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FOREIGN ARTICLES.

De Poëfi Finnica. Abo.

Series of four curious academical Dissertations, held under the aufpices of the learned profeffor Henry Gabriel Porthan, There are three different fpecies of poetry in the Finlandish tongue: the Finlandifh runes, rhymes, and blank verfe. The first of these is the oldest and original one; it is called in the fingle number, runo; and in the plural, runot; and confiits of a kind of trochaic verfe of eight fyllables. Every verfe ufually contains a fentence, or at least part of a sentence; which is in the fecond verse either repeated and illuftrated in another figure or expreffion, or diverfified by fome contrast.

Thefe illiterate and untutored poets, it seems, yet ftudy correctness and elegance of diction: and employ figures, inverfions, and a variety of other refinements.

The poets in queftion, are found among the country people of both sexes, especially in Savolax, Carelia, and East-Bottnia; for in other parts of the country, particularly along the coaft, the Swedifh language and manners have already greatly encroached on the Finlandifh.

The Mafters of Runes, or Runnoniekat, as thay are called in Finland, form themselves merely by listening to, and getting one another's poems by heart. Their compofitions are commonly extemporary performances or impromptus, and never written; yet they will correct and polish not only their own, but each other's compofitions.

The fubject of their fongs are, the various incidents of life; lofs of friends, for instance; drinking songs, and fatires. Very few of these poems, indeed, will, or can furvive their authors, or extend his fame beyond his own parish. The oldeft poems have been loft; and the oldest now extant, were composed about the time of the Reformation.

Their method in finging is fingular, and deferves to be noticed. The finging poet has always an affiftant at his fide; when he recites, declaims, or fings a verfe, this affiftant joins him in the last words; and repeats the verse by himfelf, once more; often subjoining a few words by way of applause or confirmation: for inftance, Indeed, I fay, it was well hit!' In the mean time the bard meditates another verfe, and in his turn rejoins his affiftant's laft word, in order to recite the new verfe. Both are fitting near or oppofite each other, fo as to touch one another's knees and hands; and with folemn penfive looks move with their bodies forwards to each other, furrounded by the audience.

Dancing is unknown among the Finlanders, except among such as have learned it from the Swedes. The above fongs are commonly fung at entertainments; and the joint poets and fongfters, at the end of the song, folace their hard fatigues with a cup of beer. It often happens that a number of people travelling to a fair and meeting at an inn on the way, pafs the night with finging; which is almost the only means for publishing these fongs in other provinces. The air or declamation is very fimple: fometimes the place of an affiftant is fupplied by a stringed inftrument, of which they have three, and among these an old fashioned country guitarra, with fix ftrings.

In Savolax, Carelia, and Cajaneburg, corn is ftill very frequently ground in hand-mills, by women, who soothe their labour by finging a variety of fongs; tales, love-fongs, and fatires, ufually compofed by women; fome of them characteristical. For instance, by way of praifing a good housewife, the baked good bread, brewed good beer of fweet malt; heard the cock awake, and the fon of the hen ftalk from his rooft ;'or elfe, 'fhe obferved the moon, and the great bear; was not afraid of wolves and favage beafts, in going to the bath: took hot pots not with the tongs, but with her hands, and placed them aright.'

Another fpecies of Runic poetry, are Runes defigned for charms, against the bite of ferpents, burns, or wounds; for procuring fuccefs in hunting or fifhing; for annoying one's enemies or defeating their schemes; for recovering goods, either loft or ftolen; for rendering one's felf invulnerable; for curing fick cattle, &c. These runes are relics of Paganifin, but were greatly altered in Popish times; and are now, for fear of the clergy and magistrates, kept very fecret. They are called Lugut, (lectiones) becaufe they are only recited; fometimes aloud with fome enthufiam, stamping of feet, contorfion of body; fometimes foftly; with fpitting, blowing, &c. fometimes ftanding, fometimes bending on the knees, with bare head, and the hat in hand; they are alfo styled fynnyt (origines f. archæologiæ) from their pretending to discover, by these runes, the fecret origin of the difeafes, which they impute to enchantment and witchcraft. To thefe fpecific runes, domestic medicines are often added; but the chief virtue they afcribe to the runes. At the runes are kept very fecret, our author ufually got at them by treating their poffeffors with fome drink; they commonly are, in a great degree unintelligible, from their antiquity, from their allufions to things now forgotten, and from the many variations introduced by various perfons during fo long a period of time.

Franz Grifelini, &c. Verfuch einer Politischen und Natürlichen Geschichte des Temefwarer Banats, in Briefen an Standes perfonen und Gelehrte;

An Attempt of towards a Political and Natural Hiftory of the Banat of Temeswar, (in Hungary); in a Series of Letters, addreffed to Perfons of Rank and Learning. Quarto, with a large and excellent Map, and 6 half sheets of Copper plates. Vienna. (German)

AN accurate and interesting defcription of a remarkable country,

hitherto little known.

