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188 REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND.
fitated to ufe exertions for their fubfiftence, they are nearly always engaged in hunting
“and fifhing: they hunt during winter, and fifh during the fummer ; and make with
their own hands all the inftruments neceflary for each of thefe employments. Their boats
are made of fir, and are joined together by the thread of the rein-deer, which makes them
fo light that one perfon can eafily carry one of them upon his fhoulder. They require
a quantity of thefe boats, in confequence of the number of cataracts which they fre-
quently meet with; and as they are unable to afcend thefe, they have in many places a
boat on each fide of them: they leave them on the bank of the river, after having drawn
them to land, and put two or three ftones into them, to prevent the wind from carry-
ing them away. Some employ thread and cord to faften them; the thread is made of
hemp, which they purchafe from the merchants: they often rub it with a kind of red
glue, which they make of the feales of fith dried in the air, for the purpofe of firength-
ening and rendering them lefs difpofed to putrefaction. ‘They make their cords of the
bark of the birch-tree, or the root of the fir ; they are extremely {trone when immerfed
in water. he men are continually employed in making fledges of all kinds: fome of
them for the purpofe of conveying their perfons, which are called pomes ; and others
for carrying the baggage, which are called racdakeres, and are fhut like coffers: they
alfo make their bows and arrows. The bows are compofed of two pieces of wood
placed one above the other; the lower one confifts of burnt fir, and the other of birch :
thefe pieces are glewed together, and covered throughout their whole length with a
very thin piece of bark of the birch-tree, which prevents one from perceiving that which
it contains. Their arrows are of various kinds: fome are compofed folely of wood,
and are employed to kill, or rather to ftun, the minevers, the ermines, and the martins,
and other animals, whofe {kins they are defirous of preferving ; there are others co-
vered with the bone of the rein-deer, made in the fhape of a harpoon, and long-pointed;
this arrow is thick and heavy: the ‘latter is employed again(t birds, and never comes
out of the wound when it has once entered the body ; it alfo by its weight prevents the
bird from flying, and carrying away with it the arrow and the hopes of the huntfman.
A third kind is covered with iron, in the form of a lancet, and is employed againft the
large animals, fuch as the bears and the wild rein-deer ; and every arrow of this fort is
placed in a little quiver, made of the bark of the birch- -tree, which the huntfman carries
in his girdle. In fact, the Laplanders are extremely expert at the ufe of the bow, and
they oblige their children to engage in thofe practices, which feveral warlike nations in
former times wifhed that they had done; for they give them nothing to eat till they
have previoufly hit an object prepared for them, or have knocked down fome mark
which has been placed for the purpefe on the top of fome high pine.
All the houfehold utenfils are made by the men: their fpoons are cut out from the
bones of the rein-deer, and they adorn them with figures, in which they put a certain
black compofition. ‘They make lids to their facks alfo from the bone of the deer, and
little bafkets of bark and rufhes, and likewife thofe planks which they employ in running
upon the {now, and with which they purfue and catch the fwiftett animals. The de-
{cription of thefe planks has been formerly given.
But that which is truly remarkable is, that the men Gilat perform the bufinefs of
the kitchen, and that they prepare all the food they procure, whether in hunting or fifh-
ing; the women never intermeddle with this part of their duty, except during the ab-
fence of their hufbands.
We obferved this immediately on our arrival, and the Laplander drefled fome frefh
fichs which he had taken that day. ‘This fifh is fomewhat larger than a herring, but
incomparably better ; and indeed I never talted fifth more delicious than this. As foon
as
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