FINN MAC CUMHAILL (fin ma-kool') was probably the general to whom Cormac mac Airt, king in Tara (fl. c. A.D. 25o) entrusted the task of organizing a standing army, whereby he sought to establish a suzerainty over the whole of Ireland. But he has attracted to himself a vast body of popular legend, and has thus become a mythological figure which dominates the f olk lore of the Gaelic peoples, in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is difficult to trace the growth of the legend, owing to a paucity of early materials. The tales told of the hero were of a popular nature, transmitted by word of mouth, and did not assume a literary form so soon as the mythologies of the Tuatha De Danann or the sagas of Cu Chulainn. In these tales Finn is represented as being the leader of a band of braves, of strongly contrasted characters—which the story-tellers generally manage to preserve with remarkable consistency and with no little humour. They wander about with a seeming lack of aim, but they are employed in defending Ireland against foreign invaders (as in the well-known tale of the Battle of Ventry), and in the intervals devote themselves to the pleasures of the chase. They are not always united; they belong to opposing families; and the best known tale of the cycle is that of Finn's pursuit and destruction of his lieutenant Diarmait, who had eloped with his destined bride, Grainne, daughter of Cormac mac Airt.
The best collection of material for studying the growth of the Finn legend will be found in Kuno Meyer's Fianaigecht (Royal Irish Academy, 191o) . Specimens of tales about Finn will be found in every collection of Irish or Scottish Gaelic folklore. (R. A. S. M.) the designation of a division of the Ural Altaic family of languages and their speakers. The term Finn is the name given by their neighbours, though not used by them selves, to the inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic. It is probably the same word as the Fenni of Tacitus and cIDLyvoi. of Ptolemy, though it is not certain that those races were Finns in the modern sense. It possibly means people of the fens or marshes, and corresponds to the native word Suomi, which ap pears to be derived from suo, a marsh. Finn and Finnish are used of the inhabitants of Finland and of similar tribes found in Russia and sometimes called Baltic Finns and Volga Finns. In this sense the Estonian tribes (Baltic), the Lapps, the Cheremiss and Mordvins (Volga), and the Permian tribes are all Finns. The Ostiaks, Voguls and Magyars form a separate subdivision called Ugrian, from Yura or Ugra, the country on either side of the Ural Mountains.
The name Finno-Ugric is primarily linguistic. The Finno Ugrians form, with the striking exception of the Hungarians, a moderately homogeneous whole. They are nomads, but are hardly ever warlike and have no power of political organization. Those of them who have not come under European influence live under the simplest form of patriarchal government.
In Russia the Finno-Ugric tribes are widely spread in the wooded country, especially on the banks of lakes and rivers. They form a considerable element in the population of the northern, middle and eastern provinces of Russia, but are not found much to the south of Moscow (except in the east) or in the west (except in the Baltic provinces). The Finno-Ugric (or Palaeo-Arctic) people have black or even reddish hair, sparse beards, yellowish to whitish skin, short stature, flat heads, flat faces, high cheek bones, oblique eyes and straight or concave noses. The head index varies from long to round.
The following are the principal Finnish peoples. The Permians and Syryenians (Syrjenian, Sirianian, Zyrjenian, Zirian) may be treated as one tribe. They both call themselves Komi and speak a mutually intelligible language, allied to Votiak. The name Bjarmisch is sometimes applied to this sub-group. Both Per mians and Syryenians are found chiefly in the governments of Perm, Vologda and Archangel. The Syryenian headquarters are at the town of Ishma on the Pechora, whereas the name Permian is more correctly restricted to the inhabitants of the right b1nk of the upper Kama. The V otiaks dwell chiefly in the south-eastern part of the government of Viatka. They call themselves Udmurt or Urt-murt. The Cheremiss, who call themselves Mari, inhabit the banks of the Volga, chiefly in the neighbourhood of Kazan.
The Mordvinians, also called Mordva, Mordvins and Mordvs, are scattered over the provinces near the middle Volga, especially Nizhni Novgorod, Kazan, Penza, Tambov, Simbirsk, Ufa and even Orenburg. Though not continuous, their settlements are con siderable both in extent and population. They are the most im portant of the Eastern Finns, and their traditions speak of a capital and of a king who fought with the Tatars. They are men tioned as Mordens as early as the 6th century, but now call them selves after one of their two divisions, Moksha or Erza. Their language (two dialects) is derived from Early Finnish, and has constructions peculiar to itself.
The Lapps are found in Norway, Sweden and Finland. They call themselves Sabme, but are called Finns by the Norwegians. They are the shortest and most roundheaded race in Europe. The majority are nomads who live by pasturing reindeer, and are known as Mountain Lapps, but others have become more or less settled and live by hunting or fishing. From ancient times the Lapps have had a great reputation among the Finns and other neighbouring nations for skill in sorcery.
The Estonians are the peasantry of the former Russian province Estonia and the neighbouring districts. They have reddish flaxen hair with a tall element. They are practically a branch of the Finns, and are hardly separable from the other Finnish tribes inhabiting the Baltic provinces. They call themselves Ma mes, or country people, and their land Rahwama or Wiroma (cf. Fin nish, Virolaiset, Estonians).
