CHAPTER VIII.
LAPLAND AND THE LAPPS.
APLAND, or the Land of the Lapps, which the Lapps themselves call Sameanda or Somellada, forms the north and north-eastern portions of the Scandinavian peninsula, and is divided between Sweden and Russia. Norwegian Lapland includes the provinces of Norrland and Finmark; Swedish, of North and South Bothnia; and Russian, of Kola and Kemi. The last-named has an area of 11,300 square miles, with a population of 9000; Swedish Lapland, an area of 50,600 square miles, with 4000 inhabitants; and Norwegian, an area of 26,500 square miles, with a population of 5000. We are here referring to the number of true Lapps; in each division the population would be largely increased if we included Finns, Russians, Swedes, Norwegians.
Lapland, for nine months in the year, is blighted by the rigour of a winter climate. The summer months, when the sun does not set for several weeks, are July and August; and these are preceded by a brief spring, and followed by even a briefer autumn. Cereals do not thrive higher than the sixty-sixth parallel, with the exception of barley, which is cultivated as far north as the seventieth. The greater part of the country comes within that wooded zone which we described in an earlier chapter, and the forests, consisting of birch, pine, fir, and alder, spread over a very extensive area. On the mosses and lichens which grow abundantly in their shelter, are fed the immense herds of reindeer which constitute the principal wealth of the inhabitants.
The Lapps may almost be regarded as a nation of Lilliputians. Their men seldom exceed five feet in height, while the majority are some inches below that very moderate stature; and the women are even shorter. They are, however, a robust race, with muscular limbs, and unusual girth of body, the circumference of their chest being nearly equal to their height. Their complexion is dark, tawny, or copper-coloured; their dark, piercing, deep-sunken eyes are sot very wide apart, so as to communicate a peculiar character to the physiognomy. The wild, strange effect is further increased by the unkempt masses of dark, lank, straight hair which droop on either side of the whiskerless, beardless face. The cheek-bones are prominent, like those of a Celtic Highlander; the nose is flat; the mouth wide, with thin compressed lips. It may be supposed that the Lapps, from these indications, are not models of masculine or feminine beauty; and Dr. Clarke asserts that, when aged, many of them, if exposed in a menagerie, might be mistaken for the long-lost transitional form intermediate between man and ape. And, certainly, there is something repulsive in the constant blinking of eyes rendered sore by the pungent
198 AMONG THE LAPPS.
smoke of their huts, or the white glare of the snow, as well as in the expression of obstinacy and low cunning which one reads in every feature.
An aristocrat might be proud of their small and finely-shaped hands; but their arms, like their legs, are disproportionately short, clumsy, and thick. Clumsy, we mean, in shape; certainly not in movement, for the extraordinary flexibility of their limbs is one of the traits by which a Lapp is easily distinguished.
Of the dress of the Lapps it is needless to say much. In winter it consists of bears’ skins, in which both male and female wrap themselves up, with the fur outward. In summer the men wear a sort of tunic, the poesk, made of coarse light-coloured woollen cloth, depending to the knee, butvbound about the waist with a belt or girdle. Their head-gear consists of a kind of fez, made of wool, and adorned with a red worsted band round the rim, and a bright red tassel. Their boots or shoes are cut from the raw skin of the reindeer, with the hair outwards, and they are peaked in shape. They are thin, and they have no lining; but the Lapp defends his feet and ankles from the cold by stuffing the vacant space of the boot with the broad leaves of the Carex vesicaria, or Cyperus grass, which he cuts in summer, rubs in his hands, and dries before using. The female costume resembles that of the males, but their girdles are gayer with rings and chains.
The Lapps are a superstitious race. Like all the Norse tribes, they believe in witchcraft; and of old the Lapland witches had a reputation which extended to England, for being able to ward off rain or disperse storms. The English seamen trading to Archangel frequently visited their coast in order to buy a favourable wind.
