THE LAPPS.
Their ancient History and Conversion to Christianity.--Self-denial
and Poverty of the Lapland Clergy.--Their singular Mode of
Preaching.--Gross Superstition of the Lapps.--The Evil Spirit
of the Woods.--The Lapland Witches.--Physical Constitution of
the Lapps.--Their Dress.--The Fjälllappars.--Their Dwellings.--
Store-houses.--Reindeer Pens.--Milking the Reindeer.--
Migration.--The Lapland Dog.--Skiders, or Skates.--The Sledge,
or Pulka.--Natural Beauties of Lapland.--Attachment of the Lapps
to their Country.--Bear-hunting.--Wolf-hunting.--Mode of Living
of the wealthy Lapps.--How they kill the Reindeer.--Visiting the
Fair.--Mammon Worship.--Treasure-hiding.--“Tabak, or Braende.”--
Affectionate Disposition of the Lapps.--The Skogslapp.--The
Fisherlapp.
The nation of the Lapps spreads over the northern parts of Scandinavia
and Finland from about the 63d degree of latitude to the confines of
the Polar Ocean; but their number, hardly amounting to more than twenty
thousand, bears no proportion to the extent of the vast regions in
which they are found. Although now subject to the crowns of Russia,
Sweden, and Norway, they anciently possessed the whole Scandinavian
peninsula, until the sons of Odin drove them farther and farther to
the north, and, taking possession of the coasts and valleys, left
them nothing but the bleak mountain and the desolate tundra. In the
thirteenth century, under the reign of Magnus Ladislas, King of Sweden,
their subjugation was completed by the Birkarls, a race dwelling on
the borders of the Bothnian Gulf. These Birkarls had to pay the crown
a slight tribute, which they wrung more than a hundred-fold from the
Lapps, until at length Gustavus I. granted the persecuted savages
the protection of more equitable laws, and sent missionaries among
them to relieve them at the same time from the yoke of their ancient
superstitions. In 1600 Charles IX. ordered churches to be built in
their country, and, some years after, his son and successor, the
celebrated Gustavus Adolphus, founded a school for the Lapps at Pitea,
and ordered several elementary works to be translated into their
language. In the year 1602, Christian IV., King of Denmark and Norway,
while on a visit to the province of Finmark, was so incensed at the
gross idolatry of the Lapps that he ordered their priests or sorcerers
to be persecuted with bloody severity. A worthy clergyman, Eric Bredal,
of Drontheim, used means more consonant with the spirit of the Gospel,
and, having instructed several young Lapps, sent them back again as
missionaries to their families. These interpreters of a purer faith
were, however, received as apostates and traitors by their suspicious
countrymen, and cruelly murdered, most likely at the instigation of
the sorcerers. In 1707 Frederic IV. founded the Finmark mission,
and in 1716 Thomas Westen, a man of rare zeal and perseverance,
preached the Gospel in the wildest districts of the province. Other
missionaries and teachers followed his example, and at length succeeded
in converting the Lapps, and in some measure conquering their ancient
barbarism. Nothing can be more admirable than the self-denial and
heroic fortitude of these ministers of Christ, for to renounce all that
is precious in the eyes of the world to follow nomads little better
than savages through the wilds of an Arctic country surely requires a
courage not inferior to that of the soldier
Who seeks preferment at the cannon’s mouth.
The Lapland schoolmaster enjoys an annual salary of twenty-five
dollars, and receives besides half a dollar for every child instructed.
But the priest is not much better off, as his stipend amounts to no
more than thirty dollars in money, and to about 150 dollars in produce.
