Part 17

_Olaus Magnus_ makes them put in Baskets, as his words afore quoted do intimate, and those Baskets too to be tied at their backs, and the Picture he makes of them represents not only the woman, but the man too so laden, each with two Children a piece: so that together they travell with four Children, and with wooden shoes on their feet; but here I am afraid the Painter followed his own fancy too much. Certain it is that the Baskets there represented, bear no resemblance to those of _Lapland_. The _Laplanders_ are wholly ignorant of this sort of Baskets, that are carried at ones back. Nor are their Baskets like wooden square Boxes, such as his figure represents them, but of a round compass, and one part shut down upon the other, as I have said elsewhere. But to return to their Baptism, in it they give their Children names, according to the names of some of their friends and kindred. _Samuel Rheen_ adds that they affect to put Pagan names upon them, such as _Thor_, _Guaarm_, _Finne_, _Pagge_; but that the Priests avert them from so doing as much as possibly they can. And this is peculiar with them, that they often change their names, and put others upon them then those that were given them at their Baptism, for the love they bear to some friend or kinsman deceased, whose memory thereby they desire to preserve. _Tornæus_ too avouches the same thing, and if at any time in their younger years they fall into sickness, then they use the name given them in Baptism instead of a surname, especially they observe this in boies. But altho the _Laplanders_ wives are hardy, so as to be able to undertake a journy a week or two after their delivery, and to go about other emploiments, tho they have made their public appearance, and have been churched by the Priest, yet by their husbands they are looked upon as unclean, till six weeks be accomplished, so that they admit of no familiarity or conjugal society with them for all that space of time. And thus much of their child-bearing.

I proceed next to their Education of them, the first thing that occurs here is their Nursing, which is alwaies by their own Mothers milk, for the _Laplanders_ make no use of Nurses. And this they do not only for some small time, but usuall for two years, three or four together; but if sickness or any other occasion happen, so that they cannot themselves suckle their young ones, they give them the Rain-deers milk, which is grosser and thicker, then they can well draw out of a suck-bottle, (as at sometimes they are accustomed to do, elswhere) and for that reason, if the necessity be urgent they give it in a spoon. Besides their Mothers milk, they instantly accustom their young Infants, to eat flesh, for they thrust into their mouths a piece of Rain-deers flesh, that they may suck the gravie out of it, and so get nurishment.

The rocking the infant in his cradle, follows next, whereby they get him a sleep. Their Cradles are made of the stock of a tree hollowed, like a boat: these they cover with leather, and at the head they erect an arched kind of roof, of leather likewise. In such a cradle they lay & tie in the Infant, without any linnen clothes or sheets, instead of which they lay him on a sort of soft moss, of a red color, which they dry in Summer, and have great plenty of it. When the Infant is to be rocked, they let the cradle hang by a rope from the roof of the hut, and by thrusting the cradle and tossing it from one side to the other, they lull him a sleep. They use likewise to please their young children with some certain baubles, for at their cradles they tie some rings of Alchamy, to make a noise and clinking. To these rings which serve instead of rattles they moreover add some emblems, wherewith their children may be timely admonished of their condition and future duty. If it be a boy, they hang up at his cradle a bow and arrows, and a spear made very artificially out of Rain-deers horn, whereby they signifie, that their children must diligently practise to be expert and ready in using the bow and spear. If it be a girle; the wings, feet, and beak of a white Partridge, which they call _Smæripa_, and is call’d _Lagopus_ having feet like the feet of an hare, thereby implying, that their Daughters must carefully learn to be cleanly, and like those birds nimble and active. As soon as the children come to some age, they instruct them in all necessary arts, the Fathers the boies, the Mothers the girles, for they have no School-masters among them, but each person is his own childerns Master, and they are so far put on by their parents as to be able to perform any works in use among them. Their boies they cheifly teach the Art of Shooting, and hitting marks with an arrow, because in old time they were necessitated to get their living by the help of bow and arrows, whereas the greatest part of them maintain themselves by hunting, and therefore when they have practised never so little the use of the bow, the boies victuals are kept from them, till they can hit a mark with an arrow, and as it was the custom anciently among the _Baleares_, and so now among the _Laplanders_, their boies earn their food every day by their dexterity in shooting, and thereby at last they prove most excellent marks-men. _Olaus Magnus_ makes mention of this their practice, and wonderfully extolls their dextrousness herein, and avers that he himself has seen some of them who could exactly hit a farthing or a nedle, set at such a distance off as would just let them see it. On the boies, that they may take more care to hit the mark, when they have hit it, they bestow a white girdle, wherein they take huge delight, and sometime a new bow. But as the _Laplanders_ do look to their children in time to teach them arts requisite to get their living, so also to provide them means to maintain themselves withal, where it will not be impertinent to mention, that tis a custom with them to bestow upon their infant a female Rain-deer, soon after its birth or Baptism, if it be of female Sex, and upon the horns of it they ingrave her mark, so to prevent all controversies or quarrels, that may arise concerning her right. She receives likewise another, when she cuts her first tooth. Which they call _Pannikeis_, that is, the tooth Rain-deer. _John Tornæus_ writes as if these gifts were given only by women. The Woman saies he, that first spies a tooth in his mouth, is fain to honor him with a present of a Rain-deers Calve. This custom might probably have its rise thus, because, when the infants have gotten teeth, they have need of more solid meat, therefore they stock them with Rain-deer as being their cheifest food. That Rain-deer then, and whatever encrease comes of it, are preserv’d to the future uses of the child, as may appear by what we have elsewhere said, in the Chapter of their marriages, and so likewise of the other Rain-deer which parents give the child besides, for tis usual among them to superadd one to the former, and this they call _Waddom_, that is, the given one. And this is the chief care of the Parents towards their children, but if they die, instead of them are substituted Guardians, as among other nations, out of their nearest kindred, who manage all these affairs for them.

