The Finland Mother.
Finland is a cold and barren country to the north-west of Russia. The inhabitants are simple and kind-hearted to one another; to strangers they are extremely hospitable. They are frugal in their mode of living, and mild, patient and resigned in their tempers. United with great gentleness of character, the women have a remarkable turn for poetry. It is quite common for one of them, at a party, or entertainment, to compose extemporaneous songs, which are said to be full of feeling and pleasant fancy.
The affection of a Finland mother for her infant is remarkable. The latter is kept in a little box, which answers for a cradle. In this, the child is swung from the ceiling of the house. If, however, the mother has occasion to go to work in the fields, she takes the child and cradle with her. She takes them also to church; and carries them swung to her side, if she goes on a journey twenty or thirty miles.
As a specimen of the extemporaneous poetry of the Finland women, we give the following passage, which is as it was written down by a traveller, who happened to hear a mother addressing her infant:
“Sleep on, little bird of the groves. Sleep softly, pretty red-breast. God, in time, will wake you from your slumbers. He has given you branches to rest upon, and leaves to screen you from the cold blasts. Sleep is at the door, and asks in a mellow-toned voice, ‘Is there not a sweet child here, who is lying in its cradle, and is desirous of sleeping; a little child, enveloped in white garments, whose mild countenance speaks of the repose of heaven?’”
Comets.
As a very splendid comet lately made its appearance among us, it may be interesting to our readers to be told something about these mysterious heavenly bodies.
Comets are a class of celestial bodies, of which, comparatively, little is known; they appear occasionally in the heavens, approaching the sun from one quarter, and, having passed it, disappear in another. Unlike the planets, they seem confined to no particular regions of the heavens, but seem distributed indifferently through space. The planets are confined within certain limits, to the ecliptic, and are never seen beyond a certain distance north or south of it. In their revolutions about the sun, they all move from west to east; yet the comets are governed by neither of these laws, for they approach the sun, and sometimes pass near the ecliptic, sometimes near the poles; some move from west to east, others from east to west, the only law by which they seem influenced being that of gravitation.