Jokkmokk [2]

There are no infallible external signs that disclose the contents of the shell and, consequently, many 1000s are broken before one pearl is found. The pity is that all the mussels are killed by this. They can be found at any time of year. Sometimes the pearls are on the shell itself, sometimes they are lost, often they are ejected by the mussel.

I witnessed an amazing thing here: a pike with a whole duckling inside it. The farmer said he has found a whole goldeneye inside a pike.

27th. I noticed that reindeer like eating water horse-tail (“Åsche” in Lappish), Equisetum. They do not like eating it once it is dry and I was amazed, therefore, at the negligence of the Lapps in not harvesting horse-tail and reindeer moss in the summer, as farmers do, in order to have something to fall back on when the snow-crust freezes hard and they risk losing everything they possess.

It is a common practice among the people of Västerbotten and the settlers to smear themselves with tar and fish-fat or other fats as a protection against mosquitoes. They put it in a horn and carry it at their sides; the Lapp, however, does not bother with this.

When short of tobacco the Lapps chew Angelica root in order to have the taste of something strong in their throats.

Lapp womenfolk wear their belts in the same way as men but, when they are pregnant, they hoist them up to the navel.

Today I found ‘Orphrys minima’ [Lesser Twayblade] among the ‘Chamaemorus’ [Cloudberry] I was picking.

Also ‘Pingvicula minima’ [butterwort] but with withered leaves and with ripe, heart-shaped, toothed fruit with 2 valves and 1 cell8; it was growing among reindeer moss.

The Lappland magpie [Siberian Jay] – “Rodfagel” in Västerbotten, -“guousack” in Lappish – is greedy, takes meat or whatever it sees and is not timid; it can be reckoned to be one of the jay family.

Lapp clothes are never lined except in winter. Next to his body the Lapp wears the hide of a reindeer calf.

The sleeves of Lapp clothes are not inset; instead, the shoulder slopes down in a wedge-shaped piece. The tunic has an inset in the sides for its whole length and gets a little wider towards the bottom. It reaches the middle of the legs. The collars are usually blue with white thread.

Reindeer are not slaughtered in the same way as other animals are, as described in Stockholm, Småland etc. Here the animal is tied with a halter and the Lapp takes his spear and stabs it in the chest behind the shoulder so that the heart is penetrated. As a result of this, all the blood collects within the chest and none runs out. When the animal is skinned, the blood is found to have clotted in the pectoral cavity; they whisk it up later. Rich Lapps do not use the brain but the poor boil it together with blood to make soup. All of them throw away the testicles. The penis is used for pulling sledges.

The Forest Lapps move to the mountains at Midsummer and return at the Feast of St Paul or the Feast of St Lawrence. The Mountain Lapps, however, move to the forest between All Saints’ Day and Christmas and return around Lady Day.

All hide clothes are sewn with sinews but homespun cloth is sewn with hempen thread that they buy.