LAPLANDERS AT HOME
Although Lapps are occasionally seen in charge of reindeer herds on
some of the southern mountain tracts of Norway, their real home is
in the Far North, not only of Norway, but also of Sweden, Finland,
and Russia, and the country which they inhabit is known as Lapland.
That portion of it which belongs to Norway covers only some 3,000 or
4,000 square miles, while the whole of the Land of the Lapps has an
area of something like 35,000 square miles. But statistics show that
in Norwegian Lapland there are a great many more inhabitants than
there are in Russian, Finnish, and Swedish Lapland put together;
and the people, whether they be under the rule of Russia, Sweden,
or Norway, are all of the same race--Asiatics and Mongols--totally
unlike Europeans in appearance.
In the first place, they are dark, and what we consider ugly, though
it is quite possible that in their eyes we ourselves are hideous. Then
they are short--a five-foot Lapp would be almost a giant--but what
they lack in stature they make up in sturdiness; for, although spare
of body, probably no men in the world can do a longer day's work,
or survive greater hardships. Dirty they are certainly, since they
never change their clothes and seldom comb their hair; yet, for all
that, they are perfectly healthy and happy.
They have gradually split up into three groups, known as Mountain
Lapps, Sea Lapps, and River Lapps, the first being nomads, or
wanderers, and the other two settlers, by the sea or river, who have
abandoned the original mode of life of their race.
Mountain Lapps are the most restless individuals it is possible to
imagine. Winter and summer they are always on the move, and three days
are seldom passed in one place. Time does not enslave them, for they do
not trouble about it. Routine is nothing to them: they eat and drink
when they feel inclined, and they sleep when a favourable opportunity
occurs. In such matters, as well as in many others, they resemble wild
animals. But in some respects they are methodical: they work by the
seasons, and in their wanderings take the same lines each year. In
the summer months they are down by the sea; during the remainder of
the year they are on the mountains, though at Christmas-time they
usually arrange to encamp somewhere in the vicinity of a church;
for Christmas is a great event in the lives of the Lapps, since they
profess Christianity, and if they are able to go to church at no
other time of the year, they make a point of doing so at this season.
To-day these people are law-abiding and peaceable, but they are a
strange mixture of good and bad. They are kind and hospitable, and of
a cheerful disposition; at the same time they can be cruel, cunning,
and selfish, while their love of money is no less than their love of
drink--when they can obtain it.
For one thing only does the Mountain Lapp live--his herd of
reindeer. They provide all his wants--food, clothing, and the
wherewithal to purchase luxuries. They are his wealth; his very
existence depends on them, and, in consequence, his mode of living
has to be accommodated to the habits of his reindeer. Whither-soever
they choose to graze, their owner has to follow; and he deems it
no hardship to pitch his rough tent on the snowy wastes in winter,
or even to sleep out under a rock, with the thermometer at seventy
degrees below zero. It is his life; from earliest childhood he has
known none other; he is content with it. And it is not only the men who
pass their lives thus; for the Lapp family is to some extent a united
one, and the women and children thoroughly enjoy the wild, free life,
apparently suffering no ill effects from the rigours of the climate.
A Lapp baby starts life in a very queer way. Until it is able to
walk it is kept in what is called a _komse_, a kind of cradle made
of strips of wood covered with leather, and just large enough to take
the baby. The little creature is rolled up in sheepskin and put into
the cradle, which is then stuffed with moss, and the leather covering
laced securely all around, so that only the baby's face is seen. To
protect its head the _komse_ is provided with a wooden hood, like most
cradles, and there is generally a shawl, which can be thrown over
the whole thing in severe weather; in fact, when the baby has been
properly done up in its _komse_, it might go by parcel post without
coming to much harm. It is a very excellent arrangement, because the
family is incessantly moving about, and the mothers have their work
to do, so cannot always be bothering about their babies. A thong of
leather stretches from head to foot of the _komse_, which the mother
can thus sling on her shoulder when going about, and by this thong
the baby can be hung up to a tent-pole or to the branch of a tree if
its mother is busy. But as often as not the _komses_ are just stuck
up on end in the snow or against a rock while work is going on.
