The Finlanders call a bear Karu

Those who inhabit the frontiers of Finland, have adopted some of the expressions of their neighbours, as happens to every people: but when two nations give to things of common use, to objects which are continually before their eyes, names absolutely different, it affords a strong presumption, that one of them is not a colony from the other. The Finlanders call a bear Karu, the Laplanders Muriet: the sun in the Finnish language is called Auringa, in the Lapland tongue Beve. Here is not the least analogy. The inhabitants of Finland, and Swedish Lapland, formerly worshipped an idol whom they called Iumalac, and since the reign of Gustavus Adolphus, to whom they are indebted for the appellation of Lutherans, they call Jesus Christ the son of Iumalac. The Muscovite or Russian Laplanders, are at present thought to be of the Greek church; but those who wander about the mountains of the North Cape, are satisfied with adoring one God under certain rude forms, as has been the ancient custom of all the nations called Nomades, or wandering nations.

The History of Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, by Voltaire

Those Finns who fired guns after a dead man

Unhappily all ghosts are not open to persuasion, and see through the designs of the mourners, and with them severer measures have to be resorted to. Among the Sclavs of the Danube and the Czechs, the bereaved, after the funeral, on going home turn themselves about after every few steps and throw sticks, stones, mud, even hot coals in the direction of the churchyard, so as to frighten the spirit back to the grave so considerately provided for it. A Finnish tribe has not even the decency to wait till the corpse is covered with soil; they fire pistols and guns after it as it goes to its grave, and lies in it.

[...] Those Finns who fired guns after a dead man had another expedient for holding him fast, and that was to nail him down in his coffin. The Arabs tie his legs together. The Wallacks drive a long nail through the skull; and this usage explains the many skulls that have been exhumed in Germany thus perforated. The Icelanders, when a ghost proved troublesome, opened the grave, cut off the dead man’s head, and made the body sit on it. That, they concluded, would effectually puzzle it how to get about.

Curiosities of Olden Times, by S. Baring-Gould

Bombs and other explosives were to be used in Finland

Christiania, June 24, 1917. The police on Saturday arrested a certain Baron von Rautenfels, who declares that he was born in Finland, but is now a German subject, and two Finlanders. At their lodgings and in the luggage of these persons the police found nearly a ton of explosives of a very powerful variety. Part of these explosives was made up to resemble coal briquettes, and was all ready to be mixed with the coal in ships' bunkers. The baron's luggage also contained cigarettes and tobacco mixed with carborundum, which can be used to ruin engines or machinery. The baron and the other arrested persons declare that the bombs and other explosives were to be used in Finland.

Raemaekers' Cartoon History of the War, Volume 3, by Louis Raemaekers

He ascended Mount Avasaxa, in Finland

Mr. Mickley set sail on the 5th of June, 1869, being at that time a few months past his seventieth year. He remained abroad for three years, visiting every country in Europe, ascending the Nile to the first cataract, passing through the Suez Canal, and across a portion of Asia Minor and Palestine. He made two trips to Northern Sweden to behold the spectacle of the midnight sun. Being a week too late on the first season, he tried it again the following year. Passing through the entire length of the Gulf of Bothnia, and ascending the Tornea River, he entered Lapland, crossing the Arctic circle and penetrating the Arctic zone in a sledge-journey of seventy miles. The indomitable old traveller pushed on until he reached a small lumber-village named Pajala. On the night of June 23, 1871, crossing the river with a small party of Swedes and Finns, he ascended Mount Avasaxa, in Finland. At this altitude, he says, "the sky happened to be clear in the direction of the sun, and he shone in all his glory as the clock struck twelve."

JOSEPH J. MICKLEY. Lippincott's Magazine Of Popular Literature And Science, Old Series, Vol. 36--New Series, Vol. 10, July 1885

