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.
TRAVELS OF EHRENMALM, 369.
fifhermen. They have no occafion for kings, philofophers, nor pontiffs, in order to live
in peace, and to obferve thofe rules of juftice on which depends the fafety of individuals.
Nature alone dictates to them, and her voice is fufficient.
They commonly make ufe of nets called Ryfior, which they ftretch at the mouth of
the rivulets. They have four forts, which bear the name of four {pecies of fifh: the
firft, which is called a Mort net (a {pecies of gudgeon), has its mefhes two fingers wide;
the fecond, which is the Pike net, has its methes four fingers wide ; the third, which is
called a Svs net, has its mefhes four inches wide ; and the fourth, which is called a Skaft
net, nearly refembles the pike net. ‘hey have befides, nets {tretched upon poles : they
have alfo nets for winter. The poles or fticks of thefe firft are a little longer and thinner
than thofe of the nets of Stockholm ; fome are only an inch in diameter, being twelve
fathoms in length, The reafon of this little thicknefs is, that the fifhermen, being always
in {mall-bodies, they would not’be able to carry nor manage them if they were larger.
The ufe of the large net may be faid to be unknown in the province of Afehle: they
are not neceflary in waters fo limpid as thofe of thefe fitheries.
The Laplanders eat fome of thefe fifh as foon as they are taken out of the water ;
others they dry for the winter, and the remainder they fell to pay the impoft. In the
{pring they kill a great quantity of birds, which they never drefs, but dry, after having
{tripped them of their feathers: I have eaten of them, and the flavour was not unpleafant.
During the autumn the Laplanders of the woods fearch for the caves or dens of the
bears, and in the winter they hunt them armed with firelocks and ftakes: they have
dogs which they fend to roufe the bear from his den. A Laplander will often alone
attack a bear, and the animal feldom efcapes. When our foldiers or officers fhall thus
dare to brave a bear in his den, they will only poffefs the courage of the Laplander.
‘Thofe people are therefore not fo pufillanimous, or perhaps it is only in the chace of
men. But it is what they are unacquainted with, and the preparations of a camp under
arms or tents, and the regular and meafured march of men and horfes, covered with
gold or fteel, plumes of feathers floating in the air, the duft and fweat of war, heaps
of enfigns and trophies, and decorations, and pompous and magnificent titles, which
only conceal at the bottom carnage, wounds, blood; the fhrieks, convulfions, palpita-
tions of ten thoufand innocents flaughtered on one another in the fpace of an hour, by
twenty thoufand aflaflins, to appeafe the jealoufy of a man, or the caprice of a woman.
At leaft the Laplander eats the flefh of the bear he has killed ; he fells the fkin, if he _
does not make ufe of it for clothing himfelf. This bear is the enemy of the rein-deer
- of Lapland ; and for want of deer he will attack men, if extremely prefled by hunger.
Nature has decreed war between the bear and the Laplander; but does fhe compel
entire nations to leave their fields untilled, in order to go and defolate thofe of a diftant
country ; to put to the {word a neighbouring nation, whofe only crime is a wifh to en-
joy its own rights ; to exterminate, as we have lately feen in Servia, thoufands of colo-
nifts, tranfplanted at great expence to a defert country, which they had cultivated ; to
crofs two wide feas, in order to {pread fire and devaitation to the two extremities of
Europe ?
Whatever be the latter, their fate occafions more horror than the life af the former
excites pity. ‘Lhe Laplanders of the woods live on fifh; thofe of the mountains on
their rein-deer. ‘The milk of thefe animals is fo rich, that mixed with three-fourths
water it is {till as thick asthe milk of the cow. We preferved fome in a bottle for the
length of feventy-two hours, and we found it fufficiently {weet to boil and drink. A
rein-deer gives each time half a bottle of milk. When they would milk the mothers,
they lead the fawns or young to pafturage, where they remain tll noon unmuzzled ;
VOL, I. 3B they
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
