. More vivacious and less rude than the Tavasts are the Karelians, whom the other Finnish tribes call Karialaiseth. They inhabit the eastern portions of Finland and the adjoining governments of Russia, and number above 1,000,000. The Lapps are distributed over portions of Sweden, Norway, and Russia, and are only about 15,000 in number. In the government of St. Petersburg dwell nearly 18,000 Ingrians and about 5,000 Vots or Vatialaiseth. The Esths, in Esthonia, Livonia, and the neighboring governments, number upward of 500,000; the Tchuds proper, in Olonetz and Novgorod, about 15,000; the Livs and Krevings, in Courland and Livonia, are becoming extinct, numbering little more than 2,000 persons. All these together form the Tchudic branch of the race. The Permian branch occupies regions between the Ural mountains and the Volga and Dwina. There are about 50,000 Permiaks in the government of Perm, who without their Finnic language could scarcely be distinguished from the Russians. They raise cattle, are very poor, and their customs are similar to those of the Votiaks, who number about 180,000, and live in villages of 20 to 40 houses between the Kama and the Viatka. With the latter are mingled the Bissermians, about 5,000 in number, greatly resembling the Permiaks. The Sirians, between lat. 58° and 66° N., chiefly on the Vytchegda, number about 70,000, speak exclusively their own dialect, and belong to the Greek church. On the central Volga, and between that river and the Oka, dwells the Volgaic or Bulgaric branch, numbering more than 1,000,000, among whom the Mordvins, upward of 400,000, seem to be the
