Johannes Scheffer

“ Moreover the Tartars live altogether by war and plunder, whereas the Laplanders live by hunting and grasing, abhorring nothing more than war. Besides the cheif delight of the Tartars is in having many stately Horses, of which the Lapps are so ignorant, that in their whole language they have not a word to signify an Horse: the language also of the two Nations is so different that one cannot possibly be derived from the other. ”

“ I come now to the Sun, their third God, which is common to them with all other Pagans, him they call Baiwe, and worship him chiefly for his light and heat: also because they believe him to be the Author of Generation, and that all things are made by his means, especially their Rain-dears, of whom and their young they think he hath a particular care to cherish them by his heat, and bring them suddenly to strength and maturity. ”

“ In this way of travelling the Women are as expert as the men, and Olaus Magnus saies more. As the men and women travel together, so they help one another in fishing, and at baiting time to feed their cattle, which is evident in the Rain-deer, for the women take as much care of them as the men, and equally take the trouble to milk them: and in fishing ’tis manifest; for women in the absence of men, are very intent for some weeks at catching fish, which they gut and dry up for Winter. ”

“ Wherefore when the Index moves according to his motion, it portends prosperity by following his course, from whom they expect all the good they receive. This is the way they take in all their more weighty affairs, as in a journey, hunting, removing their habitations, or any such like thing, of which something before, and more hereafter. Before they hunt they make particular observation which way the Index turns, whether East, West, North, or South; and collect from thence where their game lies. ”

“ In the upper part of Lapland there are Mountains rising to such a vast hight, that the snow continues upon them Summer and Winter, and is never dissolved, but in other places the Land is every year over-flown with floods of melted snow. They have also very great frosts and mists, and good store of them, which sometimes so thicken the air, that the sight is quite obstructed, and Passengers cann’t distinguish one man from another to salute or avoid him, tho he be come close up to them. It is so extreme cold here in the Winter, that ’tis not to be endured but by those who have bin bred up in it. ”

“ This Tyre they say is quickened and moved by a particular art; it is sold by the Laplanders, so that he that buies it may hurt whom he pleases with it. They do perswade themselves, and others, that by the Tyre they can send, either Serpents, Toads, Mice, or what they please into any man, to make his torment the greater. It goes like a whirlewind, and as swift as an arrow, and destroies the first man, or beast, that it lights on, so that it often mistakes. ”

“ These creatures are very bold, never making their escape when Passengers come by, but keep on their way, and make a noise like the barking of a dog: they fear neither club nor sword, but if any one strike at them, they turn again and bite. It is observable in them that they never go near or do any mischeif in any hut, sometimes they set upon one another, being divided as it were into two armies, this the Laplanders take to be an omen of future war in Swedland, and gather whence the enemy will come, by observing whence those animals first moved that provoked the rest. ”

“ The sacrifice is not left to the disposal of the sick man, but must be made according to the directions of the drummer; for he is supposed to be the only man able to advise them in this case, he first discovers which of the Gods is displeased, and what sort of sacrifice is most acceptable to him, for they refuse several, and the same also at several times. But before the drummer appeases their Gods, they give him a copper and a silver ring, putting them on his right arm, then he begins a song, and beats the drum, and all that are present joyn with him in a Chorus ”

“ Their dainties most in esteem with them are the tongue and marrow of their Rain-deers, and with these they are want to entertain their Priests. One odd kind of dish these of the Mountains have, and that is the blood of their Rain-deers boiled in water to the consistence of a hasty pudding. The others that dwell in the Woods feed partly on Fish, and partly on Birds and Beasts, and that too both Summer and Winter, but more frequently on Fish. The flesh of Beares they prefer before all other, and with that they feast their dearest friends. ”

“ But now the Islanders use many words which those of Norway are quite ignorant of; and yet I hope no man will thence say that the Islanders have a Language wholly independent and different from that of Norway: for the one living by themselves, and having little or no dealings with other People, do to this day keep entire the same Language which they first brought, and which they received down from their ancestors: but it was quite otherwise with the Norwegians, who together with their Empire lost also their ancient Language. ”

