Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 2

by Carl von Linné

The stock c, c, made of wood ornamented with inlaid work of bone, is two feet and a half long, and half a palm broad, being half an inch thick towards the top, and an inch at the base. Its upper side is entirely covered

with the above-mentioned inlaying, and quite even or flat, except towards the base or handle, where it is slightly concave.

The part marked d on the bow, and D on a larger scale annexed, is the catch, like a pulley, which turns on an iron pin, and in the side of which is a projection, with a rectangular notch, see fig. 1 and 2. When the bow is bent, the angle at fig. 2 catches the cord, and is let go by means of the apparatus represented at c, c, by the side.

As no human being is sufficiently strong to draw this bow with the hands alone, a strap of leather is fixed round the loins, ending in two iron hooks, which lay hold of the cord. One foot is put into the strap at the top of the bow, h, and then, by the exertion of the body, the bow is drawn till the cord catches the angle of the pulley D.

The annexed cut represents the bolt of this Norwegian crossbow, which is a foot and half long, an inch thick. From the extremity, which is thicker and blunt, to the feathered part, is about a foot. The feathers, taken from the wing of the great Grous or Cock of the wood, (Tetrao Urogallus,) are stripped from the quill, and placed erect in three longitudinal rows; and after being bound on with thread, the part by which they are attached is smeared with pitch, to fix them the more firmly. The whole bolt is made of birch wood. Its base is compressed, naked and smooth, formed with a groove to receive the bow-string.

This more finished and elaborate sort of bow is principally used in Westbothnia. The whole cost of one, with all its appurte

nances, amounts to fifteen dollars, copper money. The Laplanders therefore content themselves with a far more rude and simple apparatus, consisting of such a wooden bow made of birch, as I have already described, with a string fitted to it. Or they merely cut a branch of fir in the forest, and with any bit of cord that happens to come in their way, kill abundance of squirrels, holding the bow with their left hand, and drawing it with their right by means of a small cleft stick. Thus they will, as I have witnessed, take successful aim at the Emberiza nivalis, or Snow Bunting, sitting on the tops of the most lofty pines.

It is commonly reported that no clay is to be found in Lapland, but I met with some in two different places; in each instance indeed it was at the bottom of a lake, as at Rondijaur and Sckalka trask, the shores being of sand though the bottom was clay.