Fully a million American boys have read one or more of Paul Du Chaillu's
stories of African travel, and then, like Oliver Twist, demanded more;
for the first civilized discoverer of the gorilla seemed to have a
peculiar faculty for writing about just those things that boys enjoy.
The wishes of these youthful readers are about to be gratified, and in
very generous measure, for the author is soon to publish a book of
nearly a thousand pages about a country almost as distant and little
known by Americans as Equatorial Africa. The title of the work is _The
Land of the Midnight Sun_, and from the numerous pictures it contains we
have selected the two illustrations given on the next page.
The people of this wonderful land, which consists of Norway, Sweden,
Lapland, and Finland, have comfortable homes, wear good clothes, and
always have enough to eat; but between the climate, the shape of the
land, and the fact that they see but little of either travellers or
tramps, they have many customs that are unusual enough to seem sometimes
funny, and always curious.
[Illustration: A CHRISTMAS SCENE IN SCANDINAVIA.]
The boys of Scandinavia have very good times; there is excellent fishing
nearly everywhere, and water suitable for boating is not far distant
from any home. In some parts of the country the water is frozen during
nine months of the year, but in part of this time the skating is good,
without any danger of the ice breaking; and when the snow hides the ice,
it covers the hills--and such hills! High, steep, and well covered with
snow, a hill in Norway or Sweden is the place of all places for
coasting, for even on the roads there is very little danger of meeting a
wagon while rounding a curve, or of dashing unexpectedly across a
railroad track just as a locomotive comes thundering along. Besides, the
favorite method of coasting over there is about ten times as exciting as
that which is enjoyed here, for the boys descend hills on show-shoes.
These shoes resemble the American snow-shoe about as closely as a
miniature yacht resembles a chip with a splinter mast and paper sail.
They are narrow instead of broad, so a person wearing them does not look
awkward, or tire easily, and they are just about as long as their owners
are tall. In using them the wearer slides his feet instead of lifting
them, and if he wants to hurry, he pushes himself along with a couple of
sticks, the lower ends of which are wrapped or shod so that they push
against the surface of the snow instead of sinking into it. To descend a
hill, the wearer places his feet close together, the shoes being exactly
parallel, squats as low as possible, and lets himself go. If the hill is
long and steep, he reaches the bottom about as rapidly as a bird could.
This style of coasting seems so ridiculously easy that boys sometimes
try it slyly rather than wait until their fathers can get time to teach
them, and the usual results are a scratched face, and a general bruising
all over. The least variation of either shoe from a position parallel to
the other shoe is sufficient to cause all of these discomforts, and
sometimes more, for occasionally when a boy leans forward a little too
much in going over a snow-covered stone or other "bumper," he starts for
a somersault which is only prevented by the toes of the shoes burying
themselves in the snow, and suspending the boy by the feet with his face
downward.
American boys who do not like to go to bed would in Northern Norway or
Sweden imagine they had a capital excuse for sitting up, for no boy of
spirit can endure to retire by daylight, and in a part of the far
Northern summer daylight does not end at all during the twenty-four
hours, and even during the month preceding and following this strange
period there is only an hour or two of darkness. For a day or two the
sun may be seen at midnight, and during several months the only way of
discovering bed-time is to look at the clock. This wealth of daylight
has some disadvantages; for while it lasts, the mosquitoes never sleep
at all, but attend strictly to business, and when they alight upon a
toothsome boy, their conduct is gluttonous to a disgraceful degree. It
is an unsettled question, however, whether the boys do not object even
more to retiring during the winter nights, which are as long as the
summer days. In midwinter, day dawns at eleven o'clock, and night
follows within two hours; but the moon and stars shine brighter than
they ever do here, and American boys would consider it sinful to waste
such splendid opportunities for skating or sleighing.