Many of the Lapps claim the ability to foretell future events, and fall, or pretend to fall, into a trance or ecstasy, during which they see visions, utter prophecies, and unlock the secrets of those who trust to their divination. They also read the fortunes of inquiring dupes by means of a cup of liquor, or by the vulgarest jargon of palmistry. Superstition is the daughter of Ignorance. It is also the sister of Fear, for the superstitious are invariably prone to see supernatural signs and wonders in the appearances of the heavens, or to hear unearthly voices borne upon the midnight wind, and in everything they cannot understand to imagine the presence of some antagonistic power. As the American natives were panic-stricken at the occurrence of an eclipse, so the Lapps are filled with dread when the sky glows with the coruscations of the aurora.
These superstitions prevail in spite of the exertions of priests and schoolmasters. They are nourished in secret even when they are not openly proclaimed; and the Lapp, after listening devoutly to the harangue of his pastor, will return home to offer homage to his saidas, or wooden idols; to cower at the name of Trolls, the evil spirit of the forest; and to be deluded by the artifices of any so-called witch or fortune-teller.
There are Lapps, and Lapps; each, according to the region he inhabits, bearing his distinctive characteristics, and preserving his individual habits. Thus, there are the Fjalllappars, or Mountain Lapps; the Skogslappars, or Wood Lapps; and the Fisherlapps.
From the nature of the country the reader will expect, and will be right in expecting, that the Fjalllappars form the most numerous section. They are the nomads of Lapland, and their mode of life is entirely pastoral. As the Arabs with their flocks move from one oasis to another, or the Tartars with their cattle, so the Lapps migrate from place to place, compelled by the
THE LAPP AND HIS HUT. 1!>9
necessity of finding sustenance for their herds of reindeer. The mosses and lichens on which these animals feed are soon exhausted, and some time elapses before the half-frozen soil replaces them. The same cause operates to prevent the Lapps from assembling in large communities. Seldom more than three, four, or five families encamp in the same neighbourhood.
It will not be supposed that the temporary abode of a nomad exhibits any architectural completeness. Their tuguria, or huts, are of the rudest construction. They raise a conical framework, composed of the flexible stems of trees, and this they cover with a coarse kind of canvas, and in winter with the skins of reindeer and other animals. No doorway is required, and egress and ingress are provided for by turning up a portion of the canvas at the bottom, so as to form a triangular gap; and the portion so turned up is let down again at night. In the centre of the interior some large stones are piled together for a fireplace, and a square opening in the roof above carries off the smoke, and lets in the light and air—not to say rain, snow, and fog, when these prevail.
The tent or hut we have described generally measures about six feet in diameter, and eighteen to (twenty in circumference. It does not exceed ten feet in height. There is no floor, but the ground is covered with reindeer skins, and upon these the inhabitants sit or crouch by day, and huddle themselves up at night. The household utensils, implements, and weapons are suspended from the sides of the hut; and the clothing of the family, no very extensive stock, is preserved in a chest.
On a shelf or platform, raised high above the reach of dogs and wolves, between two neighbouring trees, the Lapp keeps his store of dried reindeer flesh, and cheese, and curds; for his diet is as plain as his general habit of living. His herd of reindeer he puts up at night, or when they are required for milking, in a large enclosure, about four hundred to five hundred feet in circuit, formed by a barrier of posts and stumps of trees, supporting a row of horizontal poles. Against the latter birch poles and branches of trees are placed diagonally, forming a kind of abattis, which is found to be a sufficient security against the attacks of wolves.
It is said that the milking of a herd of reindeer affords a lively and picturesque spectacle. When they have been driven within the area, and all the outlets closed, a Lapp, selecting a long cord or thong, twists both ends round his left hand, and then in his right gathers the thong itself in loose coils. Fixing on a reindeer, he flings the coils over its antlers. Sometimes the latter offers no resistance; but generally, on feeling the touch of the thong, it darts away, and its pursuer, in order to secure it, is called upon for the most vigorous efforts. And the scene is .animated indeed, when half-a-dozen reindeer, pursued by as many Lapps, sweep round and round the enclosure, until the former are finally overcome, or, as now and then happens, wrest the cord from the hands of the discomfited Lapp, and leave him prostrate on the ground. When the animal is secured, his master takes a dexterous hitch of the thong round his muzzle and head, and then fastens him to the trunk of a prostrate tree. The operation of milking is performed by both men and women.