“ So that I take Lappi to signify no other than banish’t persons, which is the genuine signification of Lapp in the Lapland language; for the Laplanders were originally Finlanders, and from leaving their Country may be presum’d to have took their name; and that not of their own choosing, but the Finlanders [2] imposition, with whom to Lapp signifies to run away: whence the compellation seeming something scandalous, no person of quality to this day will endure to be call’d by it, tho from the Finlanders others Nations, as the Germans, Swedes and Moscovites, have learnt to call them so. ”

“ The swiftest Rivers are sometimes frozen so hard, that the ice is more than three or four cubits thick; and their greatest Lakes and deepest Seas bear any burdens whatever. Nor is the Summer, which to some may seem incredible, more moderately hot. For tho the Sun be very low, and his raies oblique, yet lying upon them so long together, their force is strangely increast; the only allay being from the vapors rising out of the neighbouring Sea, and from the snows, which as well in Summer as Winter continue undissolv’d in hollow places between the hills. ”

“ The women, especially when grown old, cannot brook any suddain provocation, but upon the least indignity offered fly out into passion, and are hurried to the most wild transports that madness can dictate. ”

“ Snow they have more often, and so much that in the Winter it covers all the Country, of which they make this advantage, that they can travel the more securely in the night; for the light of the Moon reflected from the snow, enlightens all the fields, that they can discern and avoid any pits, precipices and wild Beasts, that would otherwise annoy them: so convenient are the wayes for any journy, that two rein deer will draw a greater load over the trodden snow, then a Cart and ten Horses can in the fields at other times. ”

“ Other things for which the drum is serviceable, are, first, the discovering the nature of diseases, whether they arise from any disorder in the body, or are caused by magic; this being known, then to find the remedy for them, which is commonly by sacrifice to one or other of their angry Gods, but chiefly to Storjunkar, who bears greatest autority among them, and if not appeased, leaves them small hopes of recovery. Wherefore the sick person vows a sacrifice, either of a Rain-deer, Bull, Goat, or Ram, or something of this kind to one of the Storiunkars, that stands upon the mountains. ”

“ Warmer Climates having all the comforts and necessaries of life plentifully bestowed upon them, are but a more distant home; where we have little else talk’d of, then what we daily see among oar selves: but here it is indeed, where, rather then in America, we have a new World discovered: and those extravagant falsehoods, which have commonly past in the narratives of these Northern Countries, are not so inexcusable for their being lies, as that they were told without temtation; the real truth being equally entertaining, and incredible. ”

“ And thus are Peucerus his words to be understood, when the Laplanders (says he) go a hunting or fishing, or upon any other enterprise, they try their success by the weight of their God, who if he is easily moved, they take it for granted that he approves of their design; if hardly, then he dislikes it: but if he be unmoveable then they suppose him offended with them. ”

“ Magnus saies that in the absence of the Sun there are two twilights, one in the morning, the other in the evening, in which those poor remainders of day provide that the night should not be utterly destructive. ”

“ The Russians are generally tall, the Laplanders on the contrary very short; those are fat and corpulent, these lean and slender; those have thick hair, long beards, and good complexions, these wear their hair short and thin, and are dark and swarthy. But most of all the language is different, in which the Laps and Russes have in a manner no kind of agreement. They must then come from their Neighbours, either the Norwegians on the one side, or the Finlanders upon the other. But they could not well be derived from Norway, who are known to have drawn their originall from the Swedes. ”

“ No People certainly were ever guilty of so much folly as to impose forreign names upon so common things, if they had any Language of their own to express them in: as might be at large demonstrated from the Languages of the Germans, ancient Gaules, Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, &c. neither have we any reason to count it a hard inference if we should from hence gather, that the Laplanders themselves sprung from the Finlanders. ”

“ Each Cheese requires as much milk as ten Rain-deers can spare: their shape is round about two fingers thick, and as big as a Trencher, which we use at table, their Milk makes very fat Cheese, but no Butter, instead of which they have a kind of tallow, as I shew’d before.
Now the Laplanders having such advantages from these beasts, take great care in driving them to their Meadows, and defending them from wild Beasts. They are so concerned for them, that they bring their Wives, Children, and Servants, to watch them in the pastures, and drive those that wander back to the Herd. ”

