Immediately after that the bogs began, most of them covered with water. Imagine the toil of walking through that for 7 miles! At every step the water reached our knees, even higher if we were unable to step on tussocks. Sometimes the depth was bottonaless and we had to make a diversion round the whole area. Our boots were full of cold water, for there was still frost in the ground in some places. If I had been enduring all this for the sake of some mortal sin, the punishment would still have been harsh – so what can I say in this case? I wished I had never undertaken this journey. Worse still, all the elements were against us, for it was raining and it was windy. I was amazed that I survived that journey, and I was utterly exhausted. After we had searched everywhere in vain for the new Lapp, we sat down, it being 6 o’clock in the morning, wrung out our wet clothes and dried our bodies, though the cold north wind hurt us as much on one side as the fire burned us on the other, while mosquitoes bit us on both sides. Now I had had my fill of travelling. The whole of this Lapp country was bog, which is why I called it the Styx.9 No priest has ever painted Hell so vile that this does not exceed it, no poet described a Styx so foul that this does not eclipse it. I have reached the Styx. We were travelling into wild territory, without knowing whither. The Lapp who lived closest to this place – and he had not visited this district for 20 years – set off to seek out the local Lapp while I rested by the fire. There was nothing I desired more than to be able to travel back down the river, but the route back to the boat filled me with fear for I knew that my body was not made of iron and steel. I wished it had been possible to walk back to the boat, even as much as 60 or 70 miles as long as it was dry road, but there was no chance of that. The Lapps, who are born to hardship as birds are to flight, complained that they had never been in such a bad way, and I commiserated with them.
There was a bog (called Lycksmire since a stream flows from there to Lycksele – why not call it Bad Lycksmire?) which was full of ochre and had a film on the water. There should, therefore, be bog-ore present there for iron.
3rd June. We waited well into the day, until almost 2 o’clock in the afternoon, for the Lapp we had sent out. He returned at last quite exhausted from having visited so many habitations in vain. With him came a person, whether it was a naan or a woman I could not tell. I do not believe that any poet has depicted a Fury so precisely as to compete with this one; there was good reason to believe that she had come from the Styx. She seemed very small, her face was blackish brown from smoke, her eyes were brown and shining, her eyebrows black, her hair pitch-black and hanging down round her head, on which there sat a red, flat cap. She wore a grey kirtle and long, limp, brown paps hung from her chest where the skin resembled that of a frog. But she wore brass bangles, a belt around her waist and Lapp boots on her feet. At my first sight of her I was terrified.
The Fury herself, however, spoke to me gently and with compassion.
“O you poor man! What harsh circumstances of fate have driven you where no one has ventured hitherto and where I have never before seen strangers? You poor man, how did you come here and what do you want? Do you not see the dwellings we have? Do you not see what toil it is for us to go to church?”
I asked her the way to get anywhere, forward or back – as long as it was not the way I had come there. “No, my good man, you must go back the way you came. There is no other way; you cannot avoid it. Nor is it possible for you to travel on, for the river is in too high a flood. You can get no help from us on your journey as my husband, who ought to receive you, is ill. But if you can reach our nearest neighbour – who lives about 6 miles from here – he will perhaps help you, if you find him at home. But I think it is all in vain.”
I asked her how far it was to Sorsele. “We don’t know”, she answered, “but you won’t get there in less than 7 days in these travelling conditions, my husband said”.
I already felt ill from my hardships, from so many long portages, from carrying my own things (for the Lapp had the boat to carry), from sleepless nights, from not having had any cooked food for some time, from drinking too much water – for other than fish, often unsalted and full of maggots, and water we had nothing for sustenance. I would indeed have perished had not the parson’s wife provided me with a piece of reindeer meat to bring with me, though it proved very painful to my stomach and passed through undigested. At this moment I longed to meet people again and to be able to eat cooked food, and I did not dare continue on up-river to my doom like the salmon. I asked whether she had any food for me. “Not unless you want fish!” I looked at the raw fish, whose mouth was full of maggots, and the mere sight of it appeased my hunger but did nothing to give me strength. I asked about reindeer tongue, which they commonly dry and which even better-class people value for its pleasant fattiness. “No”, came the answer. “Reindeer cheese, then?” ‘Yes, but none closer than 6 miles.” “If I can get there, could I buy some?” “I would not want you to die of hunger in my country”, she answered. When I walked past their hut, there were 3 cheeses under a roof without walls and I took the smallest, not intending, however, to take it without permission or without paying for it. So I bought it from her.
Her cap was curious, like those of other Lapp women; it was made of red cloth.
In common with the other Lapps she did not wear a shift.
She wore a high collar, 2 fingers wide, embroidered with tin wire and with brass decorations round the lower part. This was next to her skin. On top she wore 2 grey tunics, just like the men’s, that came down to her knees.
Finally, and against my will, I had to go back the way I had come, to places to which I had no desire to return. I did not dare venture onwards towards the Acheron for that would have been even worse.10
On the return journey I saw that the foundation of the many tussocks found in bogs is the small plant ‘Juncellus, radice implicata’ [Deergrass] mentioned earlier. Its roots grow higher and higher above the ground each year, which is worthy of note. It is also the foundation of the famous floating islands.
I heard some ptarmigan making noises like laughter. I approached them and saw that their necks were brown, their bodies white, and 3 or 4 feathers on their shoulders and tails were darkish in colour.
I was also shown ‘Agaricus Abietis’ [fungus], which is the Lapps’ main remedy against mosquitoes and they use it to smoke both themselves and the reindeer.11 When the mosquitoes are numerous, the reindeer – even those that have been away the whole year – return home and small smoking fires are burned around them morning and evening. Knowing the efficacy of this, the reindeer lie down and sleep.
They also showed me’ Agaricus Solids’ [fungus], which smelled rather pleasant.12 They said that young men used to use it to awaken love in the girls and to win their favours.