As soon as the pasture in the neighbourhood is exhausted, the encampment is broken up, and the little company migrate to some fresh station. The rude tuguria are dismantled in less than half an hour, and packed with all the household furniture on the backs of the reindeer, who, by long training, are inured to serve as beasts of burden. On the journey they are bound together, five and five, with leather thongs, and led by the women over the mountains; while the
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father of the family precedes the march to select a suitable site for the new encampment, and his sons or servants follow with the remainder of the herd.
As spring verges upon summer, the Lapps abandon their mountain pastures, and move towards the shore. No sooner do the reindeer scent the keen sea-air than, breakinf loose from
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all control, they dash headlong into the briny waves of the fiord, and drink long draughts of the salt sea-water. The Lapps consider this sea-side migration essential to the health of their herds. When summer reaches its meridian, and the snow melts, they return to the pleasant mountainsolitudes, ascending higher and higher, according to the increase of temperature. Then, on the approach of winter, they retire into the woods, where their great difficulty is to defend their herds and themselves from the attacks of the wolves. In this incessant warfare they derive much
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assistance from the courage of their dogs. These are about the size of a Scotch terrier, with long shaggy hair, and a head bearing a curiously close resemblance to that of a lynx.
In the winter the Lapp accomplishes his journeys cither by sledging or skating.
Their skates are not exactly things of beauty, but they answer their purpose admirably. One is as long as the person who wears it; the other is about a foot shorter. The feet of the wearer are placed in the middle, and the skates, or skidds, fastened to them by thongs or withes. They are made of fir-wood, and covered with the skins of reindeer, which check any backward movement by acting like bristles against the snow. ‘It is astonishing with what speed the Lapp, thus equipped, can traverse the frozen ground. The most dexterous skater on the canals of Holland could not outstrip him. He runs down the swiftest wild beasts; and the exercise so stimulates and warms his frame that, even in midwinter, when pursuing one of these lightninglike courses, he can dispense with his garment of furs. When he wishes to stop, he makes use of
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a long pole, which is provided with a round ball of wood near the end, to prevent it from sinking too deep into the snow.
He is no less expert as a sledger. His vehicle, or pulka, is fashioned like a boat, with a convex bottom, so as to slip over the snow with all the greater ease; the prow is sharp and pointed, but the hind part flat. Perhaps it may better be compared to a punt than a boat. At all events, in this curious vehicle the Lapp is bound and swathed, like an infant in its cradle. To
preserve its equilibrium, he trusts to the dexterity with which he moves his body to and fro, and from side to side, as may be needed; and he guides it by means of a stout pole. His steed, a reindeer, is fastened to it by traces attached to its collar, and connected with the fore part of the sledge; the reins are twisted round its horns; and all about its trappings are hung a number of
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little bells, in the tintinnabulation of which the animal greatly delights. Thus accoutred, it will perform a journey of fifty or sixty miles a day; sometimes travelling fifty miles without pause, and with no other refreshment than an occasional mouthful of snow.
With wonderful accuracy the Lapp will guide himself and his steed through a seem
ingly labyrinthine
wilderness, when the usual signs and characters of the landscape arc buried deep in snow. But his memory is tenacious, and a blighted tree, or a projecting crag, or a clump of firs, affords him a sufficient indication of the correctness of his course. He frequently continues his rapid journey throughout the night, when the moon invests the gleaming plains with a strange brilliancy, or the aurora fills both earth and heaven with the reflection of its wondrous fires.
A French traveller, M. de Saint-Blaize, is of opinion that the Lapps, like all savage and semi-civilized races, are rapidly diminishing in numbers. Yet this diminution is hardly owing to the conditions under which they live. Their life, to the civilized European, seems severe and almost intolerable; but though it is marked by privation and fatigue, it is not without its charms. It is free and independent, and without anxiety. As for the privation and fatigue, the Lapp is hardly conscious of them, because his capacity of endurance is great, and he is accustomed to them from his earliest years. Temperate, active, and inured to exertion, his physical frame is wonderfully vigorous, and he knows nothing of the majority of maladies which afflict the dweller in cities. One terrible disease, indeed, he does not escape, and this may have had much to do with their decline,—the smallpox. Otherwise, they are a healthy as well as a hardy race. If during a journey a Lapp woman gives birth to a child, she places the new-born in a frame of hollow wood, in which a hole has been cut to receive the little one’s head; then slings this rude cradle
202 THE LAPP HUNTERS.
on her back, and continues her march. When she halts, she suspends the infant and its cradle to a tree, the wirework with which it is covered affording a sufficient protection against wild beasts.
