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12 6 Of the Laplanders Difeafes ,
the banquet is furnished out of the flelli of the Rain-deer; that drew the
perfon departed to his Burial place. That they Sacrifice in honor oS him,
and all the kindred and acquaintance feast upon it. At this feast they take
Special care, not to loofe the boneSj but gather them all up diligently, and
lay them in a coffer and bury them under ground; iSrhey have the
opportunity oS procuring Spirit of Wine,they drink it about to the memory of the
perfon deceafed, and call it Saligamim, that is the Wine of the bleSTed,
meaning, I fuppofe that they drink it to the memory of him, that is happy
by his departure from earth: however it happened, that thofe kinfmen of
Thomas the Laplander, as was above mentioned, made this feast before the
due time. They fasten upon the coffer, wherein they Shut up theRain-deers
bones, the image of a man faShionedout of wood, biggercrlefs in
proportion to the deceafed perfon; thus much of their funeral rites. Only Some
of the richer fort repeat the feast every year, in the manner aforeSaid, where
may note, that the Rain-deers are not only (lain for their bufinefs oS the
feast, but likewiSe in manner a Sacrifice, and that the bones are offered to
the Manes oS the deceaSed, at tis more largely treated oS in another place*
It moreover is apparent that the Laplanders time oS mourning is not uStd to
be Short,but of a long continuance, especially for the lofsof married perfons
or children, andconfiSls not in oftentation, orappearance, butcnlyin
inward forrow. I come now to their manner of inheritance and division of their
goods, which follows upon the death of any one, for the Laplanders likewife
. have their Sort cf riches,, confifting most in mcveables as cattle, Silver, braSs
and copper vefTels and the like, but there is nothing Scr which they are more
efteemed then plenty of Rain-deer. Some of them have a hundred, Some
a thouSand or more ; Olaus Magnus makes mention ofbut half thefe
numbers Lit. 17. Cap.28. but what may be read in the papers of John Bartus,
confirms their Dumber to be much greater. Orovecn, tis there find, was fo rich
in Rain-deer, that their number could not be known. Arent juflinusftole
a hundred of them, and yet they could not be miffed. And otheF things
which Serve for daily ufes, they keep in public, or elfe lay up in their
cupboards, aslhave elfewhere Shown, but they bury underground either Sil*
ver plate or mony, and the place they call Roggri, they lay it first in a cloSe
box, that in a copper kind of kettle, and that they cover over with boord,
and fo strew it over with earth and mofs, that no body may perceive a^ny
thing to be hid there, this they do So privatly, that neither their wives nor
children can tell any thing of it, fo that it fometimes chances, that, when
they dy Suddenly, all thefe things ly buried and.nevercome to theheirs, but
what come to their hands are thus divided among them, if they be
moveables, the Brother receives two thirds, the Sifter one, as was appointed
by the Provincial Laws of the Swedes. The two Rain-deers given to the
children in their tender years, the one the Tooth Rain-deer, the other the
Parents free gift, are exempted from this common divifion, as likewife their
increafe, which Sometimes comes to a considerable number. If the goods
be not moveables, as territories, lakes, mountains andfuch like, the
children of either Sex, poffefs them with equall right, and make ufe of them
indifferently, tho this be not a bare permiflion, but founded in the
"division of Lapland, made by Charles the Ninth, in which to every family were
given its own territories, Lakes, Woods, Mountains, andthelike, as has
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