Among this miserably paid clergy there are, as in Iceland, men worthy
of a better lot. The famous Löstadius was priest at Karesuando,
seventy-five leagues from Tromsö, the nearest town, and a hundred
leagues from Tornea. His family lived upon rye bread and fishes, and
but rarely tasted reindeer flesh. Chamisso mentions another Lapland
priest who had spent seven years in his parish, which lay beyond the
limits of the forest region. In the summer he was completely isolated,
as then the Lapps wandered with their herds to the cool shores of the
icy sea; and in the winter, when the moon afforded light, he travelled
about in his sledge, frequently bivouacking at the temperature of
freezing mercury, to visit his Lapps. During all that time his solitude
had been but twice broken by civilized man; a brother had come to see
him, and a botanist had strayed to his dwelling. He well knew how to
appreciate the pleasure of such meetings, but neither this pleasure
nor any other, he said, was equal to that of seeing the sun rise again
above the horizon after the long winter’s night.
It is a singular custom that the pastors preaching to the Lapps deliver
their harangues in a tone of voice as elevated as if their audience,
instead of being assembled in a small chapel, were stationed upon the
top of a distant mountain, and labor as if they were going to burst a
bloodvessel. Dr. Clarke, who listened to one of these sermons, which
lasted one hour and twenty minutes, ventured to ask the reason of the
very loud tone of voice used in preaching. The minister said he was
aware that it must appear extraordinary to a stranger, but that, if
he were to address the Laplanders in a lower key, they would consider
him as a feeble and impotent missionary, wholly unfit for his office,
and would never come to church; that the merit and abilities of the
preacher, like that of many a popular politician, are always estimated
by the strength and power of his lungs.
Though the Lapps (thanks to the efforts of their spiritual guides)
hardly even remember by name the gods of their fathers--Aija, Akka,
Tuona--they still pay a secret homage to the Saidas, or idols of wood
or stone, to whom they were accustomed to sacrifice the bones and horns
of the reindeer. They are in fact an extremely superstitious race,
faithfully believing in ghosts, witchcraft, and above all in Stallo, or
Troller, the evil spirit of the woods.
Many of them, when about to go hunting, throw a stick into the air, and
then take their way in the direction to which it points. The appearance
of the Aurora borealis fills them with terror, as they believe it to be
a sign of divine wrath, and generally shout and howl during the whole
duration of the grand phenomenon, which their ignorance connects with
their own petty existence.
The pretended gift of being able to predict future events is common
among the Laplanders. The sorcerers fall into a magic sleep, during
which their soul wanders. In this state, like the somnambules of more
polished nations, they reveal things to come or see what passes at a
distance. Men and women affect the power of fortune-telling by the
common trick of palmistry, or by the inspection of a cup of liquor;
and this, to insure the greatest possible certainty, must be a cup of
brandy, which at once explains the whole business of the prophecy.
The Lapland witches pretended, or perhaps still pretend, to the power
of stilling the wind or causing the rain to cease, and such was their
reputation that English seamen trading to Archangel made it a point to
land and buy a wind from these poor creatures.
The Lapps are a dwarfish race. On an average, the men do not exceed
five feet in height, many not even reaching four, and the women
are considerably less. Most of them are, however, very robust, the
circumference of their chest nearly equalling their height. Their
complexion is more or less tawny and copper-colored, their hair dark,
straight, and lank, its dangling masses adding much to the wildness
of their aspect. They have very little beard, and as its want is
considered a beauty, the young men carefully eradicate the scanty
supply given them by nature.
Their dark piercing eyes are generally deep sunk in their heads, widely
separated from each other, and, like those of the Tartars or Chinese,
obliquely slit towards the temples. The cheek-bones are high, the
mouth pinched close, but wide, the nose flat. The eyes are generally
sore, either in consequence of the biting smoke of their huts or of
the refraction from the snow, so that a Lapp seldom attains a high
age without becoming blind. Their countenances generally present
a repulsive combination of stolidity, low cunning, and obstinacy.
Hogguer, who dwelt several months among them, and saw during this time
at least 800 Lapps, found not twenty who were not decidedly ugly;
and Dr. Clarke says that many of them, when more advanced in years,
might, if exhibited in a menagerie of wild beasts, be considered as the
long-lost link between man and ape.
