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REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND. 183
fimple effect of chance, we told him that we fhould believe him to be a real forcerer, if
he could fend his demon to the lodging of any of us, and bring back a fign to convince
us that he had been there. I afked him for the keys of my mother’s cabinet, which I
well knew he could only find upon her, or under her bol{ter, and I promifed him fifty
ducats if he could bring them to me. As the journey was pretty long, it was neceflary
for him to take three or four good draughts of fpirits, that he might travel the more
gayly, and be enabled to employ the {trongeft and the moft powerful charms to call his
familiar {pirit, and to perfuade him to undertake the journey, and to return fpeedily.
Our forcerer ufed his utmoft exertions ; his eyes rolled round, his face changed colour,
and his beard briftled violently : he almott broke his tabor, fo violently did he {trike it,
and he fell at length upon his face as {liffasa rod. All the Laplanders who were pre-
fent carefully hindered any perfon from approaching him while in this {tate, and kept
off even the flies, not fuffering them even to remain upon him. TI affure you that when
I faw this ceremony, I believed that I was going to fee fall in at the hole in the roof of
the hut the keys which I had afked for; and I waited till the charm would be finifhed
that I might make another requeft, and beg of him to procure mea quarter of an hour’s
converfation with the devil, from which J expected to learn many things. I fhould have
known whether Mifs is {till a virgin, and the nature of the intercourfe betwixt
Monfieur and Madame ———~. I would have afked him if Monfieur ——-—— had
——W— his wife during three years that he has lived with her; whether the laft child of
Madame ——— is her hufband’s or not: in fine, I fhould have known a great number
of things, which none but the devil knows.
Our Laplander remained as if he had been dead during a good quarter of an hour ;
when, beginning to recover a little, he began to look upon us, one after another, with
haggard eyes; and after having examined us all very attentively, he addrefled himfelf
and told me that his fpirit was not able to att agreeably to his inclination, becaufe I was
a greater forcerer than he, and my genius was more powerful; and that if I would
give orders to my devil to intermeddle nothing with his, he would give me fatisfaction.
I confefs to you, Sir, that I was exceedingly furprifed at having been fo long a for-
cerer, without being fenfible of it. I did every thing in my power to put our Laplander
on the road: I comnianded my familiar demon to give no difturbance to his; but after
all thefe efforts we could gain no intelligence from our forcerer, who extricated himfelf
very aukwardly from fo difficult an affair, and who fallied out in great wrath from the
hut to go, I believe, to deftroy all his gods and devils, who had deferted him. in. the
time of need, and we never faw him more.
On Thurfday morning we continued our journey to the lake of Tornotrefch ; and
at the place where it begins to form a river one can obferve a little ifland on the left,
which is furrounded on all fides with dreadful. cataracts, which defcend with an awful
precipitation among the rocks, where they excite a terrible noife. A famous altar, de-
dicated to Seyta, has been eftablifhed there fince the earlieft times, to which the Lap-
landers of the province of ‘Torno: refort for the purpofe of offering up facrifices on
the moft urgent occafions, John ‘Tornzus, of whoin I have already {poken feveral
times, mentioning this place, {peaks of it in the following manner: Eo loco ubi Torno-
trefch ex fe effudit fluvium in infulé quadam, in medio cataracte Dara dicta, reperiuniur Seyta
lapides, /pecie humana collocati ordine. Primus altitudine viri proceri, po/t, quatuor alit
paulo breviores, juxta collocati ; omnes quafi pileis quibufdam i in capitibus fuis ornati :. et quo-
niam res eft di iffcillima perieny gue plenifjina, propter vim cataracle indictam navigium ap-
pellere, ided Lapponi pridem deferunt invifere locum iftum, ut nunc explorari nequeant, utrum
guomodove ulli fuerint in iftam infulam. ‘* In the place,” fays he, ‘¢ where the lake of
; ‘© Tornotrelch
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