Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< 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.
164 REGNARD’s JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.
of leather adorned with fmall plates of filver; the fhoes, gloves, and boots of the
fameft uff: and this has led feveral hiftorians to relate, that there were men in the
northern regions, habited like beafts, and who wore no other covering than that
which nature had given them. ‘They have always a purfe made of the entrails of the
rein-deer, which hangs upon their breaft, and in which they keep a fpoon. The
change this drefs in fummer, and take a lighter, which is generally formed of the
ikins of birds whom they flay for the purpofe of defending themfelves againft the
gnats. They have always above this a fack of coarfe or whitifh gray cloth, with
which they cover themfelves ; for they are quite ignorant of the ufe of linen.
They cover the head with a cap, which is generally made of the {kin of a bird,
large as a duck, which they call /oom, fignifying in their language /ame, becaufe this
bird cannot walk; they place it on their heads in fuch a manner, that the birds’s head
falls over their brow, and its wings cover their ears.
Such, Sir, is the defcription of this little animal, called a Laplander; and, it may be
faid, that, after the monkey, he approaches the neareft to man. We interrogated
them on feveral fubje&ts on which we wifhed for information, and, in particular we
afked them where we could find their comrades. Thefe people gave us every informa-
tion. They told us that the Laplanders began to defcend from the mountains fituated
near the Frozen Ocean, from whence the heat and the flies had driven them, and
fpread themfelves towards the lake ‘lornotracs, where the river Torno takes its rife,
for the purpofe of fifhing a fhort time, till, about Saint Bartholomew’s day, by which:
time they arrive at the mountains of Swapavara, Kilavan, and others, where the cold
begins to be felt, and where they intend to pafs the winter. They aflured us, that we
fhould be certain of meeting with fome of the richeft of the Laplanders there, and
that, during the feven or eight days which it would take us to travel thither, they
would arrive in thofe places. They added, that, for their parts, they had remained
the whole fummer, in the neighbourhood of the mine and thre lakes around it, having
found fufficient nourifhment for fifteen or twenty rein-deer, which every one was in
poffeffion of, and being too poor te undertakea journey of fifteen days, for which pro-
vifions muft be procured, which they had not in their power to do, in confequence of
their having been unable to live away from the ponds which furnifhed them daily with
their fubfiftence.
On Friday, the fifteenth day of Auguft, it was extremely cold, and fnow fell on the
neighbouring mountains. We had a long converfation with the prieft, when he had
finifhed the two fermons which he delivered this day, the one of which was in the
Finnifh, the other, in the Lapponian language. He fortunately for us, fpoke pretty
good Latin, and we interrogated him on every fubject, which he could be beit ac-
quainted with, fuch as baptifm, marriage, and funerals. He told us, that, with refpec&
to the firft, the Laplanders were Chriftians and baptifed; but the majority were fo:
only in form, and they retained fo much of their old fuperftition, that it might be
faid of them, they had only the name of Chriftians, and they were {till Pagans in
their hearts.
The Laplanders carry ‘their children to the prieft for baptifm, a fhort time after they
are born; if, in winter, they carry them in their fledges, and if in fummer, they place
them upon the rein-deer, in their cradles filled with mofs, which are made of the bark
of the birch-tree, and in a very peculiar manner. On this occafion, they generally
make a prefent to the prieft, a pair of gloves bordered in certain places with feathers
of the /oom, which are violet, ftreaked with white, and of a very beautiful colour.
As foonas the child is baptifed, the father makes it a prefent of a female rein-deer
A and
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