Their legs are extremely thick and clumsy, but their hands are as small
and finely shaped as those of any aristocrat. The reason for this
is that from generation to generation they never perform any manual
labor, and the very trifling work which they do is necessarily of the
lightest kind. Their limbs are singularly flexible, easily falling
into any posture, like all the Oriental nations, and their hands are
constantly occupied in the beginning of conversation with filling a
short tobacco-pipe, the head being turned over one shoulder to the
person addressed. Such are the traits by which the whole tribe is
distinguished from the other inhabitants of Europe, and in which they
differ from the other natives of the land in which they live.
The summer garb of the men consists of the “poesk,” a sort of tunic,
generally made of a very coarse light-colored woollen cloth, reaching
to the knees, and fastened round the waist with a belt or girdle. Their
woollen caps are shaped precisely like a night-cap, or a Turkish
fez, with a red tassel and red worsted band round the rim, for they
are fond of lively hues strongly contrasted. Their boots or shoes
are made of the raw skin of the reindeer, with the hair outward, and
have a peaked shape. Though these shoes are very thin, and the Lapp
wears no stockings, yet he is never annoyed by the cold or by striking
against stones, as he stuffs them with the broad leaves of the _Carex
vesicaria_, or cyperus grass, which he cuts in summer and dries. This
he first combs and rubs in his hands, and then places it in such a
manner that it covers not only his feet but his legs also, and, being
thus guarded, he is quite secure against the intense cold. With this
grass, which is an admirable non-conductor of heat, he likewise stuffs
his gloves in order to preserve his hands. But as it wards off the cold
in winter, so in summer it keeps the feet cool, and is consequently
used at all seasons. The women’s apparel differs very little from that
of the other sex, but their girdles are more ornamented with rings
and chains. In winter both sexes are so packed up in skins as to look
more like bears than human beings, and, when squatting according to
the fashion of their country, exhibit a mound of furs, with the head
resting upon the top of it.
According to their different mode of life, the Lapps may be aptly
subdivided into Fjälllappars, or Mountain Lapps; Skogslappars, or Wood
Lapps; and Fisherlapps.
The Fjälllappars, who form the greater and most characteristic part
of the nation, lead an exclusively pastoral life, and are constantly
wandering with their herds of reindeer from place to place, for the
lichen which forms the chief food of these animals during the greater
part of the year is soon cropped from the niggard soil, and requires
years for its reproduction. For this reason, also, this people do not
herd together, and never more than three or four families pitch their
huts, or tuguria, upon the same spot. Of course the dwelling of the
nomad Lapp harmonizes with his vagrant habits; a rude tent, which can
easily be taken to pieces, and as easily erected, is all he requires
to shelter his family and chattels. It consists of flexible stems of
trees, placed together in a conical form, like a stack of poles for
hops, and covered in the summer with a coarse cloth, in winter with
additional skins, to be better fenced against the inclemencies of the
climate. To form the entrance, a part of the hanging, about eighteen
inches wide at the bottom, and terminating upward in a point, is made
to turn back as upon hinges. The hearth, consisting of several large
stones, is in the centre, and in the roof immediately above it is a
square opening for the escape of smoke and the admission of rain,
snow, and air. All the light which the den receives when the door is
closed comes from this hole. The diameter of one of these conical
huts generally measures at its base no more than six feet; its whole
circumference, of course, does not exceed eighteen feet, and its
extreme height may be about ten feet. The floor is very nearly covered
with reindeer skins, on which the inmates squat during the day and
sleep at nights, contracting their limbs together and huddling round
their hearth, so that each individual of this pigmy race occupies
scarcely more space than a dog. On the side of the tent are suspended
a number of pots, wooden bowls, and other household utensils; and a
small chest contains the holiday apparel of the family. Such are the
dwellings of those among the Laplanders who are called wealthy, and who
sometimes possess very considerable property.
Near the tent is the dairy or store-house of the establishment. It
consists of nothing more than a shelf or platform, raised between two
trees, so as to be out of the reach of the dogs or wolves. The means of
ascent to this treasury of curds, cheese, and dried reindeer flesh, is
simply a tree stripped of its branches, but presenting at every foot or
so knobs, which serve the same purpose as staves on a ladder, the tree
being obliquely reared against the platform.