As soon as the child can walk and has finished its cradle existence, it
is dressed in clothes similar to those of his or her father or mother,
and looks most quaint. And the life which these children lead is devoid
of much amusement. From the beginning they are helping to pack up and
move the tent, and to look after the reindeer; they are nothing more
than little old men and women; their toys are miniatures, or models,
of such things as they will have to use later in life--lassoes,
snowshoes, sleighs--and their games are restricted to learning the use
of the same. They are treated by their parents more or less as if they
were grown up, and allowed to do much as they please. Consequently,
they become self-willed, and have little respect for their elders.
After all, the mode of life of the Lapps does not differ very
greatly from that of our own gipsies, though of the two the Lapps
are certainly the better people. The wandering spirit is inherent
in both, but a portion of each sooner or later shakes it off, and
leads a more settled life. Some there are, however, who will never
be anything but wanderers, so long as there remains a free country
wherein they are at liberty to roam.
Let us now see the kind of place which the Mountain Lapp calls
"home." It cannot be anything very elaborate or bulky, as it has to be
packed up and moved about nearly every day, and it has to be carried
on the backs of the reindeer in summer, or drawn by them in sleighs
in the winter. So it is nothing more than a most unconventional form
of tent, not altogether unlike the wigwam of the Red Indian, or the
dwelling of many other nomadic people. A few long poles are stuck up
on a circle, with their ends fastened together to form a sort of cone,
and over this framework is stretched a covering of coarse woollen
material. At one side there is a loose flap, forming a door, and the
whole of the top part of the tent round about the ends of the poles
is left open, to admit light and to allow the smoke from the fire to
issue forth. The diameter of the tent is about twelve or fifteen feet,
and the height in the centre eight or ten feet. This is the kitchen,
larder, store-room, drawing-room, dining-room, and bedroom of the
family--men, women, boys, girls, babies, dogs and all.
A few branches of trees are spread on the ground, and in the middle,
immediately under the opening in the roof, is the fire, which is
kept alight day and night. Around it the inmates sit on the ground
by day, and sleep by night. There is no furniture of any kind, and
only a few cooking-pots, with some wooden bowls, and spoons of wood
or of horn. Beds and blankets and suchlike luxuries are also absent,
so undressing, dressing, washing, and absurdities of that kind are
not indulged in. When the time has come to go to sleep, those who
are in the tent just roll themselves close up to the fire, and sleep
quite comfortably in the clothes which they probably have not taken
off for a year or two. The whole family is not likely to be in the
tent at the same time; some members of it must always be looking
after the reindeer, as the herd can never be left to its own devices;
consequently, there is generally plenty of room.
Meals are free-and-easy affairs; there is no dinner-bell and no
fixed time for eating. But food is always ready, hanging in a pot
over the fire; and when anyone feels inclined to eat, the hand is
plunged into the pot, and a piece of meat pulled out and devoured. In
addition to reindeer-meat--of which the Lapps consume a great deal--the
food consists of cheese, and sometimes a kind of porridge; while for
drink they have water, melted snow, reindeer-milk, and, on occasions,
coffee. The latter they are very fond of, but few families can afford
to drink it often; so also with spirits, which, however, they only
manage to obtain in the towns.
Thus live the Mountain Lapps year in year out. To-day a family is in
one place, to-morrow a dozen miles away; now and again other families
are met with, and received hospitably; but for the most part the
family and its herd keep to themselves, since to do otherwise might
lead to difficulties about grazing. The rain floods their tent; the
snow buries it; the wind blows it down; yet they survive, and glory
in their free life.
The Sea Lapps, though much more numerous than their brethren of the
mountains, are not so interesting. They live by the coast in huts built
of wood or of sods, and obtain a livelihood by fishing. The River
Lapps, on the other hand, are both herdsmen and fishermen. Residing
in small settlements on the banks of the rivers, they keep reindeer
as well as a few cows and sheep, and they do a little in the way
of farming the land round the settlement. Many of them are even
intellectual, and the advantages of having their children properly
educated in the schools are gradually becoming appreciated.