1. In a people with an habitually encroaching frontier, no tribe described by earlier writers as lying beyond its present geographical area, is to be considered as having formed part of it (i.e. the family with an encroaching frontier).
2. In a people with an habitually receding frontier, many tribes described by earlier writers as lying beyond its present geographical area may (and often must) be considered as so doing.
Hence, in the present pair of instances, many localities once other than Turk are now Turk;[32] whilst, on the other hand, many localities once Ugrian are now other than Ugrian.[33]
What, then, was the maximum extension southward of the Ugrian area before its frontier receded under the triple encroachments of the Turks of Russian Asia, the Russians of Russia, and the Norwegians and Swedes of Scandinavia? Possibly over the whole Scandinavian peninsula, possibly as far as the lower Don, Volga, and Dnieper. These, however, are geographical frontiers; frontiers less important, and less capable of solution than the ethnological ones. Were the Ugrians ever conterminous with other divisions of the human race than those which they come in contact with at present? There is no evidence that they were.
What ancient nations were Ugrian? Omitting, for the present, the tribes of Scythia, we may answer that the following were certainly so.
1. The Æstii.—Modern Esthonians.
2. The Finni and Skrithifinni.
3. The Sitones.—The Ugrians of the Baltic were known to the classical writers through the Germans. The names prove this. The Æstii were the people east of those who described them. The term Finn is known to no Ugrian, but to their Gothic neighbours only. The notice of Tacitus as to the Sitones is similarly capable of explanation.
The Finland word kainu=a low country. A portion of the Finlanders call themselves Kainulainen (Singular), Kainulaiset (plural).
Now this sectional name in Finland is the general name in Scandinavia; so that the Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians call the Finlanders Kwæn. In Scandinavian, however, Qvinde=women. Hence, Tacitus was persuaded by his direct or indirect German informants that the Sitones were subject to female government.—"Suionibus Sitonum gentes continuantur. Cætera similes, uno differunt, quod fœmina dominatur."[34] Lest any doubt should remain as to Tacitus having been told of a country of women, I may add that—