Another characteristic feature of a Lapp encampment is found in the
inclosures in which the reindeer are penned during the night or for
the purpose of milking. These are circus-like open places, each of a
diameter of about one hundred and fifty feet, and are formed by stumps
of trees and poles set upright on the ground, and linked together
by horizontal poles. Against the latter are reared birch poles and
branches of trees, varying from six to ten feet in height, without
the slightest attempt at neatness, the whole being as rude as well
can be--a sufficient security against the wolves being all that its
builders desire. The milking of a herd of reindeer presents a most
animated scene. When they have been driven within the inclosure, and
all outlets are secured, a Lapp, selecting a long thong or cord, takes
a turn of both ends round his left hand, and then gathers what sailors
call the bight in loose folds, held in his right. He now singles out a
reindeer, and throws the bight with unerring aim over the antlers of
the victim. Sometimes the latter makes no resistance, but in general
the moment it feels the touch of the thong it breaks away from the
spot, and is only secured by the most strenuous exertions. Every
minute may be seen an unusually powerful deer furiously dragging a
Lapp round and round the inclosure, and sometimes it fairly overcomes
the restraint of the thong, and leaves its antagonist prostrate on the
sod. This part of the scene is highly exciting, and it is impossible
not to admire the trained skill evinced by all the Lapps, women as
well as men. The resistance of the deer being overcome, the Lapp takes
a dexterous hitch of the thong round his muzzle and head, and then
fastens him to the trunk of a prostrate tree, many of which have been
brought within the level inclosure for that especial purpose. Men and
women are indiscriminately engaged both in singling out milch reins
and in milking them. Every one is fully occupied, for even the little
children are practising the throwing of the lasso, in which they evince
great dexterity, although their strength is insufficient to hold the
smallest doe.
When the pasture in the neighborhood is fully exhausted, which
generally takes place in about a fortnight, the encampment is broken
up, to be erected again on some other spot. In less than half an
hour the tent is taken to pieces, and packed with all the household
furniture upon the backs of reindeer, who by long training acquire
the capacity of serving as beasts of burden. On the journey they are
bound together, five and five, with thongs of leather, and led by the
women over the mountains, while the father of the family precedes the
march to select a proper place for the new encampment, and his sons or
servants follow with the remainder of the herd.
Towards the end of spring the Lapps descend from the mountains to the
sea. When they approach its borders, the reindeer, sniffing the sea air
from a distance, rush tumultuously to the fjord, where they take long
draughts of the salted water. This, as the Lapps believe, is essential
to their health. As the summer advances, and the snow melts, they
ascend higher and higher into the mountains. At the approach of winter
they retreat into the woods, where, with the assistance of their dogs
and servants, they have enough to do to keep off the attacks of the
wolves. The reindeer dog is about the size of a Scotch terrier, but
his head bears a wonderful resemblance to that of the lynx. His color
varies considerably, but the hair is always long and shaggy. Invaluable
as are his services, he is nevertheless treated with great cruelty.
For their winter journeys the Lapps use sledges or skates. One of their
skates, or “skiders,” is usually as long as the person who wears it;
the other is about a foot shorter. The feet stand in the middle, and
to them the skates are fastened by thongs or withes. The skiders are
made of fir-wood, and covered with the skins of young reindeer, which
obstruct a retrograde movement by acting like bristles against the
snow--the roots pointing towards the fore part of the skate, and thus
preventing their slipping back. With these skiders, the Lapp flies like
a bird over the snow, now scaling the mountains by a tortuous ascent,
and now darting down into the valley:
Ocior cervis et agente nimbos
Ocior Euro.
