Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
REGNARD’S JOURNEY TO LAPLAND. 189
as it was drefled they prepared the table, made of pieces of the bark of the birch-tree
fewed together, and {pread it upon the ground. ‘The whole family placed them{felves
around it, with their legs crofled in the manner of the Turks, and every one took hts -
fhare from the pot, which he placed either in his cap, or in a corner of his drefs. Their
drink is placed in a large wooden difh at their fide, if in fummer, and in winter it is in
a pot on the fire. Every one takes according to his inclination his fhare of the food, by
means of a large wooden {poon, and drinks im the fame manner according to his thirft.
When the meal is finifhed, they ftrike their hands in token of friendfhip. ‘The mott
ordinary food of the poor confifts of fifh; and they throw fome bruifed bark of the
pine in the water, which ferves to drefs them in the fame manner as boiled meat. ‘The
richer individuals eat the flefh of the rein-deer which they have killed at Michaelmas,
when they are fat. They fuffer no part of this animal to be loft: they even preferve
the blood of it in its bladder; and when it has thickened and become hard, they cut it
and place it in the water which remains from the drefling of the fifh. The marrow of
the bones of the deer is confidered with them a delicious morfel ; the tongue is no lefs
fo; and the limb of a male rein-deer is one of their greateft delicacies. But although
the flefh of the rein-deer be much efteemed among them, that of the bear is incompa-
rably more fo: they make prefents of it to their miftrefles, which they accompany with
that of the caftor. They have during the fummer a ragout, which I tafted, and which I
thought would have killed me. They make ufe of certain little black fruit which
grows in the woods, about the fize of a goofeberry, which they call crokbergt, and which
means raven’s goofeberry. They put thefe along with the fpawns of fifh in a difh, and
mix the whole together, to the great torment of the {tomachs of all thofe who fee them,
and who are not accuftomed to fuch kinds of ragouts, which however are confidered by
them as the moft exquifite luxuries. When the meal is finifhed, the richer individuals
take, by way of defert, a {mall piece of tobacco, which they draw from behind their ear ;
this is the place where they dry it, and they have no other box in which to preferve it :
they then chew it, and when they have drawn all the juice from it, they place it again
behind the ear, where it acquires a new tafte; they {till chew it once more, and replace
it again in the fame manner, and when it has loft all its ftrength they {moke it. It is
aftonifhing to fee with what facility thefe people live without bread, and how anxious
they are at the fame time about a paltry herb which grows at fucha diftance from them.
We interrogated our Laplander upon many fubjects. We afked him what he had
given his wife at their marriage: he told us that fhe had been very expenfive.to him
during his courtfhip, having coit him two pounds weight of tobacco, and four or five
pints of brandy; that he had made a prefent of the fkin of a rein-deer to his father-in-
Jaw; and that his wife had brought with her five or fix rein-deer, who had multiplied
exceedingly during the forty years in which they had been married. Our converfation
was enlivened with brandy, which we poured from time to time, by means of our entrea-
ties, down the throats of this good man and his wife ; and the return of this pleafing
practice became fo frequent, that both began to feel the effects of it. ‘They now ca-
refled each other, in the Lapland manner, as ardently as you can well imagine ; and
their tendernefs went fo far that they began both of them ‘to weep, as if they had loft
all their rein-deer. The night pafled away in the mid{t of thefe mutual endearments ;
and we obferved on this occafion, what I believe I have already told you, that the whole
family fleeps on the fame fkin. This confufion is always prevalent among the Lap-
Janders ; and a hufband not only lies with his wife on the firft night of his marriage,
but with all the family together.
Next morning we each of us caufeda deer to be killed, which coft us two crowns,
2 in
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
