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ioo Of the Laplanders Weapons, is>c.
CHAP- XX
Of the Laplanders Weapons, and other injlruments
of Hunting.
BY the former DifcourSe it plainly appears that in hunting they uSe
Severall Instruments and Weapons, in our next therefore it will be
requisite to give Some account of them. The first and moSt frequent is a bow
three ells long, two fingers broad, and an inch thick, being made of Birch
and Fine( which by reaSon of the refine in it is very flexible) and covered
over with Birch bark , to preServe both from the weather. What Lomemus
faies of its being made of Rain-deers bones,must needs be falfe,Since no bone
can be fo pliable as is required in the making of a bow ; his words are
thefe, Rangiferi afperantur o(Ja in cultros 4sr cur van tar in arcus congeneribus
feris trucidandis, if he had left out cfo- curtantur in arcus he had fpoke more
to the purpoSe: but I believe he had this, befides many other things, to fill up
his Journall from Olaus Magnus, who among the utenSiis thefe People have
from the Rain-deers, faies the Fletchers much defi re their bones and horns,
from whence Lomenius collects that bows are made ofrhem. But it is
evident that Olaus meant not this bow, but a kind of crofs-bow termed by the
Germans Armbrufl , and the French Arbalefire , which is impoSTible to be
made of bone, but the handle might be adorned with it, becaufe in thefe
Northern parts they have no mother of Pearle, which other Countries
perhaps make ufe of to this purpofe. It was then a good plain wooden long-bow,
which would not require an engine to bend it, but might be drawn with an
hand only. And fince I told you it was made of two pieces of wood, we will
fee next how they were joined together, which is with a kind of glew made of
Perches skin well fcaled , that melts in ufinglike ours. They have alfo
steel-bows, which are fo strong,that when they bend them they must put their foot
in a ring for that purpofe at the head of them, and draw the string up to the
nut, made of bcne’in the handle, with an iron hook they wear at their
girdle. From their bows 1 pafs to their darts and arrows, which are of two
forts, cither pointed with iron to kill the larger bealts, or blunt without
it like bolts, to kill the Smaller. Thefe points are not alwaies made of iron,
butfometimesbones, which are faftned with glew into a hole bored with
a hot iron at the end of a staff, and afterwards Sharpened with a knife, or
on a whetstone. But befides they ufe Guns , which they (as hunters do in
other places) with a great deal of fuperflition enchaunt that they lhould
never mifs. Thefe are made at Soederbambn, a town in Hclfingia, famous
for weapons, from whence the Bothnians buy them, and fell them to the
Laplanders: hence they have Gun-powder and bullets, or at least lead to
make tliem : and fometimes Norway firnifhes them with all thefe. Spears they
ufe only in hunting Bears, and are fo little different from ours that they
will not needa defcription. I come now to their other instruments relating
to
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