Such is the rapidity of his course that he will overtake the swiftest
wild beasts; and so violent the exercise that, during the most rigorous
season of the year, when earnestly engaged in the chase, he will divest
himself of his furs. A long pole with a round ball of wood near the
end, to prevent its piercing too deep in the snow, serves to stop the
skater’s course when he wishes to rest. The Laplander is no less expert
in the use of the sledge, or “pulka,” which is made in the form of a
small boat with a convex bottom, that it may slide all the more easily
over the snow; the prow is sharp and pointed, but the sledge is flat
behind. The traveller is swathed in this carriage like an infant in a
cradle, with a stick in his hand to steer the vessel, and disengage it
from the stones or stumps of trees which it may chance to encounter
in the route. He must also balance the sledge with his body, to avoid
the danger of being overturned. The traces by which this carriage is
fastened to the reindeer are fixed to a collar about the animal’s
neck, and run down over the breast between the fore and hind legs, to
be connected with the prow of the sledge; the reins managed by the
traveller are tied to the horns, and the trappings are furnished with
little bells, the sound of which the animal likes. With this draught at
his tail, the reindeer will travel sixty or seventy English miles in a
day; often persevering fifty miles without intermission, and without
taking any refreshment, except occasionally moistening his mouth
with the snow. His Lapland driver knows how to find his way through
the wilderness with a surprising certainty; here a rock, there a
fir-tree, is impressed as a landmark on his faithful memory, and thus,
like the best pilot, he steers his sledge to the distant end of his
journey. Frequently the Aurora lights him on his way, illumining the
snow-covered landscape with a magic brilliancy, and investing every
object with a dream-like, supernatural beauty.
But even without the aid of this mysterious coruscation, Lapland is
rich in grand and picturesque features, and has all the romance of
the mountain and the forest. In summer countless rivulets meander
through valleys of alpine verdure, and broad pellucid rivers rush down
the slopes in thundering cataracts, embracing islands clothed with
pine-trees of incomparable dignity and grace. Whoever has grown up in
scenes like these, and been accustomed from infancy to the uncontrolled
freedom of the nomad state, receives impressions never to be erased;
and thus we can not wonder that the wild Laplander believes his country
to be a terrestrial paradise, and feels nowhere happy but at home.
In the year 1819 a Scotch gentleman attempted to acclimatize the
reindeer in Scotland, and induced two young Laplanders to accompany
the herd which he had bought for that purpose. The reindeer soon
perished, and the Laplanders would have died of nostalgia if they
had not been sent home by the first opportunity. Prince Jablonowsky,
a Polish nobleman, who travelled about thirty years since through a
part of Russian Lapland, took a Lapp girl with him to St. Petersburg.
He gave her a superior education, and she was well treated in every
respect. She made rapid progress, and seemed to be perfectly reconciled
to her new home. About two years after her arrival, it happened that a
Russian gentleman, who possessed extensive estates near the capital,
bought a small herd of reindeer, which arrived under the guidance of
a Lapp family. As it was winter-time, and these people had brought
with them their tents, their sledges, and their snow-shoes, they
soon became objects of curiosity, and crowds of fashionable visitors
flocked to their encampment; among others, the good-natured prince,
who imprudently conducted his pupil, the young Lapland girl, to
see her countrymen, an interview which he supposed would give her
great pleasure. But from that moment she became an altered being;
she lost her spirits and her appetite, and, in spite of every care
and attention, her health declined from day to day. One morning she
disappeared, and it was found on inquiry that she had returned to her
family, where she remained ever after.
Another very remarkable instance of the Laplanders’ love of their
country is related by Hogström. During the war of Gustavus III. with
Russia, a young Laplander enlisted in a regiment which was passing
through Tornea. He served in several campaigns as a common soldier, was
made a sergeant in consequence of his good conduct and courage; and
having given himself the greatest trouble to improve his education and
acquire military knowledge, at length, after twenty years of service,
attained the rank of captain in the Swedish army. After this long time
spent in the civilized world, and having become accustomed to all its
enjoyments and comforts, he felt a strong desire to revisit his family
and his country. Scarcely had he seen his native mountains, and spent a
few days among his countrymen and the reindeer, than he at once quitted
the service, and resumed the nomad life of his youth.
The Laplander’s chief desire is for peace and tranquillity. Exposed
to all the privations of a vagrant life, and to every inclemency of
weather, he endures the greatest hardships with equanimity, desiring
only not to be disturbed in the enjoyment of the little that is
his--not to be interfered with in his old customs and habits.
