h a
rocky and indented coast and a barren and mountainous interior; fishing
is the main industry of the inhabitants, who are chiefly Lapps.

FINNS, the native inhabitants of Finland, and originally of the
districts in Sweden and Norway as well, are of the Mongolian type, and
were settled in Europe before the arrival of the Slavic and Teutonic
races.

FIORDS, deep indentations forming inlets of the sea, especially on
the coast of Norway, overlooked by high mountains and precipitous cliffs.

FIRDAUSI or FIRDUSI, the pseudonym of Abu-'l Kasim Mansur, the
great poet of Persia, born near Tus, in Khorassan; flourished in the 10th
century B.C.; spent 30 years in writing the "Shah Nama," a national
epic, but having been cheated out of the reward promised by Sultan
Mahmud, he gave vent to bitter satire against his royal master and fled
the court; for some time he led a wandering life, till at length he
returned to his birthplace, where he died; a complete translation of his
great poem exists in French.

FIRE-WORSHIP, worship of fire, especially as embodied in the sun
viewed as the most express and emphatic exhibition of beneficent divine
power.

FIRMAMENT, a name given to the vault of the sky conceived as a solid
substance studded with stars, so applied in the Vulgate.

FIRMAN, a Persian word denoting a mandate or decree; among the Turks
the term is applied to such decrees as issue from the Ottoman Porte, and
also to passports, the right of signing which lies with the Sultan or a
Pasha; the word is also used in India to denote a permit to trade.

FIRMIN, ST., bishop of Amiens, who suffered martyrdom in 287.
Festival, Sept. 25.

FIRST GENTLEMAN OF EUROPE, George IV., from his fine style and
manners.

FISCHART, JOHANN, a German satirist; an imitator of Rabelais
(1545-1589).

FISCHER, ERNST KUNO BERTHOLD, a German historian of philosophy, born
at Sandewalde, Silesia; as a student of Erdmann at Halle he was smitten
with the love of philosophy, and gave his life to the study of it; after
graduating he went to Heidelberg and there established himself as a
private lecturer, in which capacity he was eminently successful, but in
1853 was deprived of his status by Government, probably on account of the
alleged Pantheistic trend of his teaching; in 1856, however, he was
elected to the chair of Philosophy in Jena, and 16 years later was called
back to Heidelberg as Zeller's successor; his chief work is a "Hi