Reindeer

“ They have spent the winter in the forests far away, but as the heat of the sun begins to melt the snow, they travel toward the shores of the ocean.
Here the baby reindeer are born. They are tiny, weak little creatures at first; but they grow fast, and in a few days are able to take care of themselves, and get their own food.
The reindeer have a wonderfully keen sense of smell. Even when the ground is covered with a deep layer of snow, they seem able to tell where the lichens and mosses are living beneath it. No one has ever seen a reindeer make a mistake in this matter. ”

“ Without the reindeer we could not exist in this northern land of snow. The reindeer is our horse, our beast of burden. On him we feed. He gives us our clothing, our shoes, our gloves; his skin is our blanket and our bed; his sinews our thread. On the march a herd of reindeer is easily managed. We keep them together without much trouble, and in winter they remain where we leave them to get the moss; but if the wolves are after them, then they [98] flee in every direction, and many herds then become mixed together. ”

“ Before the short summer comes to the inhospitable land, before even the first breath of spring is stirring, when a thick sheet of ice lies still unbroken over the mighty river, its tributaries, and the innumerable lakes of the tundra, the reindeer bring forth their calves; it is therefore more than ever necessary to seek out a place which offers sufficient pasture for both mothers and young. ”

“ A herd of reindeer on the march is a beautiful sight to see. They go quickly along, faster than any other domestic animal, and are kept together by the herdsman and his dogs, who are untiring in their efforts to bring up stragglers.
When a good stretch of pasture is found, the Lapps build a fold, into which the reindeer are driven every evening, so that the work of the milkers may be lightened. These folds are made of the stems of birches placed close together and strengthened with cross-pieces and strong props. ”

“ Yet, after all, it almost seems as if he belonged to the reindeer, and not that the reindeer belonged to him! Where they choose to go, he must follow, and neither marshy ground, nor seas, nor rivers, nor anything else, make any difference to them. For months he spends his life in the open air, bitten by insects all the summer, *and by frost all the winter, for he continually finds himself in places where no wood is to be got, so he cannot have even the comfort of a fire. ”

“ At last a herd draws near. The antlers of these Arctic reindeer are broad and branching. They plant their short legs firmly on the ground as, with heads bent down, they search for moss beneath the snow. They seem to know just where to paw away the snow to find the food they love.
The right moment comes and the hunters send 52 their arrows flying into the midst of the herd. One of the reindeer falls to the ground while the others dash wildly away. ”

“ The children will be helped to get a conception of the great number of reindeer in a herd partly through the story, partly through illustrations, and partly through tearing reindeer from paper and mounting them so as to represent great herds. The child’s experiences in seeing processions or large numbers of people assembled can also be used in forming a picture of the large number of reindeer that met at the ford. ”

“ The herds of reindeer are attended in their migrations by bands of wolves which destroy a great many of them. The Copper Indians kill the reindeer in the summer with the gun or, taking advantage of a favourable disposition of the ground, they enclose a herd upon a neck of land and drive them into a lake where they fall an easy prey but, in the rutting season and in the spring, when they are numerous on the skirts of the woods, they catch them in snares. ”

“ The northern races of Europe and Asia have domesticated the reindeer. The standard of wealth of the Lapp is according to the number of reindeer he possesses. It is his all in all. The reindeer transports his household and himself from one place to another ”

“ They may threaten and force as they will,
He turns from her, shrinks from her still,’
and immediately the reindeer left the herd and came to the child, and tended it as on the day before. And so it was that the child throve, till not a finer boy was to be seen anywhere. But the King’s son had been pondering over all these things, and he said to the widow woman:
‘Is there no way of changing the reindeer into a human being again?’
‘I don’t rightly know,’ was her answer. ‘Come to the wood with me, however; when the woman puts off her reindeer skin I shall comb her head for her ”

“ The Lapps are very reticent; they will never tell you, for instance, how many reindeer they possess. Mickel Nilsson Nia, to whom I am giving you this letter of recommendation, is wealthy and educated, yet he covers himself with reindeer skins like the humblest of his herdsmen, drinks the warm blood of the animal he kills, and thinks no dish more succulent than a sort of cake made of reindeer blood mixed with flour! He is a splendid specimen of a people who have at once assimilated and resisted civilization. ”

“ We allude to the reindeer; and Corporal Joliffe announced with the greatest satisfaction that there were plenty of these ruminants on this coast. The ground was covered with the lichen to which they are so partial, and which they cleverly dig out from under the snow.
There could be no mistake as to the footprints left by the reindeer, as, like the camel, they have a small nail-like hoof with a convex surface. Large herds, sometimes numbering several thousand animals, are seen running wild in certain parts of America. Being easily domesticated, they are employed to draw sledges ”

“ They will not only keep the herd together on land, but follow them into a river, or across an arm of the sea. It is they who rescue the weaklings in danger of drowning, after their winter’s fast, and in the autumn, when the reindeer have grown strong from good living, drive the herd back again through the bay. ”

“ A herd of four or five thousand reindeer will in a very few days paw up the snow and eat all the moss within a radius of a mile from the encampment, and then, of course, the band must move to fresh pasture ground. Their nomadic life, therefore, is not entirely a choice, but partly a necessity, growing out of their dependence upon the reindeer. ”

“ The reindeer cannot withstand this appeal. She casts her skin, and comes in human form to suckle her child. This results, after two repetitions in the husband's burning the reindeer hide and clasping her in his arms. But, like Peleus, he has to hold her fast in spite of various transformations, until he has overcome the charm and has her once more in her pristine shape! ”

