They drink the votki raw, and in large quantities

That this part of Finland was but little cultivated was too evident, from the scanty and bad quality of the subsistence to be met with in all the villages through which we passed, and in which we were rarely able to procure any other species of provisions than the coarsest brown bread, baked as hard as a sailor's biscuit, or burnt rather to a cinder, which in appearance it pretty much resembled. Add to this a little fish, dried or salted, sour cream, and sometimes, though not always, salted butter — and you have the sum total of what may be expected in a Finnish village. Fortunately we had been informed of this scarcity before starting, and had laid in a tolerably good stock of tongues, chickens, and other good things, together with a small supply of eau de vie, which we thought would have been sufficient, with the addition of any other beverage we might chance to meet with ; but in this we were disappointed; we found nothing whatever but the ardent spirit called Votki : so that when our little stock of brandy was exhausted, we had no alternative but to resort to this native liquor, which we had heard much abused and execrated as a most villanous beverage, but which we did not find to deserve such a character. The flavour is more that of whiskey than any other spirit, is exceedingly fiery, but, when mixed with hot water and sugar, is by no means unpleasant.

John Barrow: Excursions in the North of Europe: Through Parts of Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway (1835)

They hunt the wild animals in various ways

Amusements are not rare among so cheerful a people, though they are not much given to dancing. They have many athletic sports, and the bear dance, from the strength required, may be considered one. It is practised sometimes by the peasants. It is performed on all fours, or the dancer rests on his hands as well as feet, and by leaps and jumps keeps time with the music. It is so fatiguing, that the dancer in a few minutes falls into a violent perspiration. 

Samuel Griswold Goodrich: 

Pictorial Geography of the World

 

There is no centre, no emulation, nothing to say,

On entering into Finland, every thing indicates that you have passed into another country, and that you have to do with a very different race from the Sclavonians. The Finns are said to come immediately from the North of Asia ; their language also is said to have no resemblance to the Swedish, which is an intermediate one between the English and the German. The countenances of the Finns, however, are generally perfectly German : their fair hair, and white complexions, bear no resemblance to the vivacity of the Russian countenance; but their manners are also much milder; the common people have a settled probity, the result of protestant instruction, and purity of manners. On Sundays, the young women are seen returning from sermon on horseback, and the young men following them. You will frequently receive hospitality from the pastors of Finland, who regard it as their duty to give a lodging to travellers, and nothing can be more pure or delightful than the reception you meet with in those families ; there are scarcely any noblemens' seats in Finland, so that the pastors are generally the most important personages of the country. In several Finnish songs, the young girls offer to their lovers to sacrifice the residence of the pastor, even if it was offered to them to share. This reminds
me of the expression of a young shepherd, " If I was a king, I would keep my sheep on horseback." The imagination itself scarcely goes beyond what is known.

The aspect of nature is very different in Finland to what it is in Russia; in place of the marshes and plains which surround St. Petersburg, you find rocks, almost mountains, and forests : but after a time, these mountain-, and those forests, composed of the same trees, the fir and the birch, become monotonous. The enormous blocks of granite which are seen scattered through the country, and on the borders of the high roads, give the country an air of vigor ; but there is very little life around these great bones of the earth, and vegetation begins to decrease from the latitude of Finland to the last degree of the animated world. We passed through a forest half consumed by fire; the north winds which add to the force of the flames, render these fires very frequent, both in the towns and in the country. Man has in all ways great difficulty in maintaining the struggle with nature in these frozen climates. You meet with few towns in Finland, and those few are very thinly peopled. There is no centre, no emulation, nothing to say, and very little to do, in a northern Swedish or Russian province, and during eight months of the year, the whole of animated nature is asleep.

Anne-Louise-Germaine Staël :Ten Years' Exile, Or Memoirs (1821)

The Finns call a bear karu

The Modern Part of an Universal History (1762)

Piles of rock, and fir trees and water

The passage up to Helsingfors from Åbo is full of charm to an imaginative mind and fancy, although, it is very possible that a plain John Bull, like one at my elbow as I write, may say, ' Why there is nothing that I can see but piles of rock, and fir trees and water.' That is very true, but still some eyes are not tired, for there is always some new shape, some curious appearance, some changing effect ; like the coast at Båhuslän, the sea is sometimes a stilly lake inside the granite wall, and without that wall it is beating and roaring as though it would fain break its bounds.

And so we very comfortably, and in the judgment of some of our party, I should say, happily, reach Helsingfors, the present capital of Finland.

Selina Bunbury:A Summer in Northern Europe: Including Sketches in Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Åland islands,Gothland &c. (1856)

Konsti elää kauwwan

Konsti elää kauwwan : eli Tarpeellisia ja hyödyllisiä neuwoja ja Ojjennus-nuoria terweyden warjelemisexi ja saada elää isohon ikähän (1786)

After Cronstadt the most important naval station on the Baltic

H[elsingfors] is the largest and handsomest town of Finland; the broad streets, consisting of houses painted externally yellow and green, intersect at right angles, and there are several fine public squares. Of the public buildings, the most striking are the residence of the governor, the senate-house, and the university buildings.

Chambers's Encyclopaedia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge for the people (1863)

Helsingfors stands in a very romantic situation

"Swedish dress of 1778"

Having passed several large lakes, with which the country abounds, and crossed the frozen surface of a bay of the Gulf of Finland, we arrived on the ensuing morning at Helsingfors, which stands in a very romantic situation, upon a rising shore, near several rocks and huge fragments of granite.

