Through Finland in Carts Part 2

Sun kukoistukses' kuorestaan kerrankin puhkeaa; Viel' lempemme saa nousemaan sun toivos, riemus loistossaan, Ja kerran laulus' synnyinmaa, korkeemman kaiun saa.

When the _Maamme_ is sung every one rises, the men take off their hats, and nearly all those present join in the song, their demeanour being most respectful, for a Finn is nothing if not patriotic.

Another very popular air is the following, written by Zachris Topelius, whose fairy tales are now being translated into English--

SINUN MAASI (_Finnish_)

Laps' Suomen, ala vaihda pois Sun maatas ihanaa!

Sill' leipa vieraan karvast 'ois Ja sana karkeaa.

Sen taivas, paiv' on loistoton, Sen sydan sulle outo on.

Laps' Suomen, ala vaihda pois Sun maatas ihanaa!

Laps' Suomen, kaunis sull' on maa Ja suuri, loistokas.

Veet valkkyy, maat sen vihoittaa, Sen rant 'on maineikas.

Yo kirkas, paiva lampoinen Ja taivas tuhattahtinen, Laps' Suomen, kaunis sull 'on maa Ja suuri, loistokas.

Laps' Suomen, armas maasi taa Siis muista ainiaan!

Sull 'onnea ja elamaa Ej muuall' ollenkaan.

Jos minne tiesi olkohon, Niin juures' synnyinmaa.s.sas' on Laps' Suomen, armas maasi taa Siis muista ainiaan!

DITT LAND (_Swedish_)

O barn af Finland, byt ej bort Din adla fosterjord!

En framlings brod ar hrdt och torrt, Och klanglost ar hans ord.

Hans sol ar blek, hans himmel gr, Hans hjerta kan ej ditt forst.

O barn af Finland, byt ej bort Din adla fosterjord.

O Finland's barn, ditt land ar G.o.dt, Ditt land ar stort och skont.

Dess jord ar gron, dess haf ar bltt, Dess strand af ara kront.

Dess natt ar ljus, dess sol ar klar, Dess himmel tusen stjernor bar.

O Finland's barn, ditt land ar G.o.dt, Ditt land ar stort och skont.

Och derfor, barn af Finland, minns Ditt adla fosterland!

Ej ro, ej lif, ej lycka finns I fjerran frn dess strand.

Hvarhelst din vag i verlden gr, Din rot ar der din vagga str.

Och derfor, barn af Finland, minns Ditt adla fosterland!

THY LAND[B]

(_English_)

O child of Finland, wherefore fly Thy n.o.ble Fatherland?

The stranger's bread is hard and dry, And harsh his speech and hand; His skies are lead, his heart is dead Thy heart to understand.

O child of Finland, wherefore fly Thy n.o.ble Fatherland?

O Finland's heir, thy land is fair And bright from bound to bound; Her seas serene; no gayer green On tree or lea is found.

Her sun's a blaze of golden rays, Her night an eve star-crowned.

O Finland's heir, no land more rare Or n.o.bly fair is found.

Then, child of Finland, ne'er forget Thy n.o.ble Fatherland; For peace of mind is not to find Upon a stranger's strand.

To that bright earth that gave thee birth Thou owest heart and hand.

Then fealty swear to Finland fair, Our famous Fatherland.

We dined at several restaurants in _Helsingfors_; for, in the summer, the Finlanders live entirely out of doors, and they certainly make the most of the fine weather when they have it. Perhaps our brightest dining-place was on the island of _Hogholmen_, to which little steamers ply continually; but as we arrived at the landing-stage when a vessel had just left, we engaged a boat to row us across. It was a typical Finnish boat, pointed at both ends, wide in the middle, and a loving couple sitting side by side rowed us over. They were not young, and they were not beautiful; in fact, they looked so old, so sunburnt, and so wrinkled, that we wondered how many years over a hundred they had completed. But, judging by the way they put their backs into the work, they could not have been as ancient as they appeared.

[Ill.u.s.tration: OUR SHIP IN WINTER.]

