The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

350 RUSSIA IX EUROPE.that however deep it may now be, the White Sea must have formerly been muchdeeper. Even its waters have remained less saline than those of the ocean,owing to the constant accession of fresh water from the rains, snows, and especiallythe Dvina, Onega, and other influents. Nevertheless some salt is stillmade on its foggy shores, where artificial heat replaces that of the sun in theprocess of evaporation.Inhabitants: Lapps, Samoyeds, Ziryanians, and Pomori.The great Kola peninsula, limited southwards by the Gulf of Kandalaksha,belongs ethnically to the Lapp race. The Slavs are here represented merely by afew fishing communities, while the Finns proper, all of the Karelian branch, haveonly founded a few isolated settlements on the south coast, along the shores of theGulf of Kandalaksha. At the same time, the high stature of some of the Lappstheir full red beard, their habits, and a few words of the current speech showclearly enough that this eastern branch of the Lapp family has absorbed Slavelements.They have a general resemblance to the Saimas of Sweden and Norway,but are less civilised and less intelligent than their western brethren. This is probablydue to their long vigils and to the general scarcity of food, largely consistingin winter of mosses, the bark of trees, a certain farinaceous earth kneaded into thedough, and the so-called lebeda, a species of bitter and unwholesome plant. Anidea may be formed of the climate of this region from the Lapp language, whichcontains 20 terms to express ice, 11 for cold, 41 for snow and its varieties, 26 verbsto describe the phenomena connected with freezing and thawing.The Lapps of the peninsula have so far adopted Christianity that they havebeen baptized since the sixteenth century by Russian monks, who have also introducedserfdom into the country, acquiring from the czars the ownership of entirepopulations.Thus evangelized, the Lapps have increased the number of their godsby the addition of one propitious deity, Jesus, and one evil spirit, the devil, kingof hell. A few devotional works have even been printed in the Russian character,which the Lapps of some encampments have learned to read.Still they have theirold wizards, or shamans, and worship heaps of stones, bones, or fossils, which theybelieve to be inhabited by spirits.As with so many Ural-Altaic peoples, marriagehas preserved in full vigour the forms of primitive abduction, and the bride is stillexpected to struggle violently and utter piercing cries. After the abduction herfather remits to the husband his right of absolute authority, even that of " roastingthe eyes of his victim." She is made fast to her new home " like a wild reindeer,"but after a pretended cudgelling, her husband releases and consecrates her " hostess "and " mother of the bread." It is she who controls the children and arranges allmatrimonial alliances, which are generally dictated by interest.Lapps of eighteenor twenty have often been known to marry wives of sixty. Each individual hashis particular mark, analogous to the totem of. the red- skins. At his birth thereindeer assigned to him is marked with this sign, which he afterwards stamps uponall his belongings.The Lapps are known to have formerly occupied a large portion of the North