6th. The holy Sabbath day is used for the recreation of the body and of the spirit. In the church I read King Charles XI’s own observations of the sun on the 14th June 1694. The sun was seen until towards 12 o’clock midnight, when a small patch of cloud covered it though it still remained above the horizon. In winter, however, the sun does not go completely below the horizon and is still visible at the solstice. I wonder if it is visible at the pole?
Finnish girls have big breasts, Lapp girls small ones of the sort a girl keeps unspoilt for her future husband.
7th. The town of TORNEÅ lies on a small island, on which the settlement itself is situated by the south-west shore. I call it an island since there is a shallow lake on the north side, the great Torne river to the south-east, and an inlet of the sea running in on the south-western and western sides. This latter is like a large river but so shallow that no vessels can approach closer than about 6 miles from the town. This inlet used to be the main course of the river but that has now cut its way to the western side and the area between the inlet and the lake dries out almost completely in summer.
At the church I went up the bell-tower from which His Late Majesty Charles XI saw the midnight sun on the 14th June 1694.
8th. Found nothing noteworthy.
9th. Travelled from Torneå to KEMI where there was a great salmon fishery – hence the saying “richer than the Kemi salmon fishery, the meadows at Limingö and the fields at Storkyros“.
10th. Stayed with the dean in Kemi until the 11th.
The womenfolk, when they are about to give birth, drink schnaps with pepper in it, partly as a narcotic in order to get drunk and partly to bring on the pains.
From the dean’s wife I learned how to prevent the afterpains so effectively that they are scarcely felt. When the first child is born and the umbilical cord is cut, a little of the blood is taken in a spoon and drunk by the mother. This is repeated at each and every childbirth and in this way the pains after the birth, which are more severe for many women than those at the birth itself, disappear.
In Medelpad and other places where the people work shielings they are put in the charge of a farm-girl and it is her job to produce 18 pounds of butter, 18 pounds of cheese and 18 pounds of whey butter per cow.
In order to get plenty of butter, put the milk in a cellar or a building with double walls – it must be somewhere cold. Let the milk stand there for at least 2 days or until the cream does not stick to the fingers when it is touched. The milk will not curdle but becomes very thin and blue instead and the cream turns quite thick and perfect. Collect the cream in a chum and it will be found to be so thick that, after it has been churned a little, it is often possible to lay the churn on its side without anything running out. It is consequently heavy to chum.
The milk that is left over is used for making cheese; it is heated, left to curdle and then made into cheese since it is not suitable for sourmilk. This thin milk is not particularly suitable for drinking. The whey that is left after the separation of the cheese is usually left to turn to “syra”, ie. once it has cooled it is poured into a vessel or barrel and left to stand for a long time until it has become quite tough. This is usually boiled – whatever has been collected over 2 or 3 days being boiled together with any new – until it has reduced to a very small amount of the consistency of porridge. This is put into a vessel and set aside to stand very still, after which it goes hard and turns into whey-butter. NB. the blue milk can be boiled like fresh milk and does not curdle.
Fermented milk: buttermilk is poured into a pan and left to stand until it begins to ferment, at which stage about 1/4 or 1/3 part of fresh milk is added. It is allowed to ferment again, after which a watery fluid settles beneath it and is drawn off through a tap. Each time some is removed and eaten, fresh milk is added again and the whole process is repeated for as many as 15 days, by which time this has become thick and delicious.
Napkin milk: take a bowl of sour milk which is just on the point of fermenting and has liquid-filled bubbles between the cream and the milk. This sour milk is sliced in a criss-cross pattern with numerous cuts, the whey is poured off and the milk put into a napkin and hung up. When all the liquid has run off and it has gone hard, sweet cream is poured on it and it is eaten.
Österbotten
11th. Departed from the dean’s house at Kemi: Pastor Frosterus and his wife Christina.