[CHAP. XX.]
Of the Laplanders Weapons, and other instruments of Hunting.
By the former Discourse it plainly appears that in hunting they use severall Instruments and Weapons, in our next therefore it will be requisite to give some account of them. The first and most frequent is a bow three ells long, two fingers broad, and an inch thick, being made of Birch and Pine (which by reason of the resine in it is very flexible) and covered over with Birch bark, to preserve both from the weather. What Lomenius saies of its being made of Rain-deers bones, must needs be false, since no bone can be so pliable as is required in the making of a bow; his words are these, Rangiferi asperantur ossa in cultros & curvantur in arcus congeneribus feris trucidandis, if he had left out & curvantur in arcus he had spoke more to the purpose: but I believe he had this, besides many other things, to fill up his Journall from Olaus Magnus, who among the utensils these People have from the Rain-deers, saies the Fletchers much desire their bones and horns, from whence Lomenius collects that bows are made of them. But it is evident that Olaus meant not this bow, but a kind of cross-bow termed by the Germans Armbrust, and the French Arbalestre, which is impossible to be made of bone, but the handle might be adorned with it, because in these Northern parts they have no mother of Pearle, which other Countries perhaps make use of to this purpose. It was then a good plain wooden long-bow, which would not require an engine to bend it, but might be drawn with an hand only. And since I told you it was made of two pieces of wood, we will see next how they were joined together, which is with a kind of glew made of Perches skin well scaled, that melts in using like ours. They have also steel-bows, which are so strong, that when they bend them they must put their foot in a ring for that purpose at the head of them, and draw the string up to the nut, made of bone in the handle, with an iron hook they wear at their girdle. From their bows I pass to their darts and arrows, which are of two sorts, either pointed with iron to kill the larger beasts, or blunt without it like bolts, to kill the smaller. These points are not alwaies made of iron, but sometimes bones, which are fastned with glew into a hole bored with a hot iron at the end of a staff, and afterwards sharpened with a knife, or on a whetstone. But besides they use Guns, which they (as hunters do in other places) with a great deal of superstition enchaunt that they should never miss. These are made at Soederhambn, a town in Helsingia, famous for weapons, from whence the Bothnians buy them, and sell them to the Laplanders: hence they have Gun-powder and bullets, or at least lead to make them: and sometimes Norway furnishes them with all these. Spears they use only in hunting Bears, and are so little different from ours that they will not need a description. I come now to their other instruments relating to this sport, the cheifest of which are their shoes, with which they slide over the frozen snow, being made of broad planks extremely smooth; the Northern People call them Skider, and by contraction Skier (which agrees something with the Germans Scheitter, that is, cleft wood) and sometimes Andrer or Ondrur or Skiidh. Their shape is, according to Olaus Magnus, five or six ells long, turned up before, and a foot broad: which I cannot believe, because I have a pair which are a little broader, and much shorter, and Wormius had a pair but of three ells long. And those are much shorter which are to be seen at Leiden, which Frisius saies are just seven foot long, four inches and a little more broad: and it must needs be so to hold with Olaus Magnus, and every bodies opinion, that one shoe must be longer than the other by a foot, as if the man or woman be eight foot high, one must be eight foot, and the other nine. Frisius saies they are both of a length at Leiden, and Olaus Wormius takes no notice of any difference in his, but I believe then those were of two Parishes, for my biggest is just such an one as Frisius describes covered over with resin or pitch, and the shorter plain. But because the larger is of greatest use, it is no wonder that one or two of them were sent abroad for a pattern, but since those at Leiden are both the biggest, they were not made for men so tall as Frisius speaks of, they fitting men of six foot, which is a stature sometimes met with in Lapland. They are smooth and turned up before, not behind, as they are pictured in Wormius, not by the fault of the Author, but the Painter, for the original in his study shews them otherwise; I have observed in my longer shoe that it is not quite strait, but swells up a little in the middle where they place their foot. Frisius did ill in giving a picture but of one, and in that nothing of this bending, I will therefore describe both, and a Laplander sliding in them.
