In order to add to the pungency of the tobacco which they are in the habit of chewing, the Laplanders mix with it the root of Angelica. (A. Archangelica is preferred, but when that is not at hand, the sylvestris is used, as appears from the Flora Lapponica.)
The women wear their belts in the same
manner as the men, except when they are big with child, in which case the belt must necessarily be placed much higher than ordinary.
This day I found the little heart-leaved Ophrys (O. cordata) growing, as it usually does, amongst the Rubus Chamæmorus, whilst I was gathering the fruit of the latter. Also the least Pinguicula (P. villosa); but its leaves were withered, and the fruit was ripe, which is heartshaped and emarginate, of two valves and one cell. The last-mentioned plant grew among White-moss (Sphagnum palustre. These specimens are still preserved in the Linnæan herbarium.)
The bird called (by the Swedes) Lappskata, Rödfogel in Westbothland, Gvousach in Lapland, (Corvus infaustus, Faun. Suec. 32. Lath. Ind. 159. Lanius infaustus, Syst. Nat. v. 1. 138,) is of a small size, but it audaciously lays hold of any thing it can find, being so far from timid that it flew away with part of our provisions as
we sat at table. This bird seems nearly allied to the Jay (Corvus glandarius).
It is only in winter the clothes of the Laplanders have any sort of lining, except that these people generally wear, next the stomach, the skin of a young reindeer fawn. The sleeves of their coats are not fixed to the jacket, or body of the garment. The part which covers the shoulder folds over the top of the sleeve, in the shape of a wedge. A seam reaches the whole length of the jacket, from top to bottom, on each side, the jacket becoming gradually wider, downward. It reaches as low as the middle of the leg. The collar is for the most part blue, stitched with white thread.
The reindeer are not slaughtered in the same manner as cattle usually are either at Stockholm or in Smoland. The animal being secured with a halter, the Laplander takes his spear and sticks it into the thorax behind the shoulder, so as to pierce the heart. By this means the blood collects in the cavity of the thorax, none of it ap
pearing externally. After the skin is flayed off, the blood is found coagulated in the thorax, from whence it is extracted, and bruised into a soft mass. With this the poorer sort of people make a kind of soup, by boiling along with it the brains of the animal, which the rich do not eat. The testicles are never eaten by any sort of people. The penis serves to make a thong to draw the sledges.
Such of the Laplanders as inhabit the forests go to the alps at midsummer and return about St. Laurence's day (August 10th); and the mountain Laplanders descend into the lower country between the first of November and Christmas, and go back again about Lady-day.