One of the first words one hears in Finland is _straxt_, which means "immediately," and we soon found it was in universal use. No order is complete without the word _straxt_ as an addition, and, naturally, the stranger thinks what a remarkably punctual and generally up-to-time sort of people the Finns must be. But the voyager seems born to be disappointed. No Finn ever hurried himself for anybody or anything; the word _straxt_ means, at least, a quarter of an hour, and the visitor may consider himself lucky if that quarter of an hour does not drag itself out to thirty minutes.

A man asks for his bill. _Straxt_ is the reply. He suggests his luggage being fetched downstairs, reminds the landlord that the _karra_ (little carts) were ordered for noon, now long past.

"_Straxt, straxt_," is smilingly answered, but the landlord does not move--not he; what is to be gained by being in a hurry? why fidget? an hour hence is quite as good as the present quickly fleeting by. So soothing his conscience by the word _straxt_, he leisurely goes on with his work, and as "like master, like man," those below him do not hurry either, for which reason most things in Finland are dominated more by chance than ruled by time.

It is annoying, it is often exasperating, but there is a superb calm, or shall we say obstinacy, about the Finnish character that absolutely refuses to be bustled, or hurried, or jostled.

They are a grave, solid people, who understand a joke even less than the Scotch, while such a thing as chaff is absolutely unintelligible to them. Life to the Finns seems a serious matter which can be only undertaken after long thought and much deliberation. They lose much pleasure by their seriousness. They sing continually, but all their music is sad; they dance sometimes, but the native dances are seldom boisterous as in other lands. They read much and think deeply, for unlike the Russians, only 25 per cent. of whom can read, in Finland both rich and poor are wonderfully well educated; but they smile seldom, and look upon jokes and fun as contemptible. Education is one constant enquiry, and knowledge is but an a.s.similation of replies.

The men and women enjoy great freedom. Educated in the same schools, they are brought up to ignore s.e.x; the young folk can go out for a whole day together, walking or snow-shoeing, skating or sledging, and a chaperon is unheard of; yet in all social gatherings, as an ant.i.thesis to this, we find an unexpected restraint. At a party the men all congregate in one room, or at one end of the table, leaving the women desolate, while the young of both s.e.xes look askance at one another, and, in the presence of their elders, never exchange a word, in spite of their boasted freedom. Society is paradoxical.

More than that, by way of discouraging healthy chatter and fun among the young people, the elder folk always monopolise conversation, two persons invariably discussing some particular point, while twenty sit silently round listening--result, that young men and women know little of one another if they only meet in society, and the _bon camaraderie_ supposed to result from the system of mixed education is conspicuous by its absence. Everything is against it. The very chairs are placed round a room in such a way that people must perforce sit in a circle--that dreaded circle which strikes terror into the heart of a British hostess.

Even on the balconies an enormous table, with chairs packed closely round it, is constantly in evidence, so that the circle is even to be found there, with the consequence that every one sits and stares at every one else, except the people who may or may not keep up a conversation. The strange part of the whole arrangement is that Finlanders do not understand how prim they really are socially, and talk of their freedom, and their enormous emanc.i.p.ation, as they sit at table, where the greater number of those present never dare venture to say anything, while the young men and women rarely even sit together. They apparently make up for lost time when away from their elders.

The people are most hospitable, to strangers particularly so, and certainly the flowers and the books and sweets we were given, to say nothing of invitations received to stay in houses after an hour's acquaintance, to dine or sup, to come here or go there, were quite delightful. They are generous to a remarkable degree, and hospitable beyond praise. This is a Northern characteristic like honesty; both of which traits are sadly lacking in the Southern peoples. Kindness and thoughtfulness touch a warm chord in the heart of a stranger, and make him feel that Finland is a delightful country, and her people the staunchest of friends. But, after this divergence, let us return to our first drive.

Those slouching men in long jack boots, butchers' blouses of white and shapeless form, are Russian soldiers. Soldiers, indeed! where is the smartness, the upright bearing, the stately tread and general air of cleanliness one expects in a soldier? These men look as if they had just tumbled out of their beds and were still wearing night-shirts; even the officers appeared strange to our English ideas, although medals adorned their b.r.e.a.s.t.s and swords hung at their sides even when bicycling.

"Do you mix much with the Russians?" we asked one of our new friends.

