Far more full, however, than the classical writers are the old Norse Sagas in respect to the Ugrians. Of these the Beormas, or Permians, were wealthy and commercial; men sometimes to be dealt with, sometimes to be robbed. The Laps, on the other hand, were feared as magicians, or as men skilled in metallurgy; and, according to those who have studied the philosophy of mythologies, they have supplied many supernatural elements in the way of dwarfs and goblins. In the ethnology of Scandinavia--in the skilful and industrious hands of Retzius, Eschricht, Nilson, Kaiser, and others--Ugrian archæology, and Ugrian craniology, are preeminently prominent. The numerous barrows of Scandinavia are attentively studied; and observation has shown that the older the tomb, and the greater the proportion of instruments found within it _not_ made of iron (but of greater antiquity than the art of forging that metal) the less dolikhokephalic, and the more brakhykephalic, (or Ugrian,) is the skull. Hence comes the inference that the southward extension of barrows, containing remains of the sort in question, is a measure of the southward extension of the Ugrian family. Two other matters are of importance in Ugrian ethnology--the remains of their ancient Shamanism, and the Finland _Runot_. In respect to the former, the Ugrians are the first people wherein we find the original Paganism in more tribes than one; so that it can be studied in its minute differences, as well as in its general character. Its essential identity, however, is remarkable. The Supreme Deity is Yumel, Yubmel, Yumala, or some slightly modified name; and that from the Morduin country to Lapland. Except this notice of the extent to which similarity of creed, as well as similarity of language, connects the Ugrians, no further remarks will be made at present. The _Runot_ is the name for the popular poems of Finlanders. In few nations are they more numerous. In none more carefully collected. I believe that the chief one partakes of the nature of an epic, and relates the wars between the Laps and Finlanders. Others are short, lyrical, and adapted to music. The term _Runot_ (the plural form) is suspiciously similar to the Scandinavian word, _Runa_, with a not dissimilar meaning (_furrow_, _carving_, _letter_, _spell_, _verse_, _poem_). Finland archæologists, however, repudiate this, and claim it as an indigenous word, on the strength of certain derivative forms, like _runionecka_=_poet_. This is not conclusive. Nor is it necessary for the main fact, which is the existence of a home-grown poetical literature of more than average merit, and implying musical taste for the Finlandic portion of the Ugrian branch--of the Turanian group--of the Altaic Mongolidæ. FOOTNOTES: [9] In Greek, _Rhæmata_=words. [10] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [11] Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. vi. part 2. [12] Prichard, vol. iv. [13] "The Chinese as they are," p. 319.