CHAP. XXVII.

_Of their Diseases, Death and Burial._

Tho the _Laplanders_ lead a miserable and hardy kind of life, yet they enjoy their health perfectly well. They have not so much as heard of most diseases, and are not all infected with those, that elswhere use to depopulate whole Countries. There are no acute and burning feavers among them, no plague. And if any infection be brought among them, it instantly loses its force. Some years since an infection was brought into _Lapland_ in hemp, but none were hurt by it, besides the women that in spinning chewed it, for the Northern cold easily dissipates the poisonous vapors. The ordinary and frequent disease among them is, sore eies, from whence not seldom proceeds blindness. The cause of this may be, that from their infancie they for the most part are forced to be in smoak, wherewith their Huts are fill’d both in Summer and Winter. _Ericus Plantinus_ gives the same reason, and moreover adds the light of the fire to be a cause of it. And this gives them the greatest trouble imaginable, that their old age usually ends in blindness. They are often troubled also with the Pleuresy and inflammation of the lungs, stiches in the back, and dizziness in the head. The small Pox likewise sometimes takes them. Now as diseases are rare among them, so Physick is altogether unknown. Against all diseases inwardly they use the root of a kind of Moss, which they call _Jereh_, or in the failance of that, the stalke of _Angelica_, which they call _Fadno_, and is any where to be found. For this use they boil the _Angelica_ with the whey of Rain-deers milk, as I said it was a custom among them before, in the Chapter of their food, and so prepared it is made use of as a special Medicine. If they feel any pain in their joints, they apply some fired chips to the place ill affected, that the ulcer then made may attract the vicious humors, and so mitigate the paine.

They cure wounds with no other ointment or plaister then of resin, which the trees sweat out: if a member be benummed with cold, the Cheese made of Rain-deers milk affords the presentest remedy to it; they thrust a red-hot iron into it, and with the fat of the Cheese that instantly distills from it, they anoint the part affected with incredible success. Others apply the Cheese it self, slicing it thin like a plate or leafe. This Cheese so boiled in milk is extraordinary good for a cough, and what other distempers, either of lungs or breast arise from cold, if it be taken so heated. It helps the stomach when disaffected by their drinking water. Because diseases are so rare among them, most of them come to extreme old age. Nay _Sam. Rheen_ saies there are some among them that live to be above an hundred years old, and that most of them usually reach 70, 80, and 90 years, and at this age he saies many of them are still sufficiently brisk and lively; able to manage their business with expedition, to take a journey, to course thorough Woods and Mountains, and to perform other such labour: and lastly that they grow not grey-haired either soon or easily; so that old age dispatches more of them then diseases do. But if any be so dangerously sick as to keep his bed, either worn with age, or some distemper, they first enquire concerning him by their Drum, whither he will recover his health againe or die, as I have in another place shewn this to be one of the uses of the Drum, and _Cl. M. Matthias Steuchius_ in his Letter to me tells us the same; _I remember_, saies he, _I was once told by a_ Laplander _that they can tell the very houre and manner of any mans death by those their Drums_.