Yet this same peaceful Laplander, who has so easily submitted to a
foreign yoke, is one of the boldest hunters, and not only pursues the
elk or the wild reindeer, but engages in single combat with the bear.
Like all the other Arctic nations of Russia and Siberia, he has strange
notions about this animal, which in his opinion is the most cunning and
gifted of all created beings. Thus he supposes that the bear knows and
hears all that is said about him, and for this reason he takes good
care never to speak of him disrespectfully. It may seem strange that
he should venture to slay an animal which ranks so high in his esteem;
but the temptation is too strong, as its flesh has an excellent flavor,
and its fur, though not near so valuable as that of the American black
bear, is still worth from fifteen to twenty dollars.
At the beginning of winter, the bear, as is well known, retires either
into a rocky cave, or under a cover of branches, leaves, and moss,
and remains there without food, and plunged in sleep until the next
spring recalls him to a more active existence. After the first fall
of snow, the Lapp hunters go into the forest and look out for traces
of the bear. Having found them, they carefully mark the spot, and
returning after a few weeks disturb the slumbering brute, and excite
him to an attack. It is not considered honorable to shoot him while
sleeping; and in many parts of Lapland the hunter who would kill a
bear with any other weapon but a lance would be universally despised.
Hogguer accompanied two Lapps, well-armed with axes and stout lances
with barbed points, on one of these bear-hunts. When about a hundred
paces from the lair the company halted, while one of the Lapps advanced
shouting, telling his comrades to make as much noise as they could.
When about twenty paces from the cavern, he stood still and flung
several stones into it. For some time all was quiet, so that Hogguer
began to fear that the lair was deserted, when suddenly an angry growl
was heard. The hunters now redoubled their clamor, until slowly, like
an honest citizen disturbed in his noonday slumbers, the bear came out
of his cavern. But this tranquillity did not last long, for the brute,
as soon as he perceived his nearest enemy, uttered a short roar and
rushed upon him. The Lapp coolly awaited the onset with his lance in
rest, until the bear, coming quite near, raised himself on his haunches
and began to strike at him with his fore paws. The hunter bent down to
avoid the strokes, and then suddenly rising, with a sure eye and with
all his might, plunged his lance into the heart of the bear. During
this short conflict the Lapp had received a slight wound on the hand,
but the marks of the bear’s teeth were found deeply impressed upon the
iron of the lance. According to an ancient custom, the wives of the
hunters assemble in the hut of one of them; and as soon as they hear
the returning sportsmen, begin chanting or howling a song in praise of
the bear. When the men, laden with the skin and flesh of the animal,
approach, they are received by the women with opprobrious epithets,
and forbidden ingress through the door; so that they are obliged to
make a hole in the wall, through which they enter with their spoils.
This comedy, which is meant to pacify the manes of the victim, is
still acted, though not so frequently as formerly; but the custom of
begging the bear’s pardon with many tears is completely out of date.
The animal’s interment, however, still takes place with all the ancient
honors and ceremonies. After having been skinned, and its flesh cut
off, the body is buried in anatomical order--the head first, then the
neck, the fore paw, etc. This is done from a belief in the resurrection
of the bear, who having been decently buried, will, it is hoped, allow
himself to be killed a second time by the same Lapp; while a neglect
of the honors due to him would exasperate the whole race of bears, and
cause them to wreak a bloody vengeance on the disrespectful hunter.
The wolf is treated with much less ceremony. Many a wealthy Lapp,
the owner of a thousand reindeer, has been reduced to poverty by the
ravages of this savage beast, which is constantly prowling about the
herds. Hence one of the first questions they put to each other when
they meet is, “Lekor rauhe?” “Is it peace?”--which means nothing more
than, “Have the wolves molested you?” Such is their detestation of
these animals that they believe them to be creatures of the devil,
contaminating all that touches them while alive. Thus they will never
shoot a wolf, as the gun that killed him would ever after be accursed.
