Our way led through woods, where the leaves of the trees were just unfolding, and it seemed like the first of April in New England. The path at first was very good, but as we advanced it became wet and muddy, we had to cross wide streams, and were forced to leave the path and pick our way among the trees, so that the ladies began to repent of their decision to walk. One young lady, in crossing a wide brook, slipped from the pile of stones in the centre, and dancing a despairing can-can while endeavoring to regain her slippery foothold, landed in the water before any one could aid her. This was the only accident, and we were glad to arrive at the collection of Lapp huts, where men, women, and children of assorted ages and sizes crowded around us with articles for sale.
The Laplanders are of diminutive stature, ill developed, with small eyes, low foreheads and high cheek-bones. Their complexions have a close resemblance to smoked bacon; in their greasy reindeer skins they look as if the use of soap would be as much of a mystery to them as the telephone; a Russian peasant is cleanliness itself compared with them; and their oil-soaked appearance would seem to indicate that they subsisted on a steady diet of whale sausages, washed down with copious draughts of cod liver oil.
Their huts are dome shaped, built of stones and covered with turf; a rude wooden door less than four feet high admits to the interior, where in the centre was a wood fire on a circle of flat stones, above which was suspended an iron kettle; above the fire is an opening in the roof for the admission of light and the escape of smoke, most of which circulated in the hut; upon the ground was a little hay, over that were spread reindeer and other skins, upon which the Lapps were sitting around the fire.
There were several babies in cradles made of a frame of wood two feet and a half long, covered with reindeer hide, in shape resembling a coffin with a little hood; the baby is placed inside, the covering laced across the front, and a cloth can be drawn down from the hood over the baby’s face as the cradle is leaned against the side of the hut, or placed before the fire. The babies are kept in the cradles until they are old enough to learn to walk, the mother carrying the cradle swung across the shoulder by a cord.
We saw several babies laced in their cradles, blinking their bright eyes in the thick smoke; a great many Lapps had sore eyes, and eye troubles seemed to be prevalent; which is not to be wondered at considering the smoky atmosphere of their huts, and the dazzling glare of the snow in winter.
The dogs appeared to be even more abundant than the children, and they were all mixed up promiscuously as they lay on the skins about the fire. The intimate fellowship existing between the Lapps and their dogs accounts for the frequent scratching they indulge in, and warns one to flee from the “wicked flea.”
The Laplanders enjoyed a thriving business that day, selling many of the spoons, knives, needle-cases, and other articles made from reindeer horn, and shoes, belts, and bags manufactured from reindeer skin. They also disposed of several pairs of branching antlers, and the skins of animals they had killed.
The Lapps have straight black hair, and in many of their features resemble the American Indian. Like the Indians they were once a powerful race, the ruling one of Scandinavia, but they were compelled to retreat before civilization and the more powerful inhabitants of the southern part of the peninsula, until they now occupy the northern part of Norway and Sweden and the northwest corner of Russia, and have dwindled in population to thirty thousand souls, of which over one-half dwell in Norway. They were originally all nomadic, but their circumscribed limits, from the advancing of their civilized neighbors, have led many to settle by the larger lakes and rivers, where they successfully follow hunting and fishing.
In religion they conform in general to the faith of their neighbors,—the Norwegian Lapps belonging to the Lutheran, the Russian Lapps to the Greek, church. It is estimated that there are still in Norway seventeen hundred Lapps who lead a nomadic life.
The reindeer constitutes their chief wealth, and serves them as their horse, cow, and source of their food, raiment, and the material for the few articles they manufacture. Harnessed to a pointed sledge he draws them over the frozen rivers, lakes, and plains; reindeer milk and cheese and the fresh and cured meat provide them with their staple articles of food; they are clothed from its skin made into long loose garments, leggings, and shoes; its skin also furnishes their only bed and bed covering; its sinews give them thread and ropes; from the horns are made the spoons, handles of knives, and such articles as they fashion in their rude way, so that the reindeer supplies all the needs and wants of the Laplander, and is to him what Whiteley with his vast establishment is to Londoners,—“a universal provider.”