CASTREN, MATTHIAS ALEXANDER, the greatest authority in regard to the Finnish people and language, was b. in 1813, not far from the Lappish boundaries of Finland. He received his earliest instruction in the town of Tomes, and afterwards studied at Helsingfors. About the year 1838, he undertook a pedestrian excursion through Fin nish Lapland, in order to extend his knowledge of the language and literature; and, in 1840, another through Carelia, to collect ballads, legends, etc., illustrative of Finnish mythology. On his return, he published in Swedish a translation of the famous Finnish poem, Kalerala, the meter and style of which have been imitated by Longfellow in his poem of Hiawatha. Aided by the government of his native province, he commenced his researches among the Finnish, Norwegian, and Russian Laplanders, as also among the European and Siberian Samoyeds. Appointed linguist and ethnographer to the St.
Petersburg academy, C., between the years 1845 and 1849, prosecuted his laborious investigations as far e. as China, and as far a. as the Arctic ocean. On his return, he was appointed first professor of the Finnish language and literature at the university of Helsingfors. He employed himself in preparing for publication the vast materials which lie had collected, but died 7th May, 1852, from exhaustion—a martyr to science. Before his death, appeared Versuch rifler oNtjfikisellen .nchst kwrzen WiWter Terzeiehniss (Petersburg, 1849), as the first installthent of his Northern Travels and Re searches. He also wrote Elementa Gnimmaticie Syrjaente (llelsingfors, 1844), and Elementa (1845); On the Influence of the Amen, in the LappiA Language (Petersburg, 1845); De AjLris Personalibus Lingua runs Altaicarurn (1 I el singfors, 1850), etc.