The whole compafs o f their mufic confifts o f five notes, and with
thefe five notes they play, they dance, and recite their poetry or
verfes. It is eafy to imagine the melancholy and monotonous
effect of their mufic, as well as the impoffibility o f improving it,
until they ihall abandon this five-flringed inilrument. But barbarous
and half civilized nations are no lefs frugal o f their mental
than o f 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 o f life.
The introduction of the violin has operated iome change in the
national mufic o f that country. The extent o f that inilrument
feems to have routed the genius o f the Finlanders, and the mufic
they play on the violin has acquired a character different from that
which they perform on the harpu. I will prefent my reader with
fome fpecimens o f national mufic in the Appendix, where they
will have an opportunity o f feeing the nature o f that ancient melody
called runa, which is certainly difcriminated by a character
not to be met with in any other fpecies o f mufic. It confiils in
two periods, or bars o f five crotchets each, which make two
periods o f eight notes: and I have divided that melody into two
parts, in order to accommodate mylelf to the peculiarity o f their
verle, each o f which has eight fyllables, and two o f them complete
the tune, as may be feen in the Appendix, No. I.
CH A P T E R XXI.
Influence o f the northern Climate upon the Manners and Habits o f the
People— Hardfhips o f living in the North, when compared to the
: fouthern Countries— Occupations o f the Finlanders in Winter—
Their Methods o f catching Fi/h— The Chafe o f the Bear— Mode
o f floating the--Squirrel— Dangers that attend the Chafe o f the
Seal— A n Itfance mentioned o f two j Finlanders that were cafl
away upon the Ice while in this Purfuit.
A T R A V E L L E R who vifits thofe countries during winter, is
apt to imagine that men, animals, and plants, are all con-
figned to a profound fleep : nor is it eafy for him to conceive
whence the natives derive the means o f their fubfiilence. Seas,
rivers, lakes, are all frozen up, and feem to ihut out the necelfary
refource o f fiihing; the birds fly from thefe inhofpitable regions,
and hence afford no iuftcnancc; the earth on all fides covered
with frofl and fnow, is here converted into an inexorable prifon,
confining all her fruits;— this univerfal nakednefs naturally begets
in the ftranger an expectation o f feeing everywhere poverty, want,
and wretchednefs: but one who has refided among thefe people
will find, that they are neither lefs awake, nor lefs a ¿live, nor worfe
fed than the inhabitants o f the South. T he different feaforas here,