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REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND. 179
mote a pacification between the perfon who is dead, and him who is alive. This is
{trickly fpeaking, the error of the ancient Pagans, who called Manes quaft qui mancant
poft obitum. All this is only fuperftition; but you fhall now fee how much they have
of impiety, paganifm, and magic.
In the firft place they mix Jefus Chrift indifferently with their falfe gods, and they
make only one being of God and the devil, whom they believe they may worfhip in the
manner moft agreeably to their tafte. ‘This mixture is particularly to be remarked
on their tabors, where they place Storiunchar and his family above Jefus Chrift and
his apoftles. They have three principal gods; the firft is called ‘Thor, or the god of
thunder ; the fecond Storiunchar ; and the third Parjutte, which means the fun.
Thefe three gods are worfhipped only by the Laplanders of Lula and Pitha; for
thofe of Kimiet and of Torno, among whom I have lived, know of one only, whom
they call Seyta, and who is the fame among them, as Storiunchar among the others.
Thefe gods are made of a long ftone, deftitute of any other figure than that which
nature has given it, and fuch as they find it on the borders of the lakes. So that, every
ftone made in a peculiar manner, rough, or full of holes and concavities, is with them
a god; and the more remarkable its ftructure is, the greater is their veneration
for it. ;
Thor is the chief of the gods, and he is, they believe, ruler of the thunder, and
they arm him with a hammer. Storiunchar is the fecond, .whom they fuppofe to be
vicar of the former, as if one fhould fay Thoriunchar, lieutenant of Vhor. He pre-
fides over all animals, and birds, as well as fifh ; and as it is him of whom they have
mott need, it is to him alfo that they chiefly make facrifices to render him proptitious,
They place him generally on the borders of lakes, and in the forefts, over which he
extends his jurifdiction, and difplays his power. The third god whom they have in
common with feveral other Pagans, is the fun, for whom they have much veneration
on account of the benefits which they receive from him. ‘This is the one of all the
three that they adore, whom in my opinion, they have the greateft reafon to worthip.
In the firft place, he chafes away, at his approach, that cold which has tormented
them during more than nine months ; he uncovers the earth, and affords nourifhment
to the rein-deer: he brings a day which lafts feveral months, and diflipates the dark-
nefs in which they had fo long been buried ; on which account, they have, during his
abfence, a great refpect for the fire, which they believe to be a living reprefentation
of the fun, and which produces on earth the fame effects, which the other does inthe
heavens.
Although each family has its own particular gods, the Laplanders neverthelefs have
public places, which belong to the community. I will talk to you afterwards of
one of thefe places, which I vifited to fee their altars ; and it is there that they generally
make their facrifices, in the following manner.
When the Laplanders have known, by the noife of the tabor that their god is defir-
ous of blood, and that he demands an offering, they condué the victim, which is a male
rein-deer, to the altar of the god, to whom they with to facrifice, and they permit no
wife or daughter, who are alfo forbidden to facrifice, to approach the altar. They flay
the victim at the foot of the alter, in piercing his heart with a knife, plunged into his
fide ; then approaching the altar with reverence, they take the fat of the animal, and the
blood neareft to the heart, with which they fprinkle their god, with fear, in making
crofles to him with the fame blood. They place behind the idol the horn of the feet ;
the bones, and the horns, they hang upon the one fide, a red thread adorned with
carded wool, and upon the other, thofe parts, by means of which, the animal augments
AA 2 its
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