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•jo Of the Laplanders Fairs
but becauSe they had a language quite different from others, and So
peculiar to themSelves, that they could neither understand, nor be underftood of
their neighbours .• fo that it was rather the barbarifm , and roughnefs of
their Speech, then manners, that made them uSe this dumb way of traffikingi
But of their language we Shall treat in its proper place.
Concerning their trading with their neighbours, it is moft certain that
it was performed without words, by nods and Silent geftures; neither was
it properly a buying and Selling ( for they did not of old u/e either gold
or Silver ) but rather an exchange of one commodity for another. So that
whereas Zteglerus tells us they did permutation? fepecunia commenia agerc,
we mayjuftly doubt whether it be not rather to be read nec yrcunia, (
un-leSs happily he intendpecunia in the primary fenSe, and hath more refpeft
to the original of the word, then to the acception now in uSe. ) And truly
this way of exchange among them, in thoSe ancient times, was no leSs then
necefiary ; when indeed, as well the neighbouring Countries, as the
Laplanders were quite strangers to any current mony 5 and this we may
understand from the Swedes, among whom there were in thoSe dajes either no
coins at all; or elSe only Such as had bin transported out of England and
Scotland, the uSe of the Mint being then utterly unknown in that Country.
And if at that time there was no mony in Sweiland, it is certainly no great
wonder there lhould be none in Lapland. But neither in after times , and
when they were under the Jurifdi&ion of the Eirk,arli, could the Laplanders
come to the ufe of mony; for they that were Lords over them,
monopolizing the whole trade to themfelves, did not give them mony for their
commodities, but fuch other merchandife, as their Country stood in need of.
In fine to this very day the Laplanders know no other mony but the
Pa-tacooH and half PaUcoon ; other coins whether of copper, fiiver, or gold,
they do not fo much value, which will give us to underftand that the ufe of
mony among them cannot be of any long date, for the Patacaon is but of
later daies, and was never known before the difcovery oS the Mine in the
Vale of Joachim.
Thefe Pataaons they value Singly at 2 onces of fiiver a piece, whence it
appears that as they had no other mony , fo neither did this pafs currant
among them, but only by weight, and as if it were in the Mafs : and I
be-leive was not at all in ufe, until! they were forced to pay tribute in that
kind, of which I have difcourfed before, and Shewed that it was but of
late inftituted. Bur what Damia-,us means by his permutatione tantum
anno-nam <& pecuniam acjuirunt, we cannot fo eafily guefs; for we do not fay
that men barter and deal by exchange when mony is paid for a commodity:
for to what end fhould thofe People feek after getting mony, which was in
ufe neither among themfelves nor their neighbours ; fo that perhaps here
alfo we ought to read nec pecuniam, and then the feofe runs, that they were
not fo follicitous in getting mony, as in providing the more neceffary things
of life : altho neither is that true which he delivers of their provisions , as
will appear from what follows.
But whatfoever Damianusmeans, it is moft certain that in all their
commerce they did but exchange one thing for another; and that to this day the
fame custom remains among them, who are now concern’d for no more mony
then what is Sufficient to pay their tribute. Only if there is any commodity
among
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