“ Herds of reindeer wander over the lonely parts of the country in search of the moss that is their favorite food. They have beautiful branching horns and their short legs are very 126 strong. They have a wonderful scent, which warns them of danger, and they easily take fright. Often, when a hunter has crept upon them ever so softly, they have discovered his nearness and away they scudded over the hills and rocks where he would not dare to venture, and he has been obliged to give up the chase for a time, at any rate. ”

“ As the reindeer walks, a crackling noise proceeds from its feet, which is produced by the hooflets striking against each other. When these animals are driven to the place where they are accustomed to be milked, they all lie down, panting violently, and chewing the cud all the while. ”

“ A few dogs will soon work havoc in a herd. So the reindeer must be constantly protected and at the same time must have range over a considerable scope of country. The care of reindeer is a business in itself, not a mere detail of the business of transportation or travel. ”

“ Bones of the reindeer are abundant, and the co-existence of man with this animal in latitudes so much lower than its present habitat implies a certain degree of elevation above savages, as not only food, clothing and implements, but materials for ornamentation were obtained from it. ”

“ Of the land mammals, the reindeer is probably the most abundant of all. It is found in immense numbers in certain localities, and forms for many of the inhabitants the principal source of subsistence, while to nearly all the residents its skins are absolutely necessary to protect them from the severity of the winter. ”

“ As soon as the spring opens the older boys look forward to the hunt. Perhaps a herd of reindeer has been seen not far away, and the hunters start out over the fields still well-covered with snow to look for traces of them. They carry bows and arrows, also knives. They must not forget to take fur soles for their feet, too. As soon as they are within range of their game they will bind these soles under their kamiks so that the reindeer cannot hear them as they draw near. ”

“ In this place I made a description and sketches of the whole caparison of a reindeer, with the stick used by the Laplanders in driving that useful animal.
[Pg 104] The latter, which serves as a walking stick, is round, two feet and half long, and three inches thick, made of wood, see fig. 1. a, is a twisted iron ring, encompassed with several smaller rings of the same metal, b b b, which serve to make a rattling noise to urge the reindeer occasionally to quicken his pace. c, is the head, turned out of a reindeer's horn. ”

“ From the data which we have been considering, we furnish, in fig. 41, a representation of a feast during the reindeer epoch. Men are engaged in cleaving the head of a urus, in order to extract and devour the smoking brains. Others, sitting round the fire in which the flesh of the same animal is being cooked, are sucking out the marrow from the long bones of the reindeer, which they have broken by blows with a hatchet. ”

“ Even when the feet are boiled, the hair never comes off without the skin. Thus the animal when living is the more firmly protected against the snow. The hoofs are thrown away as useless.
The dung of the reindeer in summer is almost as large as cow-dung, but in winter it more resembles that of the goat.
Each individual reindeer does not bear horns of precisely the same shape every year. ”

“ Behind each sleigh a reindeer was fastened, the cord being attached at the base of his horns. John said to me: "Reindeer cannot bear to be pulled quickly, and make every effort to disengage themselves, and by doing so act as a drag." ”

“ In Siberia, Lapland, and Norway, large herds of reindeer are kept as we keep cattle, and are used as beasts both of draught and burden. A single reindeer can carry a weight of about 130 pounds upon its back, or draw a load of 190 pounds upon a sledge, and it so enduring that it will travel at the rate of from eight to ten miles an hour for twelve hours together. ”

“ Though reindeer prefer mountain-sides when they can get them, their broad and wide-cleft hoofs are well adapted for the lowlands of the north of Europe and of America, which are a morass in summer and a snow-field in winter. ”

“ During the remaining part of the summer which followed the sad death of her uncle, she succeeded in killing a number of reindeer, which are at times very plentiful in those high latitudes. Annoyed by the numerous flies, these reindeer frequently rush into the great lakes and rivers; and as the Indians can paddle their light canoe much faster than these animals can swim, they easily overtake and kill them. ”

“ Here it may be mentioned that the latter insect is found in certain continental localities far south of the present range of the reindeer, where it has doubtless existed since the time when that animal had a wider distribution. In their migrations, several thousands of reindeer frequently collect in herds of from two hundred to three hundred head, which travel one after another in long lines, each led, it is reported, by an old cow, and the whole forming a very forest of antlers. They swim the widest rivers with ease. ”

“ Its range extends so far south on the European, Asiatic, and American continents that it may be regarded as being not only an Arctic but also subarctic animal. The reindeer differs from all other deer in that both male and female have antlers, though those of the female are smaller. ”

“ While young reindeer are being trained in the way they should go, a big buck animal is fastened to the back, to do nothing but pull against the other continually. This animal lives almost entirely on the moss, its natural food, which in the winter it scrapes out from under the snow with its strong hoof. Many Lapps keep a thousand or more head of these deer. ”

“ Though the reindeer may eat grasses and aquatic plants, its great resource is the so-called reindeer-moss, which is really a lichen, common on the mountain heights of the interior where the herds pass the winter. ”

“ A story is told by the Dene (Athapascans) of the northern provinces of Canada concerning a man who one night suddenly disappeared from his wife’s side, and in the morning, in the ashes of the hearth, were found the cloven footprints of a reindeer: he had been transformed. {198} His wife was an adept in magic. By its aid she became an expert hunter, and after the loss of her husband supplied the family, consisting of her mother and little son, with food. As her son grew up, he in turn hunted and successfully snared reindeer. One day he caught a reindeer with human hair between its horns. ”

“ The reindeer furnish the Lapps with everything they need,—their clothing, food, and shelter; and, as if that were not enough, they make good beasts of burden, and carry their masters wherever they wish to go. ”