Finland, a province most unhappily under Russia's bigoted, despotic sway

On my trip north, I sailed over the Gulf of Bothnia which, the reader will recollect, separates Sweden from Finland, a province most unhappily under Russia's bigoted, despotic sway; and while at Haparanda, I was seized with a desire to visit Torneå, in Finland. I was well aware that if I attempted to do so by the regular routes on land, it would be necessary to pass the Russian customhouse, where officers would be sure to examine my passport; and knowing, as the whole liberal world now more than ever knows, that a person of Jewish faith finds the merest sally beyond the Russian border beset with unreasonable obstacles, I decided to walk across the wide marsh in the northern part of the Gulf, and thus circumvent these exponents of intolerance. Besides, I was curious to learn whether, in such a benighted country, blacking and ink were used at all. I set out, therefore, through the great moist waste, making my way without much difficulty, and in due time arrived at Torneå, when I proceeded immediately to the first store in the neighborhood; but there I was destined to experience a rude, unexpected setback. An old man, evidently the proprietor, met me and straightway asked, "Are you a Jew?" and seeing, or imagining that I saw, a delay (perhaps not altogether temporary!) in a Russian jail, I withdrew from the store without ceremony, and returned to the place whence I had come. Notwithstanding this adventure, I reached Stockholm in due season, the trip back consuming about three weeks; and during part of that period I subsisted almost entirely on salmon, bear's meat, milk, and knäckebröd, the last a bread usually made of rye flour in which the bran had been preserved. All in all, I was well pleased with this maiden-trip; and as it was then September, I returned to Loebau to spend one more winter at home.

Sixty Years in Southern California 1853-1913 Containing the Reminiscences of Harris Newmark

Finland was becoming a German province

While these military operations were being carried on, Finland was becoming a German province. Late in March an American and an English officer, visiting General Mannerheim at Vasa upon orders from their legations, were threatened by Finnish White Guard officers with personal violence and turned out of the dining room of the chief hotel. This incident was described as characteristic of the feeling existing among the majority of Finns. On April 1 Vasabladet, the chief Vasa newspaper, wrote: "No military or other similar persons from any of the countries at war with Germany ought to be allowed to stay within the borders of our country so long as we, with the help of God and Germany, are fighting our hard fight for liberty, order, and justice against the barbarous ally of the western powers." It appears from a case reported on April 26 that the viséing of foreign passports by Finnish officials depends now upon the consent of the Berlin authorities.

Finland was proclaimed a republic in December, 1917. It has always been one of the most democratic countries in Europe. It is asserted, nevertheless, that the experiences through which the former grand duchy has passed in the last six months have converted many classes of the population to monarchism. A Stockholm dispatch dated May 8 declared that a monarchy would probably be proclaimed in Finland, and that Duke Adolph Frederick of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, uncle of the Crown Princess of Germany, would be appointed King.

Current History, Vol. VIII, No. 3, June 1918. A Monthly Magazine of the New York Times

Touched Russian soil at Abo, the ancient capital of Finland

“To-morr punkt at 'leven wir schiff for St. Petersburg,” was the polyglot announcement by which all of us, Swedes, Germans, English, and one solitary American, were given to understand at what hour on the ensuing day we were to commence our voyage from Stockholm for the Russian capital. With praiseworthy punctuality the steam was up at the appointed hour of eleven, and as our steamer shot out into the Baltic we took our farewell view of Stockholm, the “City of Piles.” As we steamed northward we dashed through archipelago after archipelago of islands, some with bold and rocky shores, and others sloping greenly down to the tranquil sea. Having passed the Aland Islands, one of which, not thirty miles from the coast of Sweden, has been seized and strongly fortified by her powerful and unscrupulous neighbor, we turned into a narrow inlet, and touched Russian soil at Abo, the ancient capital of Finland.

Here we made our first acquaintance with those fascinating gentry, whom his Imperial Majesty deputes to watch that nothing treasonable or contraband finds entrance into his dominions. Our intercourse here was, however, brief, our passports merely being demanded, and permission granted us to go on shore while the steamer was detained. At Cronstadt and St. Petersburg we formed a more intimate if not more agreeable acquaintance with these functionaries. Setting out again we coasted eastward up the Gulf of Finland, passing the grim fortress of Sveaborg, with its eight hundred guns, and garrison of fifteen thousand men, and shot up the beautiful bay to Helsingfors, one of the great naval stations of Russia. Touching at Revel, on the opposite shore of the Gulf of Finland, we ran due east up the Gulf, encountering the great Russian summer fleet, which was performing its annual manœuvres, and on the morning after leaving Helsingfors came in sight of the shipping and fortifications of Cronstadt. As we crept slowly up the narrow and winding channel, by which alone the harbor can be reached, and passed successively the grim lines of batteries which command every portion of it, we were forced to confess that it formed a fitting outpost to a great military power. 

Recollections Of St. Petersburg. Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. 22, March, 1852, Volume 4