From the church in Nurmes it is at least 60 km to the village of Jonkeri, which is the remotest corner of the area. Repola stands on one side and the Kuhmo Chapel on the other. There is an array of poor trails alternately crossing swamps and low plateaus that together form a vast, rugged wilderness. Along the first half of the route one sees at least an occasional house in the forest, but, with the exception of a run-down hut, there is no habitation whatsoever along the latter half. At first our guide was Pekka Viiliäinen, a real genius. Since childhood he had had grand thoughts and ambitions that still occupied his mind to the extent that they had knocked at least half of the common sense out of it. To listen to him, he had been around Finland quite a bit and also visited St. Petersburg and Stockholm many times. Shortly after Finland became part of Russia, he had the brilliant idea of showing Czar Alexander a strange war carriage that he himself had invented and to present the most humble letter of petition in which he asked the Czar in his mercy to make peace with all the Christian states and, together with them, punish Grand Turkey for its godlessness. His carriage, as regards the latter point, would be perfect for His Imperial Majesty's purposes. This Viiliäinen realized himself and that is why he went to the trouble of inventing what he had.

He related all of this in great detail in his letter of petition, and I had the honor of obtaining a copy of this letter, which is now with some of my notes in Helsinki. Viiliäinen keeps the letter and the plans for his carriage with him at all times. If I recall correctly, he is said to have ordered these documents buried with him should he die. Although in a short time it will be hard to obtain them, I have, unfortunately, been neglectful in copying the plans themselves. If I interpreted them correctly, they showed a team of horses pulling a carriage, with both horses and carriage under a fortress-shaped shelter of sheet iron. This covered them in every direction, being open only towards the ground. It was narrowed in front but somewhat wide in back - rather like an equilateral triangle with its point cut off. There were a few small openings in front and on the sides but they were no bigger than necessary - just big enough to see and shoot through. There were sharp bars in the front and on the sides which were attached lengthwise and a bit wider than the average scythe.

 

Everyone can well imagine the destruction such a carriage would wreak amid the ranks of Grand Turkey if one sat in it, charged the enemy and drove around a few times. One could do it just to pass the time or as if taking a normal drive: the driver would be completely safe in his metal fortress. If one of the enemy should be spared getting cut in two by the sharp scythes, the driver inside could easily shoot him. This incomparable stroke of human genius seems to have amused the Czar greatly, for he ordered a prize of 500 rubles to be paid to Viiliäinen. It is no wonder, then, after such glorious success, Viiliäinen, both while awake and asleep, is thinking of new inventions. It is hard to say how far he might have gotten; he might have even found the way to the moon in the end if not to other planets if he had not, to his great misfortune, developed, shall we say, some mental problems. Following this terribly sad development, he could not pursue any of his bold undertakings, such as trying to get to the moon, because he knows he shouldn't try to fly higher than his wings will carry him...

Of course, as you see, I have gone on excessively about our friend Viiliäinen but now I am leaving his company and we will be in Jonkeri in a minute, which has been a 60 km journey through the wilderness. As you know, several decades ago, some children skied all the way from Jonkeri to Nurmes to have themselves baptized. We spent the night in a house there and then made our way up to Saunajärvi, where I parted company with my fellow wanderers, who had no intention of crossing over into Russia. After travelling for an hour, first by water and then by land, I came to Niskavaara - so wet from a downpour that you would think I had spent the day in water. From here I had to go on to Ukonvaara, which they say is 3 km away. A little boy no older than five or six - the older folks were gone - guided me a little way along the path. He told me to turn right here and left there and then left me. I followed his directions carefully as far as when to turn was concerned, but didn't know which direction I should turn in. After walking quite a way, I came to a farm called Losola or Losonvaara. I still had 2 km to go to Ukonvaara and it was another six to Kuusjärvi, where I arrived very late in the evening. The next morning I left there and hired a guide to take me to Kolvasjärvi, which was the first village on the Russian side and a good 20 km off.