* One of the most common peculiarities of pronunciation is
     the substitution of the sound of ts for that of tch, which I
     found almost universal over a large area.

The process of Russification may be likewise observed in the manner of building the houses and in the methods of farming, which show plainly that the Finnish races did not obtain rudimentary civilisation from the Slavs.  Whence, then, was it derived?  Was it obtained from some other race, or is it indigenous?  These are questions which I have no means of answering.

A Positivist poet—­or if that be a contradiction in terms, let us say a Positivist who wrote verses—­once composed an appeal to the fair sex, beginning with the words: 

“Pourquoi, O femmes, restez-vous en arriere?”

The question might have been addressed to the women in these Finnish villages.  Like their sisters in France, they are much more conservative than the men, and oppose much more stubbornly the Russian influence.  On the other hand, like women in general, when they do begin to change, they change more rapidly.  This is seen especially in the matter of costume.  The men adopt the Russian costume very gradually; the women adopt it at once.  As soon as a single woman gets a gaudy Russian dress, every other woman in the village feels envious and impatient till she has done likewise.  I remember once visiting a Mordva village when this critical point had been reached, and a very characteristic incident occurred.  In the preceding villages through which I had passed I had tried in vain to buy a female costume, and I again made the attempt.  This time the result was very different.  A few minutes after I had expressed my wish to purchase a costume, the house in which I was sitting was besieged by a great crowd of women, holding in their hands articles of wearing apparel.  In order to make a selection I went out into the crowd, but the desire to find a purchaser was so general and so ardent that I was regularly mobbed.  The women, shouting “Kupi! kupi!” ("Buy! buy!"), and struggling with each other to get near me, were so importunate that I had at last to take refuge in the house, to prevent my own costume from being torn to shreds.  But even there I was not safe, for the women followed at my heels, and a considerable amount of good-natured violence had to be employed to expel the intruders.

It is especially interesting to observe the transformation of nationality in the sphere of religious conceptions.  The Finns remained pagans long after the Russians had become Christians, but at the present time the whole population, from the eastern boundary of Finland proper to the Ural Mountains, are officially described as members of the Greek Orthodox Church.  The manner in which this change of religion was effected is well worthy of attention.