A SEA LAPP HAMLET.--STRANGE HOUSES.--THEIR INTERIORS.--SUMMER DRESS OF
THE SEA LAPPS.--PRIMITIVE WOODEN CART.--ANIMALS EAT RAW FISH.--I
SLEEP IN A SEA LAPP'S HOUSE.--THEY TELL ME TO HURRY SOUTHWARD.
When I had landed, and ascended the hill towards the settlement, I found
myself in a Sea Lapp hamlet. I looked at their dwellings with great
curiosity. Some of the buildings were conical and resembled the tent of
the nomadic Lapps; but they were built of sod or turf. There were others
resembling in shape log houses, with only a ground floor, built entirely
of the same material. Others were partly of stone and turf. Some were
entirely of stone slabs. Two houses were built of logs.
In the mean time the people had changed their clothes, and wore their
summer every-day dress called _vuolpo_ (though it was still cold), ready
to receive me.
Some of these summer dresses were made of coarse vadmal of a gray or
blackish color; others were blue. Most were in a ragged state, or
patched--having when new been used as Sunday clothes. The men wore
square caps of red or blue flannel, and the women had extraordinary
looking head-gear resembling casques of dragoons, on account of the
wooden frame under the cloth. These were also red or blue.
"Come in," said one of the Sea Lapps, "come into my _gamme_ (house) and
see how I live." His house was of conical shape and built of sod,
supported inside by a rough frame formed of branches of trees. A fire
was burning in the centre of the hut, the smoke escaping by an aperture
above; and upon cross poles hung shoes, boots, and clothing. This sod
hut was about twelve feet high and eight feet in diameter. A large
kettle hung over the fire. It was filled with seaweed, which was cooking
for the cows. I tasted it and found it very palatable and not at all
salt.
I was hardly in this _gamme_ when I wished myself out, but kept this to
myself, for I did not want to hurt the feelings of the poor Lapp. The
interior of the place was horribly filthy--dirty reindeer skins lay on
the ground upon old dirty dried grass. A tent of a nomadic Lapp was a
model of cleanliness compared with this! The outside was just as bad; on
the ground lay the entrails and heads of fish, and a couple of barrels
filled with half-putrid liver which in time would make a barrel of brown
oil; there were a great many codfish heads drying on the rocks.
"Will you stay and have a cup of coffee with us?" my host asked.
"Yes," added his wife, "it will not take long to make a cup of coffee."
"Not to-day," I replied, "but some other time."
"All right," the host said; "don't forget."
I was glad when I got out. This abode was the _gamme_ of a poor Sea
Lapp, and the poorest kind of dwelling seen among them.
The next house, which was at a short distance, belonged to the captain
of one of the boats which had been alongside of our ship. He and his
wife were waiting for me outside and bade me come in. His house was
long, narrow, and low, and built entirely of flat stones. I entered
through a wooden door a room built in the centre of the house. Their
winter garments hung on poles, there was a pile of firewood, and a heap
of dry seaweed and reindeer moss.
I followed him to the room on the left. There the family lived. The
floor of the room was covered with flat slabs; in one corner was a bed
on the floor, itself made of young branches of birch, kept together by
logs. The skins that made the rest of the bed were outside to be aired.
This room was about ten feet long and about ten feet wide, the whole
width of the house, and lighted by a small window with tiny panes of
glass.
At the foot of the bed in the corner was a small cow. Such a cow! I had
never seen one so small. In the opposite corner was another one. These
two cows were hardly three feet high, and between the two were a calf
and three sheep. "These animals," said my host, "help us to keep our
room warm and comfortable during the winter months."
This was a very strange way of heating a room, I thought to myself.
"Come and stay with us to-night," added the Lapp. "You will sleep
comfortably and you will not be cold."
I accepted.
The furniture of the room consisted of some kettles, a coffee pot,
coffee grinder, a lamp, and a few chests. Everything, strange to say,
was very clean. The third room contained a few nets, and on the floor
were a few reindeer skins upon which slept any stranger who chanced to
share their dwelling. I was a favored guest. I was to sleep in the same
room with the host, hostess, cows and sheep. I was considered as one of
the family.
I slept splendidly. In the morning I had water to wash my face with.
That was fine! I gave myself a good rubbing with soap, for I said,
"Paul, after you leave this place it will be quite a while before you
wash your face, except with snow." But I could not as successfully get
rid of the odor of the stable, which clung to my clothes with a
persistence that would have driven every friend I had away from me if I
had been at home.
Not far from this _gamme_ was the house of another well-to-do Sea Lapp,
one of the rich fellows of the hamlet. His house was long and narrow,
one part built of logs, the remainder of layers of turf.
The wooden part was the every-day room--parlor, bedroom, kitchen. The
roof was supported by poles and covered with birch bark, over which more
than a foot of earth had been placed to keep the cold out; the birch
bark was used as shingles and kept the rain from dripping inside. Two
little cows, two dwarfish oxen, eight sheep, and two goats completed the
household, and these were housed in the turf compartment.