When they perceive any one neer death, then if there be present any well disposed persons, and versed in the Christian Religion, they exhort him in his agonies to think of God and Christ. If they are regardless of Religion, they instantly abandon the sick person, carefull only about the funeral banquet, which they begin sometimes to celebrate before the person departing is quite dead. _Steuchius_ confirms this by a Story; There was a rich _Laplander_ named _Thomas_, who when he was taken with a dangerous fitt of sickness, so as to loose all hope of recovery, he summond before him his friends and acquaintance; they when they perceived him to be desperate, they hasted to the Victuallers that keeps the Inn towards _Norway_ and _Jamptland_, and of him they bought Ale and spirit of Wine ready to sacrifice over their friend, whilst he was alive: when they had spent a whole day in quaffing, they camme to the sick mans Hut, and by that time found him quite dead. This is an example of the latest date, that hath happened in these our daies, from whence we may learn how just and reasonable the complaints were, which were premised to the Charter of _Gustavus Adolphus_, concerning the _Lapland_ School. Furthermore, it is customary if any die, of whatever distemper, all instantly forsake the Cottage where the departed person lies; for they imagine (which is elsewhere shewn) that there survives something of the deceased, such as the ancient _Latins_ called _Manes_, and that that was not alwaies benign, but sometimes hurtfull: for this reason they are afraid of the corps of the deceased. And if the person departed were of the richer sort: they wrap his corps in a linnen garment, if a poor mean man, in a woollen tattered one, so as to cover over as well the head, as all the other parts of the body, this they call _Waldmar_. So indeed do they that are more observant of the Christian rites then ordinary there; as for the others, they cover their dead with their own vestments, and those too the best they had when alive, as _N. Matthias Steuchius_ assures me by a Letter, and confirms it too by a late example that a person worthy to be credited, related to him by an Inhabitant of _Undersaok_, a near neighbour to _Lapland_. _The body of the dead_, saies he, _they cover with the best garments he had alive, and shut it up in a Biere_. They lay the corps so wrap’d up in a Coffin, or funeral Chest, which is done by one peculiarly intreated to undertake the employment, and who must receive of the nearest kinsman to the deceased person a ring of Alchimy, and wear it fastned to his right arm. The reason of so tying this ring is, because they beleive it to be a preservative against the harm the Manes of the deceased person may otherwise bring upon them, for this reason he is fain to wear this same ring till the Burial be over, I suppose, because then they think the ghost may be more quiet, which is the ancient superstition as well of _Greeks_ as _Romans_. The Coffin is usually made of the hollowed trunk of a tree, when they have not wherewithall to make a Coffin, as is common with them that dwell in the barren Mountains near _Norway_, they lay the corps of the deceased on a Carr or Sledge, which they call _Akia_, instead of a Coffin. The place of their Buriall in ancient times, before they turned Christians, was the first convenient place they met withall for that purpose, especially a Wood. As for them that dwell at a considerable distance from the Church at this day, they leave not off the custom of burying them any where where they first light, with the Sledge too, especially if there are only bare Rocks, and no Trees to be seen. Others on every side beset the Sledge with the corps too with stocks of Trees, both above and below, on each side, so as that it may not contract filthiness or moulder, nor the corps be torn in pieces, or devoured by wild Beasts.

There are some besides that lay them in Caves, and stop up the mouths of them with stones. But what _Peucer_ writes that they dig a hole, and lay their dead bodies under their hearth, thereby to escape the hauntings of Ghosts, that is neither known nor heard of by the _Laplanders_: “Whereas saies he, they are strangely frightned and haunted with the Ghosts of their kindred after death, they provide against that by burying their bodies under their hearths: by this only remedy they guard and protect themselves against the hauntings and affrightments of Demons, this if they do, no ghosts afterwards appear; if they neglect to do it, they are perpetually interrupted and infested with the apparitions of their too officious kindred.” They are so far from burying the corps under the hearth that they rather remove them to as great a distance as they can, But it is a singular and memorable passage, that those especially who are less observant of Christian rites, do use to bury with their deceased, first an hatchet, and next a flint and steel, of which ceremony they give this account, that if they ever come to rise againe in that darkness they shall have great need of springing a light; to which the flint and steel may help them, as likewise there will be occasion for a ready way, wherein they may travell to Heaven, to which purpose their hatchet may stand them instead, them especially that are buried among thick Woods, that if any Trees obstruct their passage, they may cut them down. And this do they themselves at this day affirm, now they have heard of a last day, and a Resurrection of the dead. But I suppose it rather to be an ancient superstition remaining still in these Countries, nor used only by the _Laplanders_. I my self saw some few miles distant from _Upsal_, raked out of the Sepulcher of a famous person, the great Treasurer of this Kingdom, _M. Steno Bielke_, a steel and flint; which that it was a relique only of Paganism, not the place only, but Tomb over him did sufficiently testify. It is certain that it was the ancient persuasion of Pagans, that there was no other way for the dead to arrive at the abodes of the Blessed, but thorough darkness, which they are the more afraid of, because it is the nature of their Country to have thicker darkness and of more durance then is usual among others. As concerning the hatchet, it is no wonder, whereas in other places it is a received custom to lay by dead People their Weapons, of which the principal one, among the _Laplanders_, is the hatchet. As for what appertains to the modern _Laplanders_, _Olaus Petri_ imagines that they bury these things with their dead, because they beleive that after the Resurrection they shall take the same course of life they lead before, and for that reason they furnish them with the same utensils. Thus do they who are less observant of the Christian ceremonies, and dwell farthest off from the Christian Churches. The others take special care to have their dead carried to the Church-yard, which too the Priests do earnestly request of them. It is said too that some of them, when they have bin accustomed to bury in such a place are so ambitious as to give money to have their deceased buried not in the Yard, but the Church.

