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180 REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.
its fpecies. The facrificer carries away with him every part which can be eaten, and
leaves only the horns to his god. But when it happens, that the altar of that god to
whoni they intend to facrifice, is fituated on the fummit of inacceflible mountains,
where they’ believe him to refide, in that cafe, as they are unable to fprinkle their god
with the blood of the viétim, they take a fmall ftone, which they fteep in it, and throw
it towards the {pot which they are unable to reach.
They do not offer up facrifices to their gods only, but they alfo make them to the
ménes of their parents or their friends, to prevent them from doing them any injury.
‘The difference which takes place with refpect to the facrifice to the manes, is, that the
thread, which is red in the other cafe, is black in this, and that they bury the remains
of the animal, as the bones and the horns, and do not leaye them uncovered, as they
do upon the altars, ;
Thus much, Sir, have they in common with the Pagans: let us now confider what
they poffefs in particular with refpect to their magical art. Although the Kings of
Sweden have been able to do fomething by their threatening ediéts, and the punifhment
of fome forcerers, yet they have found it impoflible entirely to abolith the intercourfe of
the Laplanders with the devil; they have only leffened their number, and prevented
the practifers of the art from profefling it openly.
Among other enchantments which they are capable of producing, they fay, that they
can {top a veflel in the middle of its courfe, and that the only remedy againft the power
of this charm, is the {prinkling of female purgations, the odour of which is infupportable
to evil fpirits. They can alfo change the face of the fky, or cover it with clouds; and
that which, they perform with the greateft facility, is, their fale of the wind to thofe
who have need of it; and they have for this purpofe a handkerchief which they tie in
three different places, and which they give to him who has need of it. If he untie the
firft, he procures a gentle and agreeable wind, if he require a ftronger he unties the fecond,
but it he loofen the third, he is certain to excite a dreadful tempeft. They fay, that this ~
mode of felling the wind is very common in this country, and that the very loweft
forcerers have this power, provided, that the wind which is wanted, has already com-
menced, and requires only to be excited. As I have never feen any thing of all this, L
thall give no opinion refpeCting it; but with refpeét to the tabor, I can tell you fome-
thing with a greater degree of certainty.
This inftrument, with which they perform all their charms, and which they call
Kanzus, is made of the trunk of a pine and a birch-tree, and the veins of which ought to
proceed from eaft to weft. This kannus is made ofa {ingle piece of wood, hollowed in its
thicket part inan oval form, the under part of which is convex, in which they make two
apertures long enough to fuffer the fingers to pafs through, for the purpofe of holding it
more firmly. The upper part is covered with the {kin of a rein-deer, on which they paint
in red, a number of figures, and from whence feveral brafs rings are feen hanging, and
fome pieces of the bone of the rein-deer. They ufually paint the following figures ;
they draw firft, towards the middle of the tabor, a tranfverfe line, above which the
place the gods whom they hold in the greateft veneration, as Thor, with his underlings,
and Seyta, and they draw another line a little below the former, but which extends
only half acrofs the tabor; there Jefus Chrift, with two or three apoftles are to be
feen : above thefe lines are reprefented the fun, the moon, the flars, and the birds;
but the fituation of the fun is under thefe very lines, on which they place the animals,
the bears, and the ferpents. ‘They alfo fometimes draw upon them the figures of lakes
and rivers. Such, Sir, is the figure of a tabor; but they do not place upon every one
the fame thing, for there are fome on which troops of rein-deer are drawn, for the
purpofe
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