At the first alarm that wolves have appeared, the neighbors assemble,
and the chase begins. For miles they pursue him over hills and valleys
on their “skiders,” and kill him with clubs, which they afterwards
burn. They will not even defile themselves with skinning him, but
leave his hide to the Finnish or Russian colonists, who, being less
scrupulous or superstitious, make a warm cloak of it, or sell it for a
few dollars at the fair.
Among the Fjall Lapps there are many rich owners of 1000 or 1500
reindeer, 300 of which fully suffice for the maintenance of a family.
In this case the owner is able to kill as many as are necessary for
providing his household with food and raiment, while the sale of the
superfluous skins and horns enables him to purchase cloth, flour,
hardware, and other necessary articles--not to forget the tobacco or
the brandy in which he delights. The price of the entire carcass of a
reindeer, skin and all, varies from one to three dollars Norsk (four
shillings and sixpence to thirteen shillings and sixpence). A fine
skin will always sell for one dollar in any part of the North. It will
thus be seen that a Lapp possessing a herd of 500 or 1000 deer is
virtually a capitalist in every sense of the word, far richer than the
vast majority of his Norwegian, Swedish, or Russian fellow-subjects,
although they all affect to look upon him with supreme contempt.
The daily food of the mountain Laplanders consists of the fattest
reindeer venison, which they boil, and eat with the broth in which
it has been cooked. Their summer diet consists of cheese and
reindeer-milk. The rich also eat bread baked upon hot iron plates.
Their mode of killing the reindeer is the method used by the butchers
in the South of Italy--the most ancient and best method of slaying
cattle, because it is attended with the least pain to the animal, and
the greatest profit to its possessor. They thrust a sharp-pointed
knife into the back part of the head between the horns, so as to
divide the spinal marrow from the brain. The beast instantly drops,
and dies without a groan or struggle. As soon as it falls, and appears
to be dead, the Laplander plunges the knife dexterously behind the
off-shoulder into the heart; then opening the animal, its blood is
found in the stomach, and ladled out into a pot. Boiled with fat and
flour, it is a favorite dish.
An important epoch in the life of the Fjall Lapp is his annual visit to
one of the winter fairs held in the chief towns or villages which the
more industrious Swedes, Norwegians, or Fins have founded on the coasts
here and there, or in the well-watered valleys of his fatherland, and
which he attends frequently from an immense distance. After a slight
duty to Government has been paid, business begins; but as every bargain
is ratified with a full glass of brandy, his thoughts get confused
before the day is half over--a circumstance which the cunning merchant
does not fail to turn to account. On awaking the next morning, the
vexation of the nomad at his bad bargains is so much the greater, as
no people are more avowed mammon-worshippers than the Lapps, or more
inclined to sing, with our Burns:--
O wae on the siller, it is sae prevailin’!
Their sole object seems to be the amassing of treasure for the
sole purpose of hoarding it. The avarice of a Lapp is gratified in
collecting a number of silver vessels or pieces of silver coin; and
being unable to carry this treasure with him on his journeys, he buries
the whole, not even making his wife acquainted with the secret of its
deposit, so that when he dies the members of his family are often
unable to discover where he has hidden it. Some of the Lapps possess a
hundred-weight of silver, and those who own 1500 or 1000 reindeer have
much more; in short, an astonishing quantity of specie is dispersed
among them. Silver plate, when offered to them for sale, must be in a
polished state, or they will not buy it; for such is their ignorance,
that when the metal, by being kept buried, becomes tarnished, they
conceive that its value is impaired, and exchange it for other silver,
which being repolished, they believe to be new. The merchants derive
great benefit from this traffic.
Brandy and tobacco are the chief luxuries of the Lapps. The
tobacco-pipe is never laid aside except during meals; it is even used
by the women, who also swallow spirits as greedily as the men; in fact,
both sexes will almost part with life itself for the gratification of
dram-drinking. If you walk up to a Lapp, uncouthly squatted before his
tent, his very first salutation is made by stretching forth a tawny
hand and demanding, in a whining tone, “Tabak” or “Braendi.” Dr. Clarke
relates an amusing instance of their propensity for spirituous liquors.
