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REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND. 187
with the rein-deer. This beaft will afcend to the tops of the higheft trees, for the pur-
pofe of feeing and furprifing its enemy, while it remains concealed. When the jert*
difcovers a rein-deer, whether tame or wild, pafling under the tree on which he is
feated, he throws himfelf on its back, and placing his hind-feet on its neck, and his fore-
feet towards its tail, he ftretches out and {tiffens himfelf with fuch violence, that he flits
open the rein-deer’s back, and inferting his fnout, which is extremely fharp, into the
animal, he in this manner drinks its blood. ‘The {kin of the yert is very handfome and
very beautiful ; it is even compared to that of the fable.
There are alfo fome birds which carry on a deftructive warfare with the rein-deer ;
and among the reit the eagle is extremely fond of the flefh of this animal. In this
country great numbers of eagles are to be found, of fuch an aflonifhing fize, that they
often feize upon with their claws the young rein-deer of three or four months old, and
lift them up in this manner to their nefts, at the tops of the higheft trees. This parti-
cular immediately appeared to me, what I fuppofe it will alfo do to you, very doubtful ;
but fo true is it, that the guard employed to watch the young rein-deer is only. ufed for
this very purpofe. All the Laplanders have given me the fame information ; and the
Frenchman who was our interpreter aflured me that he had feen many examples of it ;
and that having one day followed an eagle which carried a young rein-deer from its
mother’s fide to its own neft, he cut the tree at the foot, and found that the half of the
animal had already been eaten by the young ones. He feized the young eagles, and
made the fame ufe of them which they had made of his young deer, namely, he ate
them. Their flefh is pretty good, but black, and fomewhat infipid.
The rein-deer remain pregnant nine months. When the Laplanders wifh to wean
the young ones, they put upon their heads a circle of pine, the branches of which are
made fharp, and prick very much, fo that when the young one approaches its mother, in
order to take its ufual nourifhment, fhe, finding herfelf pricked, pufhes away the young
one with her horns, and obliges it to feek for nourifhment elfewhere. ‘This is not the only
employment of the women: they make the clothes, the thoes, and the boots of the Lap-
landers; they draw the carded wool to cover thread ; this they do with their teeth, while
they hold the bone of a rein-deer, through which there have been feveral holes made
of various fizes, and they firft pafs their wool through the largeft, then through the
next, and fo on, till it be brought to the ftate they defire, and fit to cover the thread of
the rein-deer with which they ornament their drefs and every thing they make. ‘This
thread, as I have already mentioned, is compofed of finews extricated from the rein-
deer, which they draw by fibres, and entwine them afterwards on the cheek, while they
continue conftantly to twift them, and from time to time to moiften them: this is the only
method they make ufe of to make thread. All the harnefs of the rein-deer is likewife
made by the women: this harnefs is compofed of the fkin of the deer; the breatt-
leather is ornamented with a number of figures, made of woolien thread, from which
feveral little bits of ferge of all colours hang, which form a kind of fringe: the little
bell is in the middle; and there is nothing which gives vigour to this animal, or which
gladdens it more, than the noife which it makes with this bell whilft travelling.
As I have begun with {peaking to you of the occupations of the females of this coun-
try, | am naturally led to talk of the employments of the men. I fhall now ftate, in
general, that all the inhabitants of this country are naturally fluggifh and lazy, and that
nothing but hunger and neceflity can chace them from their huts and oblige them to
labour. I fhould have concluded that this general vice arofe irom the climate, which is
fo cold that no one can eafily expofe himfelf to the air, had I not found that they are
equally lazy in fummer as in winter ; but, in fact, as they are almoft conitantly a
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