Livs, Livlanders or Livonians is the name given to the old Finnish-speaking population of west Livland or Livonia and north Kurland. They were a warlike and predatory pagan tribe in the middle ages, and it is possible that they were a mixed Letto-Finnish race from the beginning. They have become almost completely absorbed by Letts, and their language is only spoken in a few places on the coast of Kurland, if indeed it still exists. It is known as Livish or Livonian and is allied to Esthonian. The Votes (to be distinguished from the Votiaks), are also called southern Chudes and Vatjalaiset. They now occupy only a few parishes in north-west Ingria. The Vepsas or Vepses, also called Northern Chudes, another tribe allied to the Esthonians, are found in the district of Tikhvinsk and other parts of the former govern ment of Old Novgorod.
The Finns proper or Suomi, as they call themselves, inhabit Finland and the Olonetz, Tver and governments of Leningrad. Formerly a tribe of them called Kainulaiset was also found in Sweden, whence the Swedes call the Finns Qven. At present there are two principal subdivisions of Finns, the Tavastlanders or Hamalaiset in the south and west and the Karelians or Kar jalaiset in the east and north. The Tavastlander has a round head, a broad face, concave nose, fair complexion, frequently light hair and blue or grey eyes. The Karelians have broader heads and are shorter.
Finno-Ugric tribes have not progressed so much. The Finns and Magyars, have adopted, at least in towns, the civilization of Europe; others are agriculturists; others still nomadic. The wilder tribes, such as the Ostiaks, Voguls and Lapps, mostly con sist of one section which is nomadic and another which is settling down. Traces of ancient conditions survive sporadically but are nowhere universal. Few except the Hungarians have shown them selves warlike. But most Finno-Ugrians are astute and persevering hunters, and the Ostiaks still shoot game with a bow. The tribes are divided into numerous small exogamous clans and are gen erally patrilineal. Marriage by purchase of the bride is the more general form. Women are often excluded from religious cere monies. The most primitive form of house consists of poles in clined towards one another and covered with skins or sods, so as to form a circular screen round a fire ; winter houses are partly underground. Long snow-shoes are used in winter and boats are largely employed in summer. The Finns in particular are very good seamen. The Ostiaks and Samoyedes still cast tin ornaments in wooden moulds. The deities are chiefly nature spirits and the importance of the several gods varies as the tribes are hunters, fishermen, etc. Sun or sky worship is found among the Samoyedes and Jumala, the Finnish word for god, seems originally to mean sky. The Ostiaks worship a water-spirit of the river Obi and also a thunder-god. We hear of a forest-god among the Finns, Lapps and Cheremiss. There are also clan gods worshipped by each clan with special ceremonies. Traces of ancestor-worship are also found. The Samoyedes and Ostiaks are said to sacrifice to ghosts, and the Ostiaks to make images of the more important dead, which are tended and honoured, as if alive, for some years. Images are found in the tombs and barrows of most tribes, and the Samoyedes, Ostiaks and Voguls still use idols, generally of wood. Animal sacrifices are offered, and the lips of the idol some times smeared with blood. Quaint combinations of Christianity and paganism occur; thus the Cheremiss are said to sacrifice to the Virgin Mary. The idea that disease is due to possession by an evil spirit, and can be both caused and cured by spells, seems to prevail among all tribes, and in general extraordinary power is supposed to reside in incantations and magical formulae. Almost every tribe has its own collection of prayers, healing charms and spells to be used on the most varied occasions. A knowledge of these formulae is possessed by wizards (Finnish noita) correspond ing to the Shamans of the Altaic peoples. They are exorcists and also mediums who can ascertain the will of the gods ; a magic drum plays a great part in their invocations, and their office is generally hereditary. The non-Buddhist elements of Chinese and Japanese religion present the same features as are found among the Finno-Ugrians—nature-worship, ancestor-worship and exor cism—but in a much more elaborate and developed form.
History.—Most of the Finno-Ugrian tribes have no history or written records, and little in the way of traditions of their past. In their later period the Hungarians and Finns enter the course of ordinary European history. For the earlier period we have no positive information, but from archaeological and philo logical data an account of the ancient wanderings of these tribes may be constructed. Barrows containing skulls and ornaments may mark the advance of a special form of culture. But clearly all such deductions contain a large element of theory, and the following hypothesis has been proposed by Peake. (J.R.A.I. xlix. 1919.) In late Palaeolithic times various types of long headed men occupied the plain of N. Europe. Then came in Solutrian times a nomadic people from Eurasia, hunters of wild horses. Then a broadheaded race of perhaps Mongol affinities pressed to the Baltic. The Nordic Steppe folk spread north and about the middle of the Bronze age came into touch with the Mongoloids who were reinforced by later waves. "Thor must have led his red-haired followers from the banks of the Volga, while Woden brought his fair-haired warriors from the Russian Steppes."