Laplanders

“ As these men care little for the result, and have a far greater influence over the Laplander than either the government officials, or the lazy, timeserving missionaries, it is not probable that temperance will ever be introduced among these wretched people. Fortunately, only the coast Laplanders are at all times subject to this influence. The mountain people or those who dwell most of their time in the interior, are too distant from the “tap” to be so grievously affected by it. ”

“ In a word whatever Tacitus saies of the Finlanders, now holds true of the Laplanders, that they have neither weapons, horses, nor houshold gods, they live upon herbs, are cloth’d with skins, lie upon the ground, putting all their confidence in arrows, which they head with bones for want of iron. Both the men and women support themselves by hunting, and they have no other defence for their Children against the violence of wild beasts or weather, but Huts or hurdles, which are the security of the old men as well as young. ”

“ Thus saies Tornæus, but doubtingly, for the fellow might have only framed this for his own excuse; ’tis certain no other person has taken notice of it in them of Luhla, and the other Laplanders are so ignorant of this communion of their wives, that they cannot endure they should look upon other men. The Laplanders dwelling towards Norway at the river Torna are so jealous, that if a Woman chance to meet a man, and speak but a few words to him, they immediatly fall into a suspicion of her. ”

“ Divine service being over, I left Lycksele in order to proceed towards Sorsele.
The riches of the Laplanders consist in the number of their reindeer, and in the extent of the ground in which they feed. The poorest people have from fifty to two hundred of these animals; the middle class from three hundred to seven hundred, and the rich possess about a thousand. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A reindeer may be driven in a carriage twelve (Swedish) miles in a day, or, at the utmost, fifteen; but the animal is generally killed immediately afterwards with the Laplanders' spears, and eaten.
The Laplanders are perhaps so called from the (Swedish) word lappa, to sew or patch together, because their garments usually answer to that description.
The degree of cold is certainly greater on the alps than in less elevated regions; for instance, it is colder in Jamtland than at Tornea, though the former lies about one hundred miles further south. ”

“ A dozen other Laplanders followed in his wake, armed with hunting spears, oars and cudgels. With the timidity to which the oppressed are early accustomed by their oppressors, the little constable looked up to the tall Swedish warrior, took off his cap, and with cringing humility asked him if he knew what had become of the green-coat who had just before fled into the house.
'Impossible!' cried he, as Arwed pointed towards the session room; 'how could such a thievish fox seek refuge in the tent of the huntsman? ”

“ The common method of the Laplanders for joining broken earthenware is to tie the fragments together with a thread, and boil the whole in fresh milk, which acts as a cement.
The Laplanders are particularly swift-footed because: They wear no heels to their half-boots; they are accustomed to run from their infancy, and habitually exercise their muscles; their muscles are not stiffened by labour; they eat animal food, and do not overeat ”

“ The blood of these animals is thick in consistence, like that of a hog. The Laplanders carry a portion of it along with them from place to place, in bladders or some kind of vessels. A stock of this and all other necessaries is collected as late as possible, before the melting of the snow, while there still remains a track for the sledges.
A kind of blood pudding or sausage is made, in general without flour, and with a large proportion of fat. This the Laplanders call marfi. [Pg 44]
The liver of the reindeer, which is of a considerable bulk, is boiled and eaten fresh. ”

“ The whole cost of one, with all its appurte [Pg 97] nances, amounts to fifteen dollars, copper money. The Laplanders therefore content themselves with a far more rude and simple apparatus, consisting of such a wooden bow made of birch, as I have already described, with a string fitted to it. Or they merely cut a branch of fir in the forest, and with any bit of cord that happens to come in their way, kill abundance of squirrels, holding the bow with their left hand, and drawing it with their right by means of a small cleft stick. ”

“ The Laplanders besides are very notorious cheats, and industrious to over-reach each other in bargaining: tho heretofore they had the reputation of plain dealing and honesty. So that ’tis probable that they took up their present practice, having bin first cheated by those Strangers with whom they dealt, and now think it best to be before hand with one another. It is farther observable that they take great plesure, if they happen to outwit any one; imagining that tho they are hopeless to overcome by manhood and courage, they have a nobler triumph over the minds of those whom they circumvent. ”

“ Did any man ever advance such an absurdity! Even the Laplanders themselves call the disease Kurbma (which is the name of the fly that actually causes it) .
One of the Laplanders' dishes, called Kappi, or Kappa-tialmas, is prepared in the following manner. While the milk of the reindeer, intended for making cheese, is warm, before the rennet is added to it, a film rises to the top, which is taken off carefully with a spoon, and put into the bladder of a reindeer. This is hung up against the side of the hut to dry; after which it is eaten, being esteemed a great delicacy. ”

“ As concerning the hatchet, it is no wonder, whereas in other places it is a received custom to lay by dead People their Weapons, of which the principal one, among the Laplanders, is the hatchet. As for what appertains to the modern Laplanders, Olaus Petri imagines that they bury these things with their dead, because they beleive that after the Resurrection they shall take the same course of life they lead before, and for that reason they furnish them with the same utensils. Thus do they who are less observant of the Christian ceremonies, and dwell farthest off from the Christian Churches. ”

“ I noticed on both sides of the river several summer huts of the Laplanders, in which they reside, for a short time together, during that season. A Laplander never remains more than a week on one [Pg 119] spot, not only because of seeking fresh pasture for his reindeer, but because he cannot bear to stay long in a place. He drives the whole herd together, young and old, into the river, to swim over to the opposite shore, which these animals easily perform, though the stream is more than eight gunshots wide. ”