"Hardly at all; they have conquered us, they rule us, they plant whole regiments among us, and they don't even take the trouble to understand us, or to learn our language. No, we keep to ourselves, and they keep to themselves; our temperaments are so different we could never mix."

And this is true. The position of Alsace-Lorraine towards Germany is much the same as that of Finland towards Russia. Both have been conquered by a country speaking another language to their own, and of totally foreign temperament to themselves. After forty years the people of Alsace-Lorraine are as staunchly French as before, and the same applies to the position of the Finlanders.

Life in _Helsingfors_ is very pleasant for strangers in the summer; but for the natives it has no attraction. Accustomed to a long and ice-bound winter, the moment May comes every family, possessed of any means, flits to the country for three or four months. All the schools close for twelve weeks, and the children, who have worked hard during the long dark winter, thoroughly enjoy their holiday. Summer comes suddenly and goes swiftly. The days then are long, as the nights are short, for in the north of Finland there is a midnight sun, and even in _Helsingfors_, during June, he does not set till about eleven, consequently it remains light all night--that strange weird sort of light that we English folk only know as appertaining to very early morning. As we sat finishing supper about ten o'clock at the Kapellet, we were strongly reminded of the light at three A.M. one morning, only a week or two before, when we had b.u.mped to Covent Garden to see the early market, one of London's least known but most interesting sights, in our friendly green-grocer's van, with Mr. and Mrs. Green-grocer for sole companions.

The Kapellet is a delightful restaurant in the chief street of _Helsingfors_, standing among trees, under which many seats and tables are placed, and where an excellent military band plays during meal times. Strange meal times they are too, for, after early coffee and roll, every one breakfasts between ten and twelve on meats with beer or wine, not an egg and fish breakfast such as we have, but a regular solid meal. Finlanders in towns dine from two to four, and sit down to supper between eight and ten, so that they have three solid meat meals a day--probably a necessity in such a climate--and drink wines and spirits at each of these functions, which so closely resemble one another that the stranger would have difficulty in knowing which was supper and which was breakfast.

In the summer mostly men frequent the Kapellet, for their wives and families are away at their villas on the islands. Apparently any one can build a villa on any island, and the moment he does so, like Robinson Crusoe, he is master of the situation. One does not require to pay more than a trifle for the site, and a beautiful wooden house can be erected in about two months for two or three hundred pounds. Parents who are well off generally have a nice island and a comfortable house, and when their sons and daughters marry, they build thereon small villas for them; thus whole families, scattered during the greater part of the year, come together every summer.

For this reason family life in Finland is delightful. There are many thousand islands--millions, one might almost say--and therefore plenty of room for all. Finland is like a sponge; the lakes and islands being represented by the holes.

We lived in a flat at _Helsingfors_. Frau von Lilly's brothers had a delightful _etage_, with a dear old housekeeper, and thither we went.

Mina looked after our wants splendidly, and smiled upon us all day as strange sort of beings because we liked so much _hett vatten_ (hot water). She was always opening our door and walking in, for no one ever dreams of knocking in Finland; standing before us, her hands folded on her portly form, she smiled and smiled again. _Mycket bra_ (very nice), we repeated incessantly to her joy--but still she stayed, whether anxious to attend to our wants or to have a look at Englishwomen and their occupations we know not; one thing, however, is certain, that without a word in common we became fast friends. Her beautifully polished floors made us afraid to walk across them, and the large rooms, broad beds, and lots of towels came as a real treat after nearly five days at sea. Every one lives in flats in the towns, there are only a few private houses, and therefore long stone flights of stairs lead to the "appartement" as they do in Germany, while the rooms, with their enormous stoves and endless doors, remind one continually of _das Vaterland_.

From our flat, which stood high, we had a most glorious view.

Immediately in front was the students' club, while beyond were the Parliament Houses, charming churches, the fine park given to the town by Henrik Borgstrom, the lovely harbour, the fortifications, and the deep, dark sea.

As the sun set we revelled in the glories visible from our balcony, and thoroughly enjoyed the charms of the Northern night. Midnight suns must be seen to be understood, the gorgeous lights are enthralling. Our souls were steeped in that great silence.

It is during such nights as these that vegetation springs into existence. A day is like a fortnight under that endless sky of light.