Finn-men

Finn-men, also known as, Muckle men, Fion and Fin Finn, were Inuit sighted in the 17th century around the Northern Isles of Scotland.

[3][failed verification] Wallace's eldest son James added a note to a 1700 publication of his father's account, suggesting they had been driven off course to Scotland by storms.

[4][5] Such was the concern about this practice that in 1720 the States General of the Netherlands passed a law prohibiting the murder or kidnapping of Inuit.

[5] There are frequently Finmen seen here upon the coasts, as one about a year ago on Stronsa, and another within these few months on Westra, a gentleman with many others in the isle looking on him nigh to the shore, but when any endeavour to apprehend them, they flee away most swiftly; which is very strange, that one man, sitting in his little boat, should come some hundred of leagues from their own coasts, as they reckon Finland to be from Orkney; it may be thought wonderful how they live all that time, and are able to keep the sea so long.

[6] The Finn-men were grafted onto the existing mythologies that surrounded the selkies and Finfolk, to the point that both creatures may have both been the same in folklore.