Come, let us fly to Finland: we can build better nests there.

After hearing this, the Prince wondered how he could get a message carried to Finland. He heard one swallow cry to another: 'Come, let us fly to Finland: we can build better nests there.'

'Stop, kind friends!' cried the Prince. 'Will ye do something for me?' The birds consented, and he said:

'Take a thousand greetings from me to the wizard of Fnland, and ask him how I may restore a maiden who is changed into a flower to her own form.'

The princess on the glass hill and other stories

Swedish was now of no use

It was night when they reached Tammerfors, and to Ramsay's great suprise he found that Swedish was now of no use, as all the porters, cab-drivers, and most of the shopkeepers spoke only Finnish. What he thought even more remarkable was that Anders Ramsay did not know even the coins and numerals, and the cap fares had to be settled by holding out a handful of money and leaving it to the cab-driver to choose.

William Augustus Tilden: Sir William Ramsay, memorials of his life and work