These shoes are fastned to their feet by a with, not run through the bottom but by the sides, that it might not hinder their sliding, or wear out with often using, which is not expressed in Frisius’s Picture, this is directly in the middle, and ti’d to the hinder part of the leg, as you may see in the figure. That which is often in Olaus Magnus, and set forth by Frisius, is a meer fancy and figment of an Italian Painter, that could not understand what these shoes were, but by describing them like long wooden broags turning up with a sharp point before: which is very idle, because the foot goes into it at the hinder part, and agrees not with Olaus’s other cuts; for if the place of the foot were there, it could not endure so great a weight before it, or effect that for which this shoe was first invented: for they must tread firm upon the Snow, which they could not do if all the weight lay at one end; but when ’tis in the middle, that which is before and behind will keep the foot from sinking in. The way of going in them is this: they have in their hand a long staff, at the end of which is a large round piece of wood fasten’d, to keep it from going deep into the Snow, and with this they thrust themselves along very swiftly. This way of running they not only use in plain and even, but in the most rugged grounds, and there is no Hill or Rock so steep, but with winding and turning they can at last come up to the top, (which Pope Paul the Third could not believe) and that which is a greater Miracle will slide down the steepest places without danger. These shoes they cover with young Rain-deers skins, whose haires in their climbing run like brisles against the Snow, and keep them from going back. Wormius saies they were cover’d with Sea Calf’s Skins, but I believe he talk’d of those, that the Siæfinni, or the Maritime people use. And this is the first instrument of hunting, which they use as well in other businesses in winter time, for they can pass no other way over the Snow, at which time they can out run any wild beast. The other instrument they use is a sledg, which altho it is fit for any journy, they use it in hunting especially the Rain-deeres, the description of which, because ’tis fit for all manner of carriages, I shall defer to another place.
[CHAP. XXI.]
Of the Laplanders Handycraft-trades.
Besides hunting, which is the cheifest, they have many other emploiments relating to their lives and fortunes, of which Cookery is the first: for what ever food they get by fishing, fowling, or hunting, the men dress and not the women. They therefore are quite ignorant of this Art, (which the men are not very expert at) and never use it but upon necessity, and in the absence of men.
The second is the boat-makers, which they make of Pine or Deale boards, not fasten’d with nails but sew’d together with twigs, as among the ancients with thongs, Olaus Magnus and Johannes Tornæus sayes with roots of trees, but most commonly with Rain-deers nerves. When they launch these boats they caulk them with moss to keep out the water, and use sometimes two, sometimes four oares, so fasten’d to pegs in the sides, that one man may row with two.
The third trade is the Carpenters, to make sledges, which are not all of the same shape, those they travel in, call’d Pulca being made in the fashion of half a boat, having the prou about a span broad turned up, with a hole in it to run a cord thro to fasten it to a Rain-deer, and the poupe of one flat board: the body is built of many, which are fasten’d with wooden pegs to four or five ribs; they never go upon wheeles, but are convex and round, that they may roul any way, and more easily be drawn over the Snow. This description agrees with that sledg which I have, and the Testimony of Herberstenius, Olaus Magnus, and Johannes Tornæus. The fore part of them is cover’d with Sea-Calfs skin for about an ell, stretch’d upon hoops, least the Snow should come in, under which they put moss to keep their feet warm. These are about three ells long, but those that carry baggage, called ackkio, ajefive, are not cover’d any where. The people defend their goods from the weather, according to Wexionius, with raw flax: but that is not probable, because no flax grows there, and the use of flaxen garments is unknown, and therefore I believe they do it with skins or bark. In Olaus Magnus lib. 17. cap. 25. there is a cart painted upon wheeles, the Author describes it in these words, qui domestici sunt Rangiferi curulibus plaustris aptantur, but what these curulia plaustra signifie he does not explain. And since the Painter has drawn other things according to his own capacity, and understanding, I do not know whether he has not follow’d his own opinion more then Olaus’s narration, but ’tis certain there are no wheele carts, for what they carry in Summer is put in dorsers upon Rain-deers. These Tradesmen make their sliding shoes, which because I have describ’d in the former Chapter, I need not now speak of.