But here none of the _Laplanders_ will willingly dig up a grave, unless he be extraordinary poor, such whom the richer of them hire at a considerable rate to such an emploiment, or some other of _Swedland_, whom they can procure. So the deceased person is buried according to the Christian rite, when they have mourned for him, putting on the worst clothes they have, that is peculiar to them, that they leave behind them the sledg whereon the course was brought to the Church-yard and all the vestments wherein the deceased lay during sickness, these they bring to the Sepulcher, for fear I suppose lest any deadly thing should cling to them, and that cannot be used by others without harm. So when the Person is buried, a funeral banquet is provided, the time of it is usually, the third day after the burial, the banquet is furnished out of the flesh of the Rain-deer; that drew the person departed to his Burial place. That they sacrifice in honor of him; and all the kindred and acquaintance feast upon it. At this feast they take special care, not to loose the bones, but gather them all up diligently, and lay them in a coffer and bury them under ground; if they have the opportunity of procuring Spirit of Wine, they drink it about to the memory of the person deceased, and call it _Saligawiin_, that is the Wine of the blessed, meaning, I suppose that they drink it to the memory of him, that is happy by his departure from earth: however it happened, that those kinsmen of _Thomas_ the _Laplander_, as was above mentioned, made this feast before the due time. They fasten upon the coffer, wherein they shut up the Rain-deers bones, the image of a man fashioned out of wood, bigger or less in proportion to the deceased person; thus much of their funeral rites. Only some of the richer sort repeat the feast every year, in the manner aforesaid, where may note, that the Rain-deers are not only slain for their business of the feast, but likewise in manner a Sacrifice, and that the bones are offered to the Manes of the deceased, at tis more largely treated of in another place. It moreover is apparent that the _Laplanders_ time of mourning is not used to be short, but of a long continuance, especially for the loss of married persons or children, and consists not in ostentation, or appearance, but only in inward sorrow. I come now to their manner of inheritance and division of their goods, which follows upon the death of any one, for the _Laplanders_ likewise have their sort of riches, consisting most in moveables as cattle, silver, brass and copper vessels and the like, but there is nothing for which they are more esteemed then plenty of Rain-deer. Some of them have a hundred, some a thousand or more; _Olaus Magnus_ makes mention of but half these numbers _Lib._ 17. _Cap._ 28. but what may be read in the papers of _John Buræus_, confirms their number to be much greater. _Oroveen_, tis there said, was so rich in Rain-deer, that their number could not be known. _Arent Justinus_ stole a hundred of them, and yet they could not be missed. And other things which serve for daily uses, they keep in public, or else lay up in their cupboards, as I have elsewhere shown, but they bury under ground either silver 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 so strew it over with earth and moss, that no body may perceive any thing to be hid there, this they do so privatly, that neither their wives nor children can tell any thing of it, so that it sometimes chances, that, when they dy suddenly, all these things ly buried and never come to the heirs, but what come to their hands are thus divided among them, if they be moveables, the Brother receives two thirds, the Sister 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 division, as likewise their increase, which sometimes comes to a considerable number. If the goods be not moveables, as territories, lakes, mountains and such like, the children of either Sex, possess them with equall right, and make use of them indifferently, tho this be not a bare permission, 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, and the like, as has been mentioned in another place, from whence I suppose tis, that they remain still to each single family, and are not liable to division or to be distributed among the heirs as other goods; for these are not their own proper possessions, as other goods are, but only granted from the crown of _Swedland_ to them to receive the profits, and upon that score every year they pay a certain tribute, which we have treated of before, so that there remains nothing else to be added here.

CHAP. XXVIII.

_Of their Cattel._