Agreeably to an invitation from the governor of Helsingfors, to whom we applied for further information respecting our passage across the Gulf of Bothnia, we repaired in the evening to a ball: the gentlemen and ladies all wore the new Swedish dress; and amused themselves chiefly with minuets and English country-dances. The company were very polite and attentive to us, and several accosted us in French.

William Coxe: Travels Into Poland, Russia, Sweden and Denmark.. (1792)

The Finland Mother

Robert Merry's Museum. Edited by S. G. Goodrich (1843)

Ratsumies

Pekka Juhani Hannikainen/Rudolph Waldemar Åkerblom: Kuvia lasten elämästä (1882)

Sitonian?

But it is by no means certain that this meant the Finlanders of Finland, the ancestors of whom were probably Sitonian; i.e., one of the Sitonum gentes mentioned in the last chapter. If so, and if the old Rahwas belonged to the same class, the description of the Sitones is the description of the Ugrians of the Gulphs of Finland and Bothnia, and that of the Fenni the description of some other population.

Robert Gordon Latham: The native races of the Russian empire (1854)

Make your dress for the trail absolutely comfortable

Adelia Belle Beard and Lina Beard: On the Trail. An Outdoor Book for Girls (1915)

Miten kolmen rouvan kävi

Eräänä kesäpäivänä läksi kolme kaupungin etevimpää rouvaa Laanilaan tervehtimään tuomari Polvianderin rouvaa. He olivat puetetut juhlapukuunsa ja hienoimpiin koristuksiinsa.

Erkkolan talosta tahtoivat päästä virran yli vastapäiseen tuomarin hoviin. Mutta vaan yksi venhe oli kotona ja sekin pieni. Myöskin väki oli poissa paitsi pieni tyttö, joka hoiti vielä pienempiä siskojansa. Mutta se lupasi kyllä soutaa rouvat yli ja sanoi jo ennenkin vieraita soutaneensa Laanilaan.

Rouvat istuivat venheesen, tyttö lykkäsi sen vesille, otti airot ja rupesi soutamaan, mutta virta oli nyt tavallista väkevämpi, sillä vesi oli kohonnut.

Tyttö souti soutamistaan, rouvat nuuskasivat ja tarinoivat, eivätkä mitään vaaraa huomanneet ennenkuin virta, väkevämpi kuin soutaja, oli kääntänyt venheen koskenniskan putousta kohden. Kohinan kuullessansa rouvat vasta älysivät vaaran ja rupesivat täyttä kurkkua huutamaan. Tyttö teki samoin ja heitti vielä peljästyksissä airotkin. ...

Sara Wacklin: Satanen muistelmia Pohjanmaalta (1872)

You must not forget to take your own harness

One great advantage in Finland is the not being obliged to send on a forebud. Post horses, supplied by the neighbouring farmers, are always in readiness at the stations; and so far from there being any dealy, you have frequently half a dozen Fins quarrelling for the honour of earning your kopeks, and displaying their respective ponies to the best advantage, in order to procure your selection in their favour.

John Murray: A hand-book for travellers in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Russia (1839)

Nothing can be softer or more harmonious

The Finns still retain their own language where their geographical situation cuts them off from frequent communication with the Teutonic and Cimbric races. "Both the Lapland and Finnish languages," says Dr. Clarke. ''are pleasing to the ear, and admirably suited to poetry, owing to their plenitude of vowels. They constantly reminded us of the Italian; and we might cite several instances of words common to all the three. Acerbi, as an Italian, sometimes understood words used by the natives of Finland. Nothing can be softer or more harmonious than the sounds uttered by a Finland peasant, when reciting his Pater Noster. It is full of labials, nasals, open vowels, and dipththongs, and is destitute even of a single guttural.''

Edward Isidore Sears: The National Quarterly Review (1863)

Hardy, patient and brave

The moral characteristics of the Finlanders command respect. They want the bold daring and eager ambition which distinguish men from romance celebrates and history records. But there is a strength in their virtue which, though not dazzling, is sure, and has ever rendered them valuable as subjects, and would make them important as foes.

The New Monthly Magazine, April 1855

Market in Turku, Finland 1830

"There is a floating-market here, like that of Stockholm, for the sale of vegetables. The women stand knee-deep in water; and a little parapet, raised on the bed of the river, serves to secure the market from being carried away by the stream, while it affords a dry walk for the customers."

"The contrast between Finland and Sweden is very striking. I could fancy myself in Asia. The peasants wear long loose robes of a coarse woollen manufacture, secured by a silken ceinture like the kummerbund of the Mussulmans. Their beards are thick and long. Their dress, except the European hat, resembles that of Beoparries from Cabul."

Charles Boileau Elliott: Letters from the north of Europe; or a journal of travels in Holland (1832)

Temperance visitor in Finland

"The character of the Finnish clergy is very much like that of the Swedish. Whilst there are some truly pious and excellent men, there are many who, though very interesting and agreeable and well-educated, have but little zeal, and whose preaching is far from being such as it should be."

Robert Baird: Visit to Northern Europe: Or, Sketches Descriptive, Historical... (1842)

The Finns are a race of people very distinct...

"The Finns are a race of people very distinct from their neighbours and masters, the Russians. They are of a middle stature, fair complexion, generally red hair, their beards shaven. Their hair, parted at top, is suffered to hang over their shoulders. A toughtful disposition, often darkening into melancholy, and a singular language, without prepositions, complete the picture of their national characteristic."

The London encyclopaedia (1839)