FINN, a race occupying Finnland in the north of Europe, supposed to be of the same stock with tho Turkoman, the Chude, tho Laplander, and the Magyar of Hungary. Rask was of opinion that the language of the Lap, the Finn, and Basque of Europe, and of tho Cuchuwari, Kohati, Toda, Gond, and Lar of India, also the Bralmi and the Japanese, were of ono stock.
It is generally supposed that the original seat of the Finnic tribes was in the Ural mountains, and their languages have been therefore called Uralic. From this centre they spread east and west and southward iu ancient times, even to the Black Sea, where Finnic tribes, together with Mongolic and Turkic, were probably known to the Greeks under the comprehensive and con venient name of Sc7thians. On the evidence of language, the Finnic stock is divided into four branches, the Chudic, Bulgaric, Permie, and Ugric.
The Chudic branch comprises the Finnic of the Baltic coasts. The name is derived from Chud (Tchud), originally applied by the Russians to the Finnic nations in the north-west of Russia. Afterwards it took a more general sense, and was used almost synonymously with Scythian for all the tribes of Central and Northern Asia. The Finns properly so called, or, as they call them selves, Suomalainen, Le. inhabitants of fens, are settled in the provinces of Finland (formerly belonging to Sweden, but since 1809 annexed to Russia), and in parts of the governments of Archangel and Olonetz. Their number is stated at 1,521,515. The Finns are the most advanced of their whole family, and are, the Magyars excepted, the only Finnic race that can 61aim a station among the civilised and civilising nations of the world. Karelian and Tavastian are dialecti cal varieties of Finnish. The Esth or Esthonians, neighbours to the Finn, speak a language closely allied to the Finnish. It is divided into the dialects of Dorpitt (in Livonia) and Reval. Except some popular songs, it is almost without literature. Esthonia, together with Livonia and Kurland, forms the three Baltic provinces of Russia. The population on the islands of the Gulf of Finland is mostly Esthonian. In the higher ranks of society Estlionian is hardly understood, and never spoken.. Besides the Finn and Esthonian, the
Livonian and, the Lapp must be reckoned also amongst the same family. Their number, how ever, is small. The population of Livonia consists chiefly of Esths, Letts, Russians, and Germans. The Lapp inhabit the most northern part of Europe. They belong to Sweden and Russia.
The Billgaric branch comprises the Tchere missians and Mordvinians, scattered in discon nected colonies along the Volga, and surrounded by Russian and Tartaric dialects. The general name given to these tribes, Bulgaric, is not borrowed from Bulgaria on the Danube ; Bulgaria, on the contrary, received its name (replacing Moesia) from the Finnic armies by whom it was conquered in the 7th century. Bulgarian tribes advanced from the Volga to the Don, and, after remaining for a time under the sovereignty of the Avars on the Don aud Dneiper, they advanced to the Danube in 635, and founded the Bulgarian kingdom.
The third, or Permic branch, comprises the idioms of the Votiakes, the Siriaues, and the Permians, three dialects of one language. Perm was the ancient name for the country between loi\g. 61° 76' E., and lat. 55° 55' N. The Permic tribes were driven westward by their eastern neighbours, the Voguls, and thus pressed upon their western neighbours, the Bulgar of the Volga. The Vostiaks are found between the rivers Vyatka and Kama. Northwards follow the Sirianes, inhabiting the country on the Upper Kama, while the eastern portion is held by the Permians. These are surrounded on the south by the Tartars of Orenburg and the Bashkir, on the north by the Samoyedes, and on the east by Voguls, who pre,ssed on them from the Ural.
These Voguls, together with Hungarians and Ostaaks, form the fourth and last branch of the Immo family, the Ugric. It was in 462, after the dismemberment of Attila's Hunnic empire, that these Ugric tribes approached Europe. They were then called Onagur, Saragur, and Urog ; and in 'later times they occur in Russian chronicles as Ugry. They are the ancestors of the Hungarians, and should not be confounded with the Uigur, an ancient Turkic tribe.