Professor Forbes, however, describes a more comfortable cradle, which is cut out of solid wood, and covered with leather, in flaps so arranged as to lace across the top with leathern thongs; the inside is lined with reindeer moss, and a pillow, also of reindeer moss, is provided for the head of the infant, who fits the space so exactly that it can stir neither hand nor foot.
The Lapp is a bold hunter, and will encounter the bear single-handed. Like the Siberian, he entertains a superstitious reverence for this powerful animal, which he regards as the wisest and most acute of all the beasts of the field, and supposes to know and hear all that is said about it; but as its fur is valuable and its flesh well-favoured, he does not refrain from pursuing it to the death, though careful, so to speak, to kill it with the highest respect.
Early in winter the bear retires to a rocky cave, or a covert of branches, leaves, and moss, and there remains, without food, and in a state of torpidity, until the spring recalls him to active life. After the first snowfall, the Lapp hunters seek the forest, and search for traces of their enemy. These being found, the spot is carefully marked, and after a few weeks they return, arouse the slumbering brute, and stimulate it to an attack; for to shoot it while asleep, or, indeed, to use any weapon but a lance, is considered dishonourable.
Hogguer, whose narrative is quoted by Hartwig, accompanied a couple of Lapps, well armed with axes and stout lances, on one of these dangerous expeditions. When about a hundred paces from the bear’s den, the party halted, and one of the Lapps advanced shouting, and his comrades made all the din they could. He ventured within twenty paces of the cavern, and then threw stones into it. For awhile all was quiet, and Hogguer began to think they had come upon an empty den; but suddenly an angry growl was heard.
The hunters now renewed and redoubled their clamour, until slowly, like an honest citizen roused from his virtuous sleep by a company of roisterers, the animal came forth from his lair.
At first he seemed indifferent and lethargic; but, catching sight of his nearest enemy, he was filled with rage, uttered a short but terrible roar, and rushed headlong upon him. The Lapp, with his lance in rest, awaited the onset calmly, while the bear, coming to close quarters, reared himself on his haunches, and struck at his antagonist with his fore paws.
To avoid these powerful strokes, the daring huntsman crouched, and then, with a sudden spring, drove his lance, impelled by a sturdy arm, and guided by a sure eye, into the creature’s heart.
The victor escaped with only a slight wound on the hand, but the marks of the bear’s teeth were found deeply impressed on the iron spear-head.
According to an old custom, the wives of the hunters assemble in one of their huts, and as soon as they hear them returning, raise a loud discordant chant in honour of the bear. When the men, loaded with their booty of skin and flesh, draw near, it is considered necessary to receive them with words of reproach and insult, and they are not allowed to enter through the door; they are compelled, therefore, to obtain admission through a hole in the wall. But when the animal’s manes have been thus propitiated, the women are not less eager than the men to make the most of its carcass; and after the skin, fat, and flesh have been removed, they cut up the body, and bury it with great ceremony, the head first, then the neck, next the fore paws,
INTEMPERANCE OF THE LAPPS.
203
and so on, down to the animal’s “last,”—its tail. This is done from a wild belief that the bear rises from the dead, and if it has been properly interred, will kindly allow itself to be killed a second time by the same hunter!
The principal article of food of the Lapps is reindeer venison. This they boil, and it supplies them both with meat and broth. In summer they vary their bill of fare with cheese and reindeer milk; and the rich eat a kind of bread or cake, baked upon hot iron plates or “girdles.” For luxuries they resort to brandy and tobacco ; and these are not less appreciated by the women than by the men. As for the latter, they are never seen without a pipe, except at meals; and the first salutation which a Lapp addresses to a stranger is a demand for “tabak” or ” braendi.” Dr. Clarke tells us that on paying a visit to one of their tents, he gave the father of the family about a pint of brandy, and as he saw him place it behind his bed, near the margin of the tent, he concluded it would be economically used. In a few minutes the daughter entered, and asked for a dram, on the ground that she had lost her share while engaged upon domestic duties outside. The old Lapp made no reply, but slily crept round the exterior of the tent until he came to the place where the brandy was concealed. Then, thrusting in his arm, he drew forth the precious bottle, and emptied its contents at a draught.