“ Kækre the Protector of Cattel from wild beasts; Hyse had the command of Wolves, and Bears, Nyrke of Squirrel-hunting, Hyttavanes of Hare-hunting. Some of these the Laplanders worshipped; especially those whose help they stood chiefly in need of to the performing of their business, as the gods of hunting and preserving their Cattel from wild beasts, and such like: others probably they neglected as useless, because they neither plowed nor sowed. ”

“ The Laplanders dye their wool red chiefly with the Blood-root or Tormentil, Tormentilla erecta. A red colour is given to their leather by means of fir bark. The men wear a kind of trowsers which reach down to their feet, and are tied round their half boots, so as to keep out water. They wear no shirt nor stockings. ”

“ The Laplanders have not any houses like other Northern People, it having bin their custom to wander up and down, and so, sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, to set up small sheds for their present use: so that they had no certain habitations, but having eaten and consumed the fish and beasts in one place, they march to another, carrying their sheds or tents with them. ”

“ Each layer of wood is externally convex, yet not so much as to render the bow quite cylindrical.
When the Laplanders expect any visitors, they are particularly careful to have plenty of ris (branches of the dwarf birch) spread on the floor, under the reindeer skins on which they sit ”

“ The first that wrote of him was Paulus Warnefrid: he speaks there of a people which he calls Scritobini, which were doubtless the Laplanders, for he describes their cloths to be the same with those which the Laplanders call’d Mudd, he affirms that the beast of which they had their hides was not unlike a Stag, which serves to prove that they were the Rain-deer, for so they are call’d by Herbestenius, Damianus, and Olaus, who tells us that they are something taller then a Stag: those which have broad horns (found most in the North) are less than others. ”

“ The Laplanders boil all their meat very thoroughly, and treat their guests with grease, by way of dainty, which is eaten with a spoon. They milk their reindeer twice a day. Each gives not more at a time than half a pint, or at the utmost three quarters. [Pg 249]
The natives of the country tan their leather with birch bark, buying hides of the colonists for this purpose. The hides, after being plunged into warm water, are buried in some out-of-the-way corner of the hut, and taken up every day till the hair begins to separate, which is then scraped off with a roundish knife. ”

“ And these are the two peculiar Gods of the Laplanders, whereof one hath the dominion over men, the other over beasts; one bestows life, the other all things required to the sustaining of it. Tornæus saies they report of him that he hath often appeared to Fowlers or Fishers in the shape of a tall personable man, habited like a Nobleman, with a Gun in his hand, and his feet like those of a bird. ”

“ A part of the employment of the men is to make sledges, or other machines of wood for carriage. They cut rough wood in the forests for the boxes which they carry with them into the alps.
The duty of the women is to mend the clothes of the whole family.
Laplanders have several plays or amusements.
Children make of the dwarf birch (Betula nana) something like reindeer's horns, with which they gore one another in sport. They amuse themselves frequently by building little huts of stone.
Grown-up people play very well at tennis, but they seldom partake of that diversion. ”

“ Besides he is generally worship’d in all barbarous and pagan Countries, and if he be adored for his light and heat by those People, who enjoy the benefit of a warm air and temperate climate, how much more by the Laplanders, who for no small space endure the hardship of continual night and bitter frosts? ”

“ These are the sports that are almost peculiar to the Laplanders: besides them they use some, which they borrow from other places, such is playing at Cards, a sport sufficiently known thorough all Europe, for even the Laplanders take no little satisfaction in it: they procure their Cards of the Merchants that trade thither. ”

“ In this design, the plot of a particular person was most remarkable, as is related by Ericus, and recorded by John Buræus. One single man of the Birkarli went towards Lapland to way-lay the Laplanders in their return from Birkala, (at this time no one inhabited on the North side of that allotment) and ordered his wife to cover him over with snow, in the middle of the way where the Laplanders must necessarily pass over him. ”

“ Similar to the traditions of the Icelanders, are those current among the Laplanders of Finland, concerning a subterranean people, gifted with' supernatural qualities, and inhabiting the recesses of the earth. Resembling men in their general appearance, the manner of their existence, and their habits of life, they far excel the miserable Laplanders in perfection of nature, felicity of situation, and skill in mechanical arts. ”

“ It is most likely that the Laplanders are, like their animals, the produce of their own country, and that nature has made the one for the other.
Those who inhabit the frontiers of Finland, have adopted some of the expressions of their neighbours, as happens to every people: but when two nations give to things of common use, to objects which are continually before their eyes, names absolutely different, it affords a strong presumption, that one of them is not a colony from the other. ”

“ The country at present inhabited by the people called Laplanders, will be found north of this line. It is a boundary more imaginary than real: for in truth there is no political division known as Lapland, nor has there been for hundreds of years. ”

“ At the northern extremity of the earth, the Laplanders cover their subterranean abodes with Moss, and thus defy the longest and most terrible winters. Their numerous herds of reindeer have no other food, yet they supply their owners with delicious milk, nutritious flesh, and warm clothing; thus combining for the poor Laplander all the advantages that we derive from the horse, cow, and sheep.
There is none
In all this cold and hollow world, no fount
Of deep, strong, deathless love, save that within
A mother’s heart.
Mrs. Hemans.
{126}
The docile, swift Reindeer! ”

“ But as the Laplanders do look to their children in time to teach them arts requisite to get their living, so also to provide them means to maintain themselves withal, where it will not be impertinent to mention, that tis a custom with them to bestow upon their infant a female Rain-deer, soon after its birth or Baptism, if it be of female Sex, and upon the horns of it they ingrave her mark, so to prevent all controversies or quarrels, that may arise concerning her right. ”