Lachesis Lapponica Part 5

The people of Scania having mowed their gra.s.s, let it lie till dry, when they rake it together.

The Smolanders dry it in a kind of shed.

The East Gothlanders range it in heaps, two and two together, in a long row.

In Upland the new-mown gra.s.s is tied up in bundles, and collected into c.o.c.ks.

In Angermannia the whole year's crop is laid by upon a kind of raised floor.

In Westbothland, after being dried in the shed, the hay is kept there for use, being laid crosswise, and cut when wanted[4].

_July 23._

This evening I took leave of the alpine part of Lapland, and returned by water from Hyttan towards Lulea.

The White, or Mountain, Fox (_Canis lagopus_) lives among the alps, feeding on the Lemming Rat or Red Mouse, (_Mus Lemmus_,) as well as on the Ptarmigan (_Tetrao Lagopus_). This White Fox is smaller than the common kind. The Ptarmigan, which the Laplanders call _Cheruna_, feeds on the Dwarf Birch (_Betula nana_), which for that reason is called _Ryprys_, or Ptarmigan-bush. At night this bird lies squat upon the snow, in the same posture as the Wood Grous (_Tetrao Urogallus_, see _vol._ 1. 179): hence a great deal of its dung is seen in the prints it makes in the snow. This mode of roosting renders the Ptarmigan an easy prey to the Fox.

The Lemming or Red Mouse, see _p._ 18, (_Mus Lemmus_,) in some seasons entirely overruns the country; devouring the corn and gra.s.s: but though these animals thus occasionally appear by millions at a time, they subsequently depart and disappear as unaccountably, so that n.o.body knows what becomes of them. They do no mischief in the houses.

The Ermine (_Mustela Erminea_) is white in winter, red in summer. This animal is seldom met with on the alps, but is very plentiful in the forests. Foxes and Wolves have destroyed the chief of the Hares. The Wolves indeed kill the Foxes.

The Shrew Mouse (_Sorex araneus_) and Common Small Mouse (_Mus Musculus_) are found in Lapmark, but no Rats (_Mus Rattus_).

Hunting the Bear is often undertaken by a single man, who, having discovered the retreat of the animal, takes his dog along with him and advances towards the spot. The jaws of the dog are tied round with a cord, to prevent his barking, and the man holds the other end of this cord in his hand. As soon as the dog smells the bear, he begins to show signs of uneasiness, and by dragging at the cord informs his master that the object of his pursuit is at no great distance. When the Laplander by this means discovers on which side the bear is stationed, he advances in such a direction that the wind may blow from the bear to him, and not the contrary; for otherwise the animal would by the scent be aware of his approach, though not able to see an enemy at any considerable distance, being half blinded by the sunshine. When he has gradually advanced to within gunshot of the bear, he fires upon him; and this is the more easily accomplished in autumn, as the bear is then more fearless, and is continually prowling about for berries of different kinds, on which he feeds at that season of the year. Should the man chance to miss his aim, the furious beast will directly turn upon him in a rage, and the little Laplander is obliged to take to his heels with all possible speed, leaving his knapsack behind him on the spot. The bear coming up with this, seizes upon it, biting and tearing it into a thousand pieces. While he is thus venting his fury, and bestowing all his attention, upon the knapsack, the Laplander takes the opportunity of loading his gun, and firing a second time; when he is generally sure of hitting the mark, and the bear either falls upon the spot or runs away.

_July 24._

In the huts of this neighbourhood I observed an instrument which I had no where noticed before, consisting of an oblong board, placed transversely at the end of a pole. Its use is to stir the pot while boiling.

Directly opposite to Hyttan towards the west, and on the south of the mountain of Wallivari, is a vein of fine iron ore, but hardly worth working while the roads, by which it must be conveyed to Lulea, are in so bad a state.

This night I beheld a star, for the first time since I came within the arctic circle. Nevertheless the darkness was not considerable enough to prevent my reading or writing whatever I pleased.

One of the Laplanders had caught a quant.i.ty of the fish called _Sikloja_ (_Salmo Albula_) of a large size. He stuck about twenty of them on one spit, the back of each being placed towards the belly of the next, and they were thus roasted before the fire. These fish had previously been dried, though not at all salted.

The glue used by the Laplanders for joining the two portions of different woods of which their bows are made (see _p._ 66,) is prepared from the Common Perch (_Perca fluviatilis_) in the following manner.

