_Of the_ Laplanders _Handycraft-trades_.
Besides hunting, which is the cheifest, they have many other
emploiments relating to their lives and fortunes, of which Cookery is
the first: for what ever food they get by fishing, fowling, or hunting,
the men dress and not the women. They therefore are quite ignorant of
this Art, (which the men are not very expert at) and never use it but
upon necessity, and in the absence of men.
The second is the boat-makers, which they make of Pine or Deale boards,
not fasten’d with nails but sew’d together with twigs, as among the
ancients with thongs, _Olaus Magnus_ and _Johannes Tornæus_ sayes with
roots of trees, but most commonly with _Rain-deers_ nerves. When they
launch these boats they caulk them with moss to keep out the water,
and use sometimes two, sometimes four oares, so fasten’d to pegs in the
sides, that one man may row with two.
The third trade is the Carpenters, to make sledges, which are not all
of the same shape, those they travel in, call’d _Pulca_ being made in
the fashion of half a boat, having the prou about a span broad turned
up, with a hole in it to run a cord thro to fasten it to a _Rain-deer_,
and the poupe of one flat board: the body is built of many, which are
fasten’d with wooden pegs to four or five ribs; they never go upon
wheeles, but are convex and round, that they may roul any way, and more
easily be drawn over the Snow. This description agrees with that sledg
which I have, and the Testimony of _Herberstenius_, _Olaus Magnus_, and
_Johannes Tornæus_. The fore part of them is cover’d with Sea-Calfs
skin for about an ell, stretch’d upon hoops, least the Snow should
come in, under which they put moss to keep their feet warm. These are
about three ells long, but those that carry baggage, called _ackkio_,
_ajefive_, are not cover’d any where. The people defend their goods
from the weather, according to _Wexionius_, with raw flax: but that
is not probable, because no flax grows there, and the use of flaxen
garments is unknown, and therefore I believe they do it with skins
or bark. In _Olaus Magnus_ lib. 17. cap. 25. there is a cart painted
upon wheeles, the Author describes it in these words, _qui domestici
sunt Rangiferi curulibus plaustris aptantur_, but what these _curulia
plaustra_ signifie he does not explain. And since the Painter has drawn
other things according to his own capacity, and understanding, I do not
know whether he has not follow’d his own opinion more then _Olaus’s_
narration, but ’tis certain there are no wheele carts, for what they
carry in Summer is put in dorsers upon _Rain-deers_. These Tradesmen
make their sliding shoes, which because I have describ’d in the former
Chapter, I need not now speak of.
The fourth is making boxes and chests to lay up weapons and other
things in, which are all of an oval shape, of which sort _Lodovicus
Otto Bathoniensis_ gave me one. They are made of thin birch plancks,
which are so contrived and bent into an Oval, that the pegs or twigs,
with which they are fasten’d, are not perceiv’d. The lids are of one
board, and for ornament often inlaid with _Rain-deers_ bones in diverse
figures, which for better illustration you shall see describ’d at the
end of this Chapter in the cut markt with the letter C.
The fift Trade is making Baskets, in which Art no Nation can compare
with them. The matter they make them off is roots of Trees, which
they work not as other people do, for they make them of what bigness
they please, and if occasion require, will be so accurate in their
work as to interweave the roots so neat and close together, that they
shall hold water like a solid vessel. Their shapes are diverse, some
round with a cover and handle to carry them by, and others squares or
oblongs. Not only the _Laplanders_ and _Swedes_ use these, but they are
also for their curiosity and strength sent into farther Countries: the
figure B. at the end will give a view of a round one.
Beside these the men make all manner of houshold-stuff of wood or bone;
and particularly spoons, one of which I have with all its Rings and
Ornaments, as you may see at figure A. I have two weaving instruments,
a shuttle about two inches long or more, with an hole at one end
D. and a kind of comb or small Loom in w^{ch} they weave particular
wreaths and ornaments E.
[Illustration]
They make also very neat Tobacco boxes carved with knifes in bone, with
many Rings and other pretty appendages about them, all which being
considered will prove this Nation not to be so dull and stupid as by
some it is supposed.
They have also one Art more worth taken notice of, as ingraving flowers
and several Beasts in bone, into which they cast several plates of Tin,
and with these figures the men and women adorn their girdles and other
things: the same way they make their molds for casting bullets. They
make instruments for all emploiments, as Cookery, &c. those for hunting
are usually made of bone, and others are commonly adorned with it.
_Zeigler_ mentions tubs, which are rather cups, or vessels cut out of a
stump of a Tree, as traies are: and _Wexionius_ mentions other vessels
made of bark, but I forbear to speak of any more, only I shall add that
they learn their art not from masters but their fathers according to
their capacity.