“ There are many large Woods and Forests, especially towards Norway, but not very thick; likewise steep rocks and high mountaines called Doffrini; upon whose naked tops, by reason of the violence of the winds to which they are exposed, never yet grew tree. Below these hills lie most pleasant Vallies, in which are clear fountaines and rivulets innumerable, which emtying themselves into the rivers, at length are carried into the Bothnic Sea. ”

“ Now those that are skilled in this art, have command chiefly over the winds that blew at their birth; so that this wind obeys principally one man, that another, as if they obtained this power when they first received their breath; now as this belongs chiefly to the Finlappers and Finlanders of Norway, so doth the stopping of the course of ships, which is altogether of the same nature. This is also attributed to the Laplanders, who according to the different affection they have for Merchants, make the Sea either calmer, or more tempestuous. ”

“ When they have drank of the Spirit of Wine, which the spokes-man brings, he applies himself to the management of his province, discloses the Suiters affections to the Daughter, and makes his address to her Father, that he will please to bestow her in Marriage upon him. Which that he may atcheive with more success, he honors the Father with the greatest titles and names of renown that he can devise, at every one bowing the knee, as if he were treating with a prince. ”

“ Having taken the flesh out of the kettle, the common sort put it upon a woollen table cloth called Waldmar, the richer on a linnen; as for trenchers and dishes they are quite unknown to them. But if any liquid thing be to be served up, they put it in a kind of trey made of birch. Sometimes without any other ceremony every one takes his share out of the kettle, and puts it upon his gloves, or his cap. Their drink they take up in a wooden Ladle, which serves instead of plate. And it is farther observable that they are abominable gluttons when they can get meat enough ”

“ The day before the festival, which is Christmas day, they abstain from all flesh: and of every thing that they eat, they take a litle piece and preserve it very carefully, which they do likewise the next day. In their feasting, the bits which they have gathered in these two days they put into a chest, made of the bark of Birch, in the fashion of a Boat with sails and oars, together with some fat of the pottage, and hang it upon a tree behind the Hut, about a bows shot off, for the Juhlii to feast on, whom they then suppose to wander in troops in the Air, thro woods and mountains ”

“ They forbid the woman to go out of that door thro which the man went a hunting, as thinking the way would be improsperous if a woman trod the same steps.
And herein they are only superstitious but in what follows, they are impious and heathenish. As first they go to Church not out of any devotion, but compulsion. Next they stick at several Principles of the Christian Religion, especially the resurrection of the dead, the union of the body and soul, and the immortality of the soul. For they fancy to themselves that men and beasts go the same way ”

“ Shrubs, especially Currans, or Ribes are very frequent, but they regard not these because perhaps the tast is unpleasant, especially of those which bear Black-berries, which are more numerous than the others. The Junipers grow thick, being very tall and comely. This Country yields all manner of Berries, the chief are those which the Swedes call Hiortron, some Dew-berries, or the Norway Berry, whose species is the same that grows on Brambles, each Berry being divided as it were into graines of a pale yellow color, beginning to be red as they ripen. These commonly grow in marshy places. ”

“ Where he gives an account also of two other Finlanders, and the great knowledg they attained to in this profession. But it is very seldom that the parents themselves are not so learned, as to perform the duty, and save the expences of a tutor. Thus they become famous in these studies, especially when they happen to be apt Schollars. For as the Laplanders do not all agree in the same disposition, so neither do they arrive to the same perfection in this art. For some are so stupid and dull, that however they may seem qualified for other emploiments, they prove altogether unfit for this. ”

“ Because diseases are so rare among them, most of them come to extreme old age. Nay Sam. Rheen saies there are some among them that live to be above an hundred years old, and that most of them usually reach 70, 80, and 90 years, and at this age he saies many of them are still sufficiently brisk and lively; able to manage their business with expedition, to take a journey, to course thorough Woods and Mountains, and to perform other such labour: and lastly that they grow not grey-haired either soon or easily; so that old age dispatches more of them then diseases do. ”

“ But any one that will examine the histories of that time, will scarce find any thing that should move the Finlanders to leave their Country, as Ericus Sanctus hath made it appear in that Expedition in which he brought them under the Swedish Government, and planted among them the Christian Religion, which he made in the year 1150, when no small number of them the third time seem to have deserted their Country, and gone into Lapland. ”