On his very first visit to one of their tents, he gave the father of
the family about a pint of brandy, thinking he would husband it with
great care, as he had seen him place it behind him upon his bed near
the skirting of the tent. The daughter now entered, and begged for a
taste of the brandy, as she had lost her share by being absent. The
old man made no answer, but when the request was repeated, he slyly
crept round the outside of the tent until he came to the spot where the
brandy was, when, thrusting his arm beneath the skirting, he drew it
out, and swallowed the whole contents of the bottle at a draught.
The practice of dram-drinking is so general that mothers pour the
horrid dose down the throats of their infants. Their christenings and
funerals become mere pretexts for indulging in brandy. But their mild
and pacific disposition shows itself in their drunkenness, which is
manifested only in howling, jumping, and laughing, and in a craving
for more drams with hysteric screams until they fall senseless on the
ground--while at the same time they will suffer kicks, cuffs, blows,
and provocations of any kind without the smallest irascibility. When
sober they are as gentle as lambs, and the softness of their language,
added to their effeminate shrill tone of voice, remarkably corresponds
with their placable disposition. An amiable trait in the character of
the Lapp is the warmth of his affection towards his wife, his children,
and his dependents. Nothing can exceed the cordiality of their mutual
greetings after separations, and it is to be feared that but few
married men in England could match the Lapp husband who assured Castrén
that during thirty years of wedlock no worse word had passed between
himself and his wife than “Loddad-sham,” or “My little bird.”
In spite of his fatiguing life, and the insufficient shelter afforded
him by his hut, the Fjall Lapp is generally vigorous and healthy, and
not seldom lives to a hundred years age. Continual exercise in the open
air braces his constitution, his warm clothing protects him against
the cold of winter, and his generous meat diet maintains his strength.
To prevent the scurvy, he eats the berries of the _Empetrum nigrum_ or
_Rubus chamæmorus_, and mixes the stems of the Angelica among his food.
But his chief remedy against this and every other bodily evil is warm
reindeer-blood, which he drinks with delight as a universal panacea.
The Skogs Lapp, or Forest Lapp, occupies an intermediate grade
between the Fjall Lapp and the Fisher Lapp, as fishing is his summer
occupation, and hunting and the tending of his reindeer that of the
winter months. His herds not being so numerous as those of the Fjall
Lapp, he is not driven to constant migration to procure them food; but
they require more care than his divided pursuits allow him to bestow
upon them, and hence he inevitably descends to the condition of the
Fisher Lapp. Lästadius describes his life as one of the happiest on
earth--as a constant change between the agreeable pastime of fishing
and the noble amusement of the chase. He is not, like the Mountain
Lapp, exposed to all the severity of the Arctic winter, nor so poor as
the Fisher Lapp. He is often heard to sing under the green canopy of
the firs.
The villages of the Fisher Lapps--as they are found, for instance, on
the banks of Lake Enara--afford a by no means pleasing spectacle.
About the miserable huts, which are shapeless masses of mingled earth,
stones, and branches of trees, and scarcely equal to the dwellings of
the wretched Fuegians, heaps of stinking fish and other offal taint
the air with their pestilential odors. When a stranger approaches,
the inmates come pouring out of their narrow doorway so covered with
dirt and vermin as to make him recoil with disgust. Not in the least
ashamed, however, of their appearance, they approach the stranger and
shake his hand according to the code of Lapp politeness. After this
preliminary, he may expect the following questions: “Is peace in the
land? How is the emperor, the bishop, and the captain of the district?”
The more inquisitive of the filthy troop then ask after the home of the
stranger, and being told that it is beyond the mountains, they further
inquire if he comes from the land where tobacco grows. For as our
imagination loves to wander to the sunny regions,
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit,
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute;
so the fancy of the Lapp conceives no greater paradise than that which
produces the weed that, along with the brandy-bottle, affords him his
highest luxury.