We find no great difference of habits existing between the Mountain Lapp and the Skogs or Forest Lapp, except that the latter takes up fishing as a summer pursuit, and devotes the winter months to his herds and the chase. But in course of time his herds demanding more attention than he can give to them, he is transformed into a Fisher Lapp, who dwells always upon the sea-coast, and is at once the filthiest and least civilized of the race. He resembles the Mountain Lapp in his love of tobacco and brandy. He differs from him in never migrating, and in wholly abandoning the pastoral life.
A picture of what the artists call a Lapland “interior,” of the domestic economy of a Lapp hut, is painted for us by the author of a recent book of travel, entitled “Try Lapland.”
After a long day’s journey, in the neighbourhood of Lake Randejaur, weary and cold, he and his companions came upon a small hut, and had visions of obtaining a night’s rest; but a closer acquaintance with the hut convinced them that such a proceeding would be undesirable.
For, knocking at the door, and pulling up the latch, they entered, to see before them a family scene!
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FISHER LAPPS.
204 A LAPP INTEUIOR.
In an inconceivably dirty room stood a still dirtier beldame, making coffee. Her husband, an old man of seventy, sat on one side; while a hideous, deformed little Lapp, whether man or woman they could hardly tell, squatted on the floor on the other, in full costume, consisting of high-peaked blue cloth cap, and reindeer-skin dress, ornamented with beads and spangles. Her face was brown as a berry, long lanky black hair streamed down her cheeks; and, staring at the intruders, she begged for “penge” (money). Two young men were snoring in one bed, and two boys in another placed opposite to it, each being covered with a few reindeer-skins.
The entrance of the strangers aroused the sleepers to give one hasty look, and then they snored again.
The lady of the house offered coffee; and though everything looked so dirty as to create a positive feeling of disgust, the travellers could not afford to be particular, and accepted her offer, which put her in a perfect ecstasy of delight.
Quickly she scuttled off to the well for water, and, filling her kettle, set to work to roast fresh coffee.
The old man got up and endeavoured to rouse the sleepers, when he understood that the strangers were in immediate want of boats and rowers.
Leaving him to make the necessary preparations, they went out to take a look at the surrounding scenery; and returning in a quarter of an hour, expected to find them preparing the boats, which lay two or three hundred yards off. But, to their surprise, not the slightest change had occurred in the position of the sleepers; and, after drinking their coffee out of the one cup the Lapps possessed, they grow impatient, and stormed at the young men, trying even to pull them out of bed—but they would not budge.
“The father,” says our authority, “who protested great love for the English, but turned out the biggest rascal we had come across, was as anxious as we were that his sons should get up and row us ;—but not a bit of it! He told u;s that they had been out three days and three nights on the Fells, and were thoroughly exhausted. What was to be done, we could not think. It was getting serious; we certainly could not sleep in this dreadful hole, and there was no other shelter near.
“Money had no power: though I showed the almighty dollar to the weary slumberers, (they had surely never been in America!) they turned away with a grunt.
“Then, O happy thought, I recollected the brandy; and bringing my keg to the bedside, I tapped it, and offered them a glass if they would get up. This was quite another thing; they vawned, stretched their limbs, and stood upon the floor. Poor fellows I we then saw how ill and fagged they looked, though they were splendid specimens of the human race.
“Pouring a glass of the fiery compound down their throats, they put on their coats, and followed us like sleepy dogs; but in a few moments were rowing us like heroes.”
All travellers agree in bearing witness to the passion of the Lapps for alcoholic liquors. If we could spare our apostles of temperance and advocates of Good Templarism, which, alas ! we cannot afford to do, few better fields could be found for their admirable labours than Lapland.
Captain Hutchinson, however, has more pleasant experiences to relate, and more agreeable “interiors” to sketch, than the preceding. Let us accompany him, for instance, on a visit to the island of Bjorkholm.
RACIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LAPPS. 205
The settlement here is very small, consisting of only two or three houses, and a few barns and sheds. The inhabitants, after the usual manner of the Lapps, support themselves by fishing in summer, and by the reindeer in winter. Not a tree or shrub grows upon the island; only grass.
The hostess, on this occasion, was an active, good-natured little woman, not more than four feet high, who flew to and fro with a really wonderful agility. At one moment she was mounted on the dresser, searching for forks and spoons; at another, almost buried in a deep box, diving for sheets and table-cloth. Crockery was decidedly scarce; and a china slop-basin, with a wreath of prettily painted little flowers round the margin, had really a hard time of it.
It was first presented to Captain Hutchinson and his party for the purpose of washing their hands; at supper it appeared filled with chocolate; in the morning it reappeared as their joint washing-basin.
However, the’ little Lapp entertained them right royally, with hot kippered salmon, pancakes, dried reindeer, and eggs.
The beds were very comfortable, the mattresses of hay, with the whitest of sheets. And though the hostess and her family seemed very poor, relics of former grandeur were visible in the silver spoons, teapot, goblet, and cream-jug.
A recent writer observes that the inferiority of the Lapp race is as conspicuous from the intellectual as from the physical point of view. This is evident from the most cursory glance at their lives and manners. The Lapp is, on the whole, a simple, timid, regular, honest creature. To his great defect we have already adverted,—that excessive partiality for strong liquors, which would be sufficient to bring about the annihilation of his race within a more or less limited period, even if his days were not numbered from every other concurrent cause. He is essentially nomadic. He is perfectly free and independent throughout the solitary wastes which extend from the North Cape to the sixty-fourth degree of latitude; he plants his tent where he pleases, generally close to a wood or lake; and he moves on when the moss all around it has been eaten up. Such a mode of life is, of course, incompatible with the progress of Swedish, Norwegian, and even Finlandish civilization, which, year by year, curtails the territory given up to the migration of the nomadic Lapps.
There is about the life of the Lapps, in summer, says Count D’Almeida, a certain charm of independence, which might prove seductive to certain minds, weary of civilization and unwitting of mosquitoes. But in winter, no being of any other race could with impunity endure such privations and sufferings as they undergo. They are compelled to keep a careful watch upon their herds, which are in constant danger from the snow-storms and the wolves. In the hard frosts, when the snow is upwards of three feet in depth, they arc compelled to dig it up with their axes, so as to obtain access for their reindeer to the moss, which constitutes their only food in winter. Their vigorous constitutions and their power of enduring privation and climatic rigour, explain how it was that man, in the Glacial Age, though without any of the appliances of civilization, could endure its tremendous severity. What the Lapps can bear in point of toil and want is almost incredible. They suffer, and are strong, in a sense the poet never contemplated. It frequently happens that they are surprised by a snow-hurricane; they sleep on the ground, covered with snow-flakes, which, on awaking, they simply shake off, and pursue their
206 THE LAPPS AND QUENES.
way. In an excess of cold which would chill our blood, even if we were running at the top of our speed, they will fall, in a lit of intoxication, on the ground, and lie there with impunity for hours. It is said that in mid-winter, women, suddenly seized with the pains of childbirth while on the road, are delivered in the snow, without any ill result, either to them or their offspring.
But, as the same writer remarks, human strength cannot exceed certain limits. The Lapp ages early in life, and dies young. When he attains an advanced age, his fate is still more lamentable. It is said that if an old man falls sick while a tribe is accomplishing one of its customary migrations, his children frequently abandon him,—leaving him with some provisions at the foot of a tree, or on the bank of a stream, with the terrible prospect before him of dying of starvation, or falling a prey to wild beasts. The Lapp is always poor even when he may be called rich; for it is calculated that to maintain a family of four persons, a herd of fully four hundred reindeer is necessary, representing a capital of about £16O.
The Lapp dialect is described as resembling the Finnish. When we remember that the Lapps and the Quenes, or Finns, wear a similar costume, are distinguished by very similar customs, and that the two people call themselves by the same generic name, Suomi, we can understand why some travellers persist in regarding them as sprung from the same common stock. But a careful investigation shows the absolute distinctness of the Lapps from the Finns, notwithstanding this similarity of name and language—a similarity due, as in many other countries, to the influences of conquest or colonization. Some ethnologists, and among them M. D’Omalins, include the Finns among the white, or Caucasian race, and leave the Lapps among the inferior branches of the great Mongol family. It seems certain that a greater difference exists between the Que”nes and the Lapps of Northern Norway than between the Quenes and tjie Scandinavians of the same region.