Some of the largest of this fish being flayed, the skins are first dried, and afterwards soaked in a small quant.i.ty of cold water, so that the scales can be rubbed off. Four or five of these skins being wrapped up together in a bladder, or in a piece of birch bark, so that no water can get at them, are set on the fire in a pot of water to boil, a stone being laid over the pot, to keep in the heat. The skins thus prepared make a very strong glue, insomuch that the articles joined with it will never separate again. A bandage is tied round the bow while making, to hold the two parts the more firmly together.

When these people undertake a short journey only, they carry no bag for provisions, the latter being stored between their outer and inner jackets, which are always bound with a girdle, being wide, and formed of numerous folds, both above and below it.

The Purple Willow-herb, or _Epilobium_ (_angustifolium_?) made the fields at this time very beautiful. The Golden-rod (_Solidago Virgaurea_) was likewise here in blossom, though not yet upon the alps, where it flowers later.

I have never yet seen any animal swim so light as the reindeer. During the dogdays the herds of reindeer, belonging to the inhabitants of the woody parts of Lapland, are very badly off for want of snow, with which those animals refresh themselves in hot weather upon the alps. Hence they const.i.tute a more valuable and thriving property to the alpine Laplanders than to any others. In the winter time, when the favourite Lichen of the reindeer (_L. rangiferinus_) cannot be got at, their keepers fell trees laden with filamentous Lichens, to serve them for food; but it scarcely proves sufficient.

The rivulet near Kiomitis Trask has a very white appearance, as if milk had been mixed with it. This the inhabitants term _kalkwatter_, or lime-water, from the colour, not from any knowledge of its cause or origin. This rivulet they told me came from the alps. It empties itself into the great river near Kiomitis, and renders the water of that river white for the s.p.a.ce of four or five miles. I noticed a similar phaenomenon at Wirijaur.

I was amused with the mode in which these Laplanders take brandy. After they have laid hold of the mug, they dip their forefingers into the liquor, and rub a little on their foreheads, as well as on the middle of their bosoms. On inquiring the reason, I was told their intention was that the brandy might not prove hurtful either to the head or breast.

Some people here were regaling themselves with fresh fish, of the kind lately mentioned (_Salmo Albula_), which having boiled into a ma.s.s like pap or flummery, they were eating out of their hands.

The dress of the Laplanders is, in one particular at least, very wisely contrived. Their thick collars effectually protect the throat and breast, which being furnished with numerous nerves and small muscles, and being the seat of the windpipe and of many princ.i.p.al veins and arteries, are very important and susceptible parts. The neck moreover, from its slender shape, is peculiarly exposed to cold. Hence the protection of clothing is found very necessary to the parts in question.

For want of it our young women suffer much injury, which our youths avoid by running into the contrary extreme of tying their neckcloths so tight as to make themselves as red in the face as if they were half strangled.

We Swedes are accustomed to have all our clothing made very tight. Not only the neckcloth, but the coat, waistcoat, breeches, stockings, sleeves, &c., must all stick close to the body, and the tighter they are the more fashionable. The Laplanders, on the contrary, wear only two, and those slight, bandages about them, which moreover are broad, and therefore less injurious than a narrow bandage in any part. Those to which I allude are the waistband and knees of their breeches, both made sufficiently loose and easy.

To-day I gathered the following plants.--A reed-like panicled Gra.s.s, with a very slender branched stem. (This appears to have been _Arundo Calamagrostis_, _Fl. Lapp._ _n._ 42.)

A great aquatic _Carex_, with inflated, whitish, pendulous spikes. In more dry situations they were upright and shorter, but in every other particular the same. (_C. vesicaria._) A gra.s.s with a slender dark-coloured panicle, approaching the stem. (_Agrostis rubra_, _Fl.

Lapp._ _n._ 46.)

_July 25._

The lakes in this part of the country did not afford me so many plants as further south. Their bottoms were quite clear, and dest.i.tute of vegetation. Their sh.o.r.es were no less barren. No Water-lilies (_Nymphaeae_), no Water-docks, &c., (different species of _Rumex_,) grew about their borders, but the surface of the water itself was covered with the Water Ranunculus (_R. aquatilis_), bearing round as well as capillary leaves, and whitening the whole with its blossoms. I could not but wonder to see these broad patches of white spread over the lakes, though, when I pa.s.sed up the country but a fortnight before, I had not perceived the least appearance of even the herbage of the _Ranunculus_ that composed them. Now its branches, an ell in length, swam on the surface. The growth of the stem must be very rapid, as it often proceeded from a depth of three fathoms. Some of the plants thrown up on the sh.o.r.e had capillary leaves, as are all those which grow under the water. The root resembles that of the _Iris_.