The two first letters contain a concife yet full history of the banat, from the fettlement of the province of Dacia Ripenfis, in the year of Christ 101, to the year 1716, when Temefwar was by prince Eugene taken from the Turks.

Temefwar feems to have become diftinct from Hungary, because the country was formerly governed by an independent king, who refided at Cfanad, before it was conquered by St. Stephen; who appointed Gerhard Sagredo, the first bishop of Clannad.

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The fecond epocha of this hiftory begins with the year 1456, when Sultan Mahomet II. was defeated by John Hunyades for fince that time the Turks continually endeavoured to conquer and fubdue the country, in which they fucceeded at laft in 1553, after the country had, in 1538, already been separated from Hunand made a part of the new Tranfylvanian kingdom. gary, This fecond period is fucceded by that in which the country was governed by Turkish baffas, till 1716.

The fifth letter continues the hiftory down to the year 1777, and of course gives an account of the new divifion, made in 1775, of the province into four districts, Cladat, Temefwar, Werfchez, and Lugos; but takes no notice of the diffolution of its diftinét government, and its incorporation with the crown of Hungary in 1778. But this letter gives a full account of the patriotic labours of field-marfhal Francis de Mercy, by whom the desert of Temeswar was, from 1716 to 1733, transformed into a new, fettled, and profperous state.

The fixth letter contains fome geographical account, illuftrated by an excellent and accurate new map; with fome conjectures relating to the population, which is already supposed to amount to 450,000 perfons, though by no means as yet adequate to the extent and natural richness of a country containing 443 geographical fquare leagues, and equal to the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, in fize, and it feems not much inferior in point of fertility.

In this letter we also meet with a valuable account of the gypsies, or faraons, from the author's own obfervations. Thefe people fpeak with ftrangers the Walachian language, but among themfelves another jargon, entirely distinct from all other languages hitherto known; of which, however, the author has not given us any fpecimen. They refemble the ancient Egyptians in their features; in their inclination to melancholy; and in many parts of their manners and customs, except cleanlinefs. The author affures us, from his own attentive obfervation, that the lafcivious dances of Ifis, the worship of onions, many famous Egyptian fu→ perftitions and fpecifics, and even the Egyptian method of hatching eggs by means of dung, are still in ufe among the female gypfies in Temeswar. He is therefore inclined to credit their own affertion of their Egyptian origin; and conjectures that these people came with the Roman colonifts from Italy into this country; because, among the Roman monuments difcovered in Temefwar, many Egyptian idols are found; and because, under the reign of Auguftus, the priets and impoftors were indeed perfecuted by the fenate, and expelled from the city, but not entirely banished the empire.

The feventh letter treats of the manners and customs of the Wallachians in Temefwar, whofe education is exceedingly neglected, and whofe Grecian priefts are in the highest degree ignorant and illiterate.

Their origin and language are the fubject of the eighth letter, in which the author declares himself of the opinion that the language of the Wallachians, like that of the modern Italians, is the original language of the country people of Italy in the first century of the Chriftian æra. The lift of the Wallachian and Italian words neceffary for fupporting this conjecture, he has borrowed from Del Chiaro's work; though he affures us that it might be greatly enlarged, and that the relation of both idoms extends to almost all words, fuch only excepted as have been from time to time adopted by the Wallachians from their foreign mafters, but never Lati

nized.

The ninth and laft letter contains copies, drafts, and illuftrations of Roman infcriptions, coins, and idols; among which that of Hercules was a favourite with the Roman Daci, who indeed feem to have worshiped Trajan as their Hercules. Here we also learn with regret, that the maps and infcriptions in count Marfigli's magnificent work on the Danube, are very far from being accurate. Three large walls, connecting the river Marofch with the VOL. L. Auguft, 1780, Danube

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Danube, are by the country people called Roman, but by our aữ. thor confidered as Avarian works.

The fecond part is entirely dedicated to natural history, and contains a series of letters, moftly addreffed to abbate Spallanzani, except the twelfth and laft, which is addreffed to profeffor Scopoli. They contain many original, and many useful informations, concerning the nature of the country, its air and foil, its mountains; their various ftrata, their minerals, mineral waters, baths, and rivers.

The country is, upon the whole, fertile; watered by a great number of confiderable rivers, fuch as the Beg, Temes, Biftra, Cferna, Carath, Betfova, Nera, Fogonith, which after dividing it into many vallies, run either into the Maros, or the Danube. It ftill abounds in many unhealthy fens and bogs, on the draining of which great fums are expended; in unexhauftible quantities of turf, of which great use is made; in many large and thick forests; and has fome remarkable caverns, abundance of porcellain earth and potters clay; but no traces of any volcano. The metals found here, are gold, filver, copper, iron, and lead. Gold is now, as it was already under Trajan's Collegium Aurarium, washed in fingle grains, and small particles, from the ftrata between the deep vallies and the fand of the rivers. This gold fand is now collected by the gypfies after a large fwell or fall of the rivers, butunskilfully, and in fmall quantities: thofe annually collected in the districts of Ujpalanka, Mehadia, and Caransebes, amount only to the value of 600 or 700 ducats; and thofe collected in the other rivers, to 300 or 400 ducats more. Thefe quantities, however, would probably be encreased, by a more skilful management in wathing, and by a more equitable pay; for the miner's board at Oraviza, pays the poor gypties only two florins for as much pure gold as is worth a ducat.

