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ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS. 38%
blefs and fhower on his reign continued profperity. For to fay nothing of this ftate of
darknefs in the religious adoration of idols, formerly celebrated in this nation, with the
greateft fuperftition, almoft all were ignorant, or had very little knowledge of the
divine effence, of the benefit, and of the will of the true God, united in the blefled
Trinity. ‘The knowledge of the letters of the alphabet was one of the diftinétions of
learning, and he who knew them was confidered as eminently learned. As an exam-
ple of the hardened ignorance, under which this miferable nation then laboured, I fhall
juft mention, that when a Laplander from the bay of Porfanger was afked the manner
in which Chrift afcended into heaven, he anfwered, on two ftones of marble. The
poor miferable fellow happened to hear fomething of the tables of the decalogue of
Mount Sinai, but what they referred to he was ignorant.
But thofe times of ignorance, praife be to God, the father of knowledge, and to his
auguit raceof kings, who have fo powerfully and happily difpelled it, have pafled away ;
and the Laplanders enlightened by the holy doétrines of the Evangelifts, are willing
and ready either with, or even without book, by the aid of memory alone, to anfwer
all, who inquire on the reafonablenefs of hope, tothe utmoft of their ability. In the
tract, in which my miffion is defcribed, not a few are to be found who faithfully re-
tained in memory, the whole catechifm, a portion of the hiftory of the paffion of Jefus
Chrift, with fome of the Pfalms of David. There was one who could recite thirty-fix
whole pfalms from memory; and what may excite admiration, an old man of the
name of Niels Kiffrand, whom the Laplanders in their common language called
Nikke Kokko-gedde, (Niels they exprefs by Nikke, and the place where he lives, the
Norwegians by Kiftrand, they call Kokke-gedde,) above feventy, learned by heart the
firft three parts of the catechifm, when he never knew the form of the alphabet, nor
tillthen, had ever learned any thing by memory. It is now thirty-eight years fince I
was miflionary among the Laplanders ; after fo great a lapfe of time, a faithful dif-
charge of the duties of a minifter of the word of God does not leave me to doubt;
when accompanied with fo large a portion of Divine goodnefs, but a much greater
progrefs in the falutary knowledge of the true God is made, efpecially when the mif-
fionaries fhall have acquired a knowledge of the language of that nation, which, by all
means fhould be done, if they mean to undertake for the happinefs and advantage of
the Laplanders their religious inftruétion. If they do not, the miferable men, to whom
they preach, will hear nothing but empty found and unmeaning words. For what
numbers, among the Laplanders, efpecially of the female fex, are found, who do not un-
derftand a fingle word of common Norwegian language. And the moft of the men,
efpecially fuch as live along the coaft, can manage from daily intercourfe and habit with
the Norwegians, the inhabitants of this region, their domeftic and fecular affairs ona
manner in Danifh, or Norwegian ; yet it by no means follows, that they fhould fucceed
in facred things, and that they therefore comprehend and turn to their benefit the
‘Divine truths, delivered in fermons, in catechetical inftitutions in the Danifh, as they
would in their own vernacular language. And hence the people themfelves freely and
fenfibly confefs, that they draw much greater inftrution from difcourfes and catechifms
in the Lapland language, and that they are more agreeably and more {trongly affected
than they are by thofe difcourfes which are compofed in the Danifh.
Whilft among the Laplanders in the oflice of miflionary, it was a cuftom with me,
to preach and examine them in the Lapland language ; at the fame time] gave them
chapters of the Evangelifts to be learned, explaining to them alfo hymns, that were to
be fung in ftated prayers, morning and evening on the Lord’s day in the faid language.
Afterwards, by the appointment, and indulgence of my moft potent fovereign, being
preferred
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