The Que”nes have adapted themselves completely to sedentary and agricultural habits, while the Lapps, as yet, have not made a single advance in the direction of raising themselves above a pastoral and nomadic life. On the other hand, Finns constantly intermarry with the Swedes or Norwegians; while unions between Lapps and Scandinavians, or even between Lapps and Finns, are regarded throughout the entire country as monstrous anomalies. Lastly: laying aside the arguments founded upon the physical conformation of the Lapps and the Finns, an important historical consideration seems to prove their distinct co-existence from a period far anterior to the settlement of the Suiones and the Goths in the peninsula; it is that in the Finnish mythology we constantly meet with legends of battles between dwarfs and giants. It is impossible that these can refer to the warfare between the Finns and the Scandinavians, for the latter were of the same stature as the former; and it is in comparison with the Lapps only that the Finns could relatively be called r/iants.
We borrow from Count D’Alviella a few particulars relating to the stationary Lapps, who inhabit the region of West Bothnia, or Wcsterbotten, a long, narrow strip of land dividing the Gulf of Bothnia from Lapland proper. These Lapps seem to be the product of a mixture of races in which the Scandinavian element predominates. They are of an ordinary stature, robust, with regular features, light hair, and clear gray eyes.
The country in which they dwell has a strange, an original, but a monotonous character.
THE .STATIONARY LA1TS. 207
It is its monotony which wearies the traveller, though at first he will be impressed by its fresh yet severe beauty. The forests of birch and fir seem endless, and the great lakes in their depths fatigue the eye with their wastes of cold, drear water. Occasionally, however, the traveller comes upon a smiling plain, enamelled with myosotis, and brightened by a silver-shining, music-murmuring stream. Here and there the wood is thinner, and lean cows may be seen feeding among the half-stripped stems. Next comes a clearing, where the forest has been swept away by fire; a clearing with fields of rye and barley; a palisade enclosure, and a group of chalets, with a comparatively spacious and undilapidated building in the centre.
These gdrds, as they are called, closely resemble each other throughout the North. Neither material nor space is begrudged to the West Bothnian architects. Even the smallest farm comprises three or four buildings, which generally form a square on the four sides of an inner court. These buildings—how unlike the wretched, filthy hut of the nomadic Lapp!—comprise three living-rooms, kitchen, and stables; and are divided from each other only by a partition of horizontally-laid planks, the interstices being filled up by moss. The furniture is simple, convenient, suitable, and shining with cleanliness, like a Dutch kitchen. Around the hearth is hung a series of brightly-coloured prints, representing cither a Scriptural scene or events in the life of an illustrious personage,—King Charles XV., or the bishop of the diocese, side by side with the universal legendary figures, Napoleon I. and Garibaldi. Close by stands the old hereditary locker, in which the husband accumulates his money and the wife deposits her trinkets; to the wall is suspended a complete trophy of knives, pipes, belts with silver buckles, sledge-bells, and a whip with a carved horn handle. The whole scene is one of order and the proprieties of family life.
All these dwellings, it may be added, do not wear the same aspect of prosperous neatness; but even-where poverty is present, it is unaccompanied by that sullen gloom and melancholy squalidness which, in other countries, is the painful indication and result of long-endured privation. And here, we must also remember, poverty and famine are not always inseparable companions. The shadow of hunger frequently darkens the rich man’s door, and a man might perish for want of food on a sack of gold. One winter, the wealthiest members of the community were reduced to the necessity of eating bread made of bark mixed with moss.
Still, we see how wide a difference separates the stationary from the nomadic Lapp, and how impossible it is for a wandering population to acquire or appreciate the comforts of civilized life. A pastoral race, in the present age of the world, is, and must be, a decaying, because a barbarous race. If it touches the borders of civilization, it is only to become infected with its vices, and thus to hasten its inevitable decav.
fynm 