Further on I passed a somewhat long and narrow house built entirely of
turf, which I also visited, and as I came out of it a very strange sight
greeted me. Several people were returning with their dwarfish carts
loaded with seaweed; each was drawn by a team of two wretched little
oxen not bigger than the cows of the place--that is, not more than three
feet in height. Some were driven by women, others by men or children.
These queer-looking small carts were of the same pattern as those used
thousands of years ago. The wheels were of a solid block of wood hewn
out of the trunk of fir trees, which grow on the banks of some of the
fjords, though the land is so far north, owing to the effects of the
Gulf Stream. These wheels were of the pattern first made by man, and for
thousands of years there had been no improvement; just as in some parts
of the world the natives to-day still use the dug-out, or canoe made of
the trunk or bark of a tree--the primitive boat of man. The carts were
loaded with seaweed, fish, or reindeer moss.
I stayed here several days, and one day I went to see Ole Maja, the
nabob of the place. Ole was an old Sea Lapp, who was considered very
rich among his neighbors. His house was entirely built of logs, and was
much admired by the people. The little room had two plain pine-wood
beds, a cast-iron stove (the only one in the hamlet), a clock and three
wooden chairs. Everything was exceedingly clean. He belonged to the best
type of Sea Lapps.
Ole owned a horse, which had a special stable built of turf, and his
four cows, two oxen, and twelve sheep were kept in another building. I
asked what he wanted a horse for in these high latitudes. He answered:
"We use them on the frozen rivers to draw logs." "The hay I gather in
summer," he added, "is for him. Horses are very particular, they will
not eat the kind of food we give to our cattle, sheep or goats." I did
not wonder at this.
I noticed, as there was no snow on the ground, that all the dwellings of
the little hamlet had small patches of land round them, which were to be
planted with potatoes when warm weather came.
Those who had the best houses wanted me to stay with them, and to avoid
making distinctions I agreed to remain with each family one day until I
went away. They seemed very much pleased.
I witnessed one day the feeding of the cattle, sheep, and goats. This
was a sight! They were to be fed on that day with raw fish cut in
pieces, instead of boiled heads of dry cod, or boiled lichen. These
pieces of fish were put in large wide wooden pails, the animals were
called, and they devoured the contents with great avidity. This amazed
me greatly. Just think of cattle feeding on raw fish!
One day found me comfortably settled in a _gamme_ which belonged to
Matias Laiti. The chief meal was of reindeer meat and fish,--a boiled
head of fresh cod. This is considered the sweetest and nicest part of
the fish. A great wooden bowl of milk was given to me. The milk had a
queer taste--it had a fishy taste--so had everything else, I thought. I
am sure that if the cannibals that were my friends in Africa had been
here, and eaten me up, they would have found that I tasted of fish, for
I had been living on fish ever so long.
I kept visiting one Sea Lapp and his family after another, and had a
good time--living on fish and reindeer meat, for the Sea Lapps own
reindeer which are kept for their relations or friends further in the
interior. Sea Lapps intermarry much with river Lapps, and also with
nomadic Lapps. They form really one family.
On Sunday morning they were dressed in their best _vuolpo_ head-dresses
and garments. These were red, blue and white, with red and yellow bands
at the bottom of the skirt. Some had pretty belts, and wore necklaces of
large glass beads. The women and men had combed their hair, and it was
not to be combed again for a week. They all had washed their faces and
hands. One woman wore a pair of blue woollen trousers, fitting tight
from the knees to the ankle, had put on a new pair of Lapp shoes, and
wore casque-like head-gear, which was blue like her dress and had red
seams. The boats were ready to be rowed across the fjord to take them to
the church, where service was held once in three weeks. They were all
Lutherans.
There were hardly any children in the place. The school was the other
side of the fjord by the church. The children were about to return to
their parents, for in summer there is no school. All the
Swedish-Norwegian Lapps know how to read and write.
One evening as we were talking round a bright fire, one of the Lapps
said to me, "Paulus, you have told us that you intend to travel
southward by land. If that is so, there is no time to be lost, for the
sun is getting more powerful every day, and the snow will soon be in an
unfit condition for reindeer to travel on, and the ice over the rivers
and lakes will break; besides you are going to have great difficulty in
procuring reindeer, for no reindeer can be had at the post stations now.
You may be detained on the way, and be obliged to wait until snow has
melted and the rivers become navigable. At this time of the year the
reindeer are very feeble; it is the worst time to travel with them; they
shed their coats and horns and are weak and lean from their winter
digging. During the day they feel the heat of the sun, and do not go as
fast as during the winter months. So, though we love to have you stay
with us, if you want to go you had better hasten your departure. Do not
forget to take with you blue or green goggles, for the glare is so
intense, on account of the bright sun, you will surely become snow-blind
if you have none with you. We are going to send for reindeer, and we
will give you a guide to go with you."
The long days come on with remarkable rapidity in this far North. The
sun was below the horizon till the latter part of January, and now on
the 25th of April in clear weather I could read a newspaper at midnight.
There were to be no more nights. The Long Night had been driven away
from the pole.