The filver here extracted from coper and lead, in 1775, amounted to 2000 marcs. But copper, lead, and iron, are the most confiderable produce of the mines of the four diftricts of Oraviza, Dognaska, Moidava, and Saska, The first and last of thefe diftricts produce between 2000 and 3000; the fecond between 3000 and 4000 hundred weight of pure copper, paid by the government at the rate of 32 florins per hundred; and the third diftrict only about 1200 hundred weight, but of a fuperior quality, and paid at the rate of 36 florins per hundred weight.

The most famous among the great variety of baths and mineral waters in this country, are thofe near Meadia; they were already known and very frequently ufed under Trajan, by the Romans, and adorned with many monuments of their grandeur; and are here accurately defcribed. The degrees of warmth of the different baths are various, from 99° to 119°, by Fahrenheit's thermometer. They contain fulphur and fixed air or gas.

The last letter contains a defcription of a new fpecies of oeftrus, called the Columbach-fly, from a Servian caftle fituated on the right banks of the Danube. Thefe flies appear twice a year; the first time, ufually towards the end of April; and the second time, towards the middle of May; are greatly favoured by dry weather and flight easterly winds; but difperfed or killed by rain and strong winds. They fly in vaft fwarms refembling a thick cloud at a diftance: they attack every fpecies of cattle, and in every part of their bodies; penetrate through every aperture, but chiefly through

the

the genitals,and caufe the most intolerable pains, as fufficiently appears from their struggles; and very often death itself even in the first attack, fometimes a few hours after, and fometimes the next night; and frequently make great havock among the herds. Straw fires, and wathing the afflicted parts with a decoction of wormwood, are the only remedies hitherto difcovered, though by no means adequate, Our author afcribes the deadly effects of their ftings not to any particular poifon, but to the numberless wounds inflicted by whole fwarms of these infects, on fingle beats.

FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. Ueber den Genius des Socrates; or, on the Genius of Socrates, by L. I. C. Jufti. 8vo. Leipzig. (German.)

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Very laborious confutation of an anonymous paradoxical effay on the tranfcendent character, and especially on the genius of Socrates, inferted in a periodical work, the German Museum; in which the merits of that great man appear to have been overvalued; though this ought not to have induced a young man and a young writer, by a spirit of contradiction, now to attempt to depreciate it. Medium tenuere beati.

Les Contemporaines, ou Avantures des plus jolies Femmes de l' Age présent, recueillies par N* &publiées par Temothée Joly, de Lyon, Depofitaire de fes Manufcrits. 4 Vols. 12mo. (Paris.)

A new publication by M. Retif de la Bretonne; which will probably become voluminous, as it is intended to make fixteen volumes, and to contain one hundred ftories or tales, each embellished with a copper-plate.

Most of the author's heroines are perfons of the middling ranks in life, with whofe mode of feeing, acting, behaving, feeling, and dialect, he seems to be well acquainted. His ftyle is carelels and diffufe; but for his deficiency, in point of taste and correctness, he has amply atoned by a great variety of original inventions. Effai d'Agriculture, en forme d'Entretiens, fur la Nature & la Progreffion des Pépinieres, des Arbres étrangers, des Arbres fruitiers ; fur la Vigne et les Vendanges; fur les Labours des Terres, Semences et Recoltes de Grains, et fur plufieurs autres Difcuffions Champêtres ; par un Cultivateur à Vitry-fur-Seine. 12mo. (Paris)

A plain and useful performance, by a practical gentleman-far

mer.

La Henriade Vengée, avec la Reponse de M. B**, à chacune des principales Objections du Commentaire de la Beaumelle; la Preface de Frederic le Grand, Roi de Pruffe; l'Essai fur l'Epopée, traduit de l'Anglois par l'Abbé des Fontaines; un Supplement à cet Effai; des Stances Jur les Poetes Epiques, &c. &c. recueillis & redigés par M. D **, de C***. 12mo. (Paris)

An ufelefs compilation and re-publication of fome good pieces, often printed before, and fome indifferent ones hardly worth being printed at all.

Le Satire de A. Perfio Flacco, e la Satira di Sulpieno, trafpotate al Verfo Italiano e con varie Annotazioni illußrate da Marco Aurelio Sorano, Patrizio Veneto. 8vo. (Vinetia.)

Another, fomewhat more laborious, though not much more useful compilation.

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MONTHLY

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