Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - General Remarks Concerning Lapland - Section IV
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
152 GENERAL REMARKS
overgrown with fhaggy hair, like wild beafts. Others have given
them but one eye: but thefe are fables which thofe authors feem
to have borrowed from Herodotus* and Pliny, and in no way ap-
plicable either to the Laplanders, or any race of people upon the
face of the earth. Others again have afferted, with a greater ap-
pearance of truth and juftice, that they had from nature an offen-
five fmell. It muft indeed be acknowledged, that there is a cer-
tain unfavoury ranknefs which attends the Laplander, more than
is commonly feund with the inhabitants of other countries; but
this is not fo much to be imputed to his natural temperament as
to his mode of life, dwelling as he does in a hut or tent, in the
midit of a conftant {moke, and clothed in a drefs which has im-
bibed quantities of dirt, greafe, and train oil.
* The origin of this ftory of. people overgrown with hair, who had but one
eye, like the Cyclops, is as old or older than the time when Herodotus wrote his
hiftory. He fpeaks of certain Cyclops called Anmafpi, inhabiting the northern
parts, who waged perpetual war with dragons or griffins, in pofleffion of mines of
gold. The notion of thefe Cyclops is {uppofed to have arifen from the interpre-
tation of the Scythian word anma/pos, which fignifies one eye. It has been
thought by fome that the Anmafpi were a Tartar nation, into whofe country the
Chinefe (whofe enfign is a dragon or griffin) made frequent inroads for the pur-
pofe of feeking for gold, which they carried away with them. As to the pecu-
liarity of the natives of Lapponia in refpect to hairinefs, it has been fuppofed to
allude to their wearing furs in the winter for an outer garment. Herodotus like-
wife {peaks of men who, at particular feafons, were changed into wolves. ‘This
certainly had no other foundation than in the depraved fancies or impofitions of
forcerers, who pretend to a power of transforming themfelves into wolves, and
perhaps, to carry on the deception, difguifed themfelves in the {kins of thofe ani-
mals. This belief has remained to later ages, and has left its name behind it,
being called werewolf, by the Germans wahrwol/, and by the French loup garou.
The
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
