Reindeer land! Surely the land of the far, far north in Norway and
Sweden may be called reindeer land.
One man who traveled in that land tells of a strange sight he saw there.
On snow ahead of him one day he saw something moving. It looked as if
thousands of hares were playing in the snow. They seemed to jump, or
leap, into the air and to come down in the same spot. But why should so
many hares be there? And why did they move so strangely? The man went
closer, and found that his _hares_ were reindeer tails! Yes, just tails!
And thousands of them! The bodies of the reindeer were buried in the
snow and just the stubby tails stuck out. The reindeer had dug into the
snow, throwing up a bank which hid their bodies from sight. They were
eating the moss which they found under the snow and happily wagging
their tails as they ate.
The reindeer are about the only animals that can get a living in those
mountains where little grows except moss. And the people, called Lapps,
who roam about with them get their living from the reindeer.
The Lapps are small people. The men and women are not much taller than
most ten-year-old boys and girls. They have yellow skin, blue or gray
eyes, and brown hair. They dress in the skins of the animals or in
coarse cloth. They look very much like the Eskimos.
The word _Lapps_ means _people at land’s end_. And that part of Norway
and Sweden which lies at their very tops is called Lapland. Most of the
Lapps wander about, following the reindeer. Wherever the reindeer find
plenty of moss, the Lapps pitch their skin tents, or build themselves a
hut of sod covered with brush. In those huts they and their wolf-like
dogs live until the reindeer begin to wander farther away.
The Lapps and their dogs sleep together in the huts on beds which are
heaps of brush covered with reindeer skins. Getting ready for bed is a
simple task for these people. They merely take off their moccasins and
lie down to sleep in their clothes. They wear the same clothes, too, for
months and months and very seldom take a bath.
A kettle of reindeer meat is always boiling over coals on rocks in the
center of the hut. The Lapps get food from the kettle whenever they feel
hungry and eat it with spoons made of reindeer horn from rude bowls or
plates of wood or bone.
[Illustration: LAPPS TRAVELING WITH REINDEER]
Day and night some Lapp and his dogs watch the herd of reindeer as they
wander on the mountains. A few reindeer are kept near the hut to furnish
milk for the camp.
The reindeer not only furnish the skins for clothes and covers and milk
and meat for food, they are also the Lapps’ horses. The Lapp children
like to go sleigh riding behind a reindeer. But sometimes the ride is
rough. The children may be thrown out into the snow. The reindeer wears
but little harness, so the driver cannot hold him if he cares to run.
Several families of Lapps go every summer from Sweden across a body of
water to a place in Norway where the moss on the mountains is very good.
The reindeer swim across the water. The Lapps go in boats and join the
reindeer on the other side.
One Lapp family that crosses the water from Sweden has built a hut of
timber for its summer home in Norway. It is no larger than the skin or
sod huts. Both the mother and the father have to stoop to enter the
house. But the little Lapp girl and her dogs can run in and out easily.
But, even though the Lapps move about from place to place, the Lapp
girls and boys go to school. The law of Sweden requires these children
to go to school for six years. They begin their lessons when they are
seven years old and go to school until they are thirteen. Each
settlement has its own school. The schoolhouse is just another Lapp hut.
In the summer the children study their lessons sitting on the ground in
front of or in the hut. The teacher lives in the hut and moves when the
camp moves. Many of the teachers are Lapps who have been educated to
teach; but some of the teachers are Swedes or Norwegians.
[Illustration: A LAPP HUT]
The children must learn both the Lapp language and the Swedish language,
if they live in Sweden. They learn both the Lapp language and the
Norwegian, if they live in Norway. First they learn to read, write, and
work with numbers. After they can read and write a little, they begin
other lessons. They learn about the plants and animals of the north
land. They learn how to raise and care for the reindeer. They are
taught, too, how to care for their own bodies—how to bathe, brush their
teeth, cook their food, and clean their huts. But they do not learn
those lessons of cleanliness and care of the body well, because their
mothers and fathers do not practise them in the homes. Perhaps in a few
years when the Lapp children grow up they will be cleaner than their
mothers and fathers are. At least that is what the teachers hope.
[Illustration: CHILDREN IN A LAPP SCHOOL]
The Lapps make trinkets of reindeer horns and bone, moccasins of the
skins and plaited grass, and dolls dressed as Lapp children dress. When
the boats which carry tourists along the seas of Norway come near the
camp, the Lapps go to meet the boats. They carry with them bags of the
trinkets to sell to the people from other countries who are on the
boats.
In Sweden many Lapps ride on the trains. Sometimes they carry boxes
filled with trinkets which they have made. They put them in shops that
sell such wares to visitors in Sweden. If you rode on a train across the
northern part of Sweden, you would see many Lapps, and you would see
their trinkets in the shops—bone letter-openers, fur moccasins, fur
mittens, dolls dressed in fur.
Not all Lapps follow the reindeer. Some of them live in one place all
the year and earn a living by fishing and farming. Their homes are not
much better than the huts of the wandering mountain Lapps, but they
dress much like their Norwegian and Swedish neighbors. These people are
called Sea Lapps.