I noticed also the Pondweed with leaves clasping the stem (_Potamogeton perfoliatum_, rare in Lapland); and a very large branched floating Water-gra.s.s, with cylindrical spikes, which I hesitate whether to separate from the _Gramen aquatic.u.m geniculatum spicatum_, (of Bauhin and Rudbeck. _Alopecurus geniculatus_ of Linnaeus. The gra.s.s of which he here speaks is _n._ 38 of his _Flora Lapponica._ _A. geniculatus_ , _Sp. Pl._ 89.)

The annexed figure represents the Norwegian cross-bow, used for shooting squirrels, which it will hit at the distance of twenty or thirty paces as certainly as a gun.

It was curious to observe the dexterity with which one of the Laplanders. .h.i.t a small fly, which I had set up for a mark, at the distance of thirty paces.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The bow itself, a, a, a, made of steel, is two feet and a half long, two inches wide in the middle, gradually sloping off to the extremities, which are only one inch in width. Each end is rounded, with a notch, where the cord is fixed, which, when the bow is drawn, seems in danger of immediately slipping off, but it never does. The whole bow when at rest makes a curve of two inches; when strongly bent it forms one of seven.

The cord b, fixed on at the ends b, b, is made of twisted hemp, as thick as one's finger, bound round with hempen thread, especially in the middle, where it is to receive the bolt.

The stock c, c, made of wood ornamented with inlaid work of bone, is two feet and a half long, and half a palm broad, being half an inch thick towards the top, and an inch at the base. Its upper side is entirely covered with the above-mentioned inlaying, and quite even or flat, except towards the base or handle, where it is slightly concave.

The part marked d on the bow, and D on a larger scale annexed, is the catch, like a pulley, which turns on an iron pin, and in the side of which is a projection, with a rectangular notch, see _fig._ 1 and 2.

When the bow is bent, the angle at _fig._ 2 catches the cord, and is let go by means of the apparatus represented at c, c, by the side.

As no human being is sufficiently strong to draw this bow with the hands alone, a strap of leather is fixed round the loins, ending in two iron hooks, which lay hold of the cord. One foot is put into the strap at the top of the bow, h, and then, by the exertion of the body, the bow is drawn till the cord catches the angle of the pulley D.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The annexed cut represents the bolt of this Norwegian crossbow, which is a foot and half long, an inch thick. From the extremity, which is thicker and blunt, to the feathered part, is about a foot. The feathers, taken from the wing of the great Grous or c.o.c.k of the wood, (_Tetrao Urogallus_,) are stripped from the quill, and placed erect in three longitudinal rows; and after being bound on with thread, the part by which they are attached is smeared with pitch, to fix them the more firmly. The whole bolt is made of birch wood. Its base is compressed, naked and smooth, formed with a groove to receive the bow-string.

This more finished and elaborate sort of bow is princ.i.p.ally used in Westbothnia. The whole cost of one, with all its appurtenances, amounts to fifteen dollars, copper money. The Laplanders therefore content themselves with a far more rude and simple apparatus, consisting of such a wooden bow made of birch, as I have already described, with a string fitted to it. Or they merely cut a branch of fir in the forest, and with any bit of cord that happens to come in their way, kill abundance of squirrels, holding the bow with their left hand, and drawing it with their right by means of a small cleft stick. Thus they will, as I have witnessed, take successful aim at the _Emberiza nivalis_, or Snow Bunting, sitting on the tops of the most lofty pines.

It is commonly reported that no clay is to be found in Lapland, but I met with some in two different places; in each instance indeed it was at the bottom of a lake, as at Rondijaur and Sckalka trask, the sh.o.r.es being of sand though the bottom was clay.

Nets are set in the lakes in winter to catch the Sijk fish (_Salmo Lavaretus_, or Gwiniad.) Holes are made for this purpose in the ice, and the nets are dragged with a string. This is done from St. Andrew's day, (Nov. 30th,) to Christmas.

The Laplanders make their sledges serve for chests, when they are not used for their proper purpose, by constructing a sort of roof or convex covering, with an opening in the middle, to admit whatever they choose to store up within. This opening shuts with a moveable lid. Sledges in this state occasionally serve for the conveyance of goods from one place to another, the covering keeping them dry.