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.
REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO,.LAPLAND. 167
themfelves highly honoured if the ftranger behave to them in the fame manner they
do themfelves ; and as for the wives and daughters, they make no fcruple of giving
the vifitor all that he defires; and they believe that he does them as.much honour as
their hufbands and fathers.
As this mode of behaviour furprifed me much, and as I had never an opportunity
of experiencing it, I procured the moft exact information in my power, and learnt fe-
veral facts of this nature. I will then tell you what I have been affured is really true.
The Frenchman whom we found at the mines of Swampavara, who was a fimple
man, and I believe incapable of contriving a ftory, affured us that to pleafe a number of
Laplanders he had aflifted them im their conjugal duty ; and to fhow us how thefe people
had ufed means to induce him to take this trouble, he told us that one day, after having
drunk fome glaffes of fpirits with a Laplander, he was folicited by this man to lie with
his wife, who was then prefent with all the family; and that upon refufing, which he’
did in the beft manner he could, the Laplander not finding his excufes fatisfactory,
took his wife and the Frenchman, and having thrown them both upon a bed, he went
out of the room and locked the door, begging of the Frenchman, by every argument
he could think of, to do in his place that which he was accuftomed to do himfelf.
The ftory which happened to Joannes Tornzeus, prieft of the Laplanders, of whom I
have already fpoken, is no lefs remarkable. It was related to us by the fame prieft who
had been his curate in Lapland, and who had lived under him more than fifteen years.
A Laplander, he told us, one of the richeft and moft confiderable in the Lapland of
Torno, wifhed that his bed was honoured by his paftor ; he knew no better method of
multiplying his cattle, and of drawing down the blefling of heaven upon all his family :
he begged of him feveral times to do him that honour ; but the paftor, from confcience,
or fome other motive, wifhed to avoid it, and always reprefented to him that this was
‘not the moft certain method of rendering the Deity propitious. The Laplander by no
means coincided with this mode of reafoning ; and one day when he found the paltor
alone, he conjured him on his knees, and by all that he held facred among the gods
whom he worthipped, not to refufe him the favour that he requefted ; and adding pro-
mifes to his intreaties, he prefented him with fix crowns, which he was willing to give
him if he would debafe himfelf fo far as to lie with his wife. The good prieft doubted
fome time whether he could do it confcientioufly, and not wifhing to refufe the poor
man, he determined that it was better to make him a cuckold, and gain his money, than
to drive him to defpair.
If this adventure had not been related to us by the fame prieft, who was at that time
his pupil, and who was prefent, I could never have believed it; but he affured us of the
truth of it in fo earneft a manner, that, independent of any confideration of the manners
of the country, I could not doubt it.
_ This kindnefs which the Laplanders difplay to their women does not limit itfelf to
their paftors; but agreeable to what has been already mentioned, and what fhall after–
wards be fhown, extends alfo to ftrangers of every defcription.
I will not take any notice, Sir, of a girl whom a magiftrate of Lapland, who receives
the tribute for the King, had a child by. A Laplander purchafed her of him who had
difhonoured her, for no other reafon than becaufe fhe had been able to gain the affection
of a ftranger. Events of this nature are fo common in this country, that even during
a fhort refidence among the Laplanders a perfon can fcarcely fail to be convinced of
their reality by his own experience.
They wath their children in a tub three times a day until they are a year old, and
afterwards three times a-week: they have few children, and it fearcely ever happens
t that
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