The operation of dressing in cold weather in the far North is so
elaborate that it is difficult to understand how a deliberate boy or
girl in Lapland can be ready for breakfast before dinner-time. First,
two suits of thick woollen under-clothing are put on, and over these
goes a shirt of reindeer-skin, with cloth bands to fasten at the wrists;
sometimes two of these shirts, or kaptas, are worn, and a reindeer-skin
vest beneath them. The trousers are of reindeer-skin also. Two pairs of
heavy woollen stockings are worn, and the child who puts these on when
they are damp is sure to have trouble with his feet. Around the feet a
peculiar grass, well dried, is carefully wound, and over all this goes
the shoe. Buttons and hooks and eyes are scarce in Lapland; all clothing
is fastened by strings, and it is dreadful to think of all the "hard
knots" that Lapp children have fumbled over while too sleepy to be
amiable.
[Illustration: REINDEER AND PACK, WITH LAPP DRIVER.]
One special distinction is enjoyed by the Lapp boy and girl over all
other children in the world: each is sure of owning a reindeer if the
family live in the reindeer region. When a child is born, a deer is set
apart for him at once, and by the time the pride of the family is old
enough to drive, his animal will have been trained for him. How much
time and trouble this training has cost, the boy never can realize until
he becomes a man, and breaks deer to harness himself. It would seem to
any sensible person that as the harness consists only of a collar, a
thong (or trace), and a single rein, the animal might easily become
accustomed to them, particularly as the sleigh has neither pole nor
shafts; but the deer does not regard the subject in the same light. He
forgets whatever he learns, just as if he were a lazy school-boy. Even
after two years of education he seldom can be depended upon to do the
right thing at the right time.
It would never do to tell a Laplander the story of Santa Claus's famous
team of reindeer, for as one of the species is all that a skillful
driver can manage, how could any old fellow manage so many? The only
point of resemblance between a reindeer sleigh and other sleighs is that
they are all made to run on the snow, for the Lapp sleigh is really a
boat, short, narrow, and graceful, and it rests on a broad keel instead
of two runners. It closely resembles in appearance and size one-half of
a canoe. It holds but one person, who must divide his attention between
driving the deer and acting as ballast. The driving is the easiest part
of the work, because when the animal is fairly started, he goes straight
ahead, and there are no street corners in Lapland. There are curves,
however, and as a spirited deer will travel fifteen miles an hour, and
can not be coaxed to slacken his speed, it is about twice as hard to
keep the sleigh on a level keel in rounding a well-beaten curve of the
road as to avoid capsizing while "jibing" a small boat in a brisk
breeze. The reindeer makes no trouble in the stable, for he never enters
one. He prefers to find his own food, which consists almost entirely of
moss. This may be under the snow, but he knows how to dig his way down
to it; and if the snow is deep, the only way of finding a deer that is
wanted is to go from hole to hole. As the moss grows very slowly,
moving-days are frequent in Lapp families, for the people must go
wherever the deer can find food.
To juvenile collectors of antiquities and curiosities, Scandinavia is
the rarest land in the world. Not only are there many arrow-heads,
something like those once used by the American Indians, but the swords,
shields, spears, and armor of the earlier inhabitants are often found.
But the list does not end with these: Wisby, a Swedish city, was many
hundred years ago the centre of trade in Northern Europe, and many
thousands of coins and jewels found there came from far-away places like
Greece, Rome, Persia, and India. Still more, the famous sea-rovers,
known as Northmen or Vikings were mostly from Norway and Sweden, and
when they went on expeditions to other countries, they were as
industrious as the Greeks and Romans, or, later, the French, English,
and Spanish explorers, in carrying home whatever was worth stealing.
But many numbers of YOUNG PEOPLE might be filled with stories of what
Mr. Du Chaillu saw, heard, and enjoyed. Every part of the country is
described: the wonderful fiords, or bays, that were hollowed from lofty
mountains by great glaciers; the castles and palaces that were built
when Sweden was so rich and powerful that all Europe feared her; the
feasts that last for days, and the Christmas fun that is kept up for a
fortnight--are all described in the entertaining manner which has made
the author so well known among boys. Instead of hurrying from one point
to another, Mr. Du Chaillu travelled leisurely, and thus he saw and
heard a great deal that will be new even to people who have visited
Scandinavia, and imagine that they know all about it.