Jokkmokk [2]

Reindeer hooves often swell up at the edge nearest the skin. They fester and seldom heal so that the animal goes lame and cannot follow the herd.

Reindeer also suffer from dizziness that causes them to wander in circles. People say that those that proceed clockwise will recover whereas those that go anti-clockwise are killed immediately as it is claimed that they will never recover. The ears of the recovering animals are slit and allowed to bleed copiously.

The stone and gout never occur. Swollen legs are rare since they bind the legs and thus they all have beautiful legs. Dropsy rare, 1 case, however. Only 1 case of constipation that I know of, even though they eat so much cheese and drink water. Stomach ailments with diarrhoea; infectious in some years.

21st. Reindeer diseases. The reindeer die in great numbers when the ice-crust is so hard that they cannot kick through it. The Lapp fears this as much as we fear bad harvests for, if the reindeer die, he will either have to starve to death or turn to theft and begging.

“Korm” disease, “Kurbma”. Affects especially the younger animals every spring. Those born in the summer are unaffected in their first spring but many of them die in their second spring. Later, when they have grown, they are affected less but none of them come through untouched.

Reindeer calves are reddish in colour early in the year and have large front teeth. Feet and forehead go black in the autumn.

Mouth disease occurs among the younger animals and they cannot feed.

“Pekkekattiata”, when pieces of flesh come off. Often heals itself, however, but is epidemic. Called dropping disease because pieces drop off. If the animal can lick these places it becomes ill internally and dies since its insides get eaten away.

… [missing in original] when the udder splits so that the animal cannot be milked without bleeding.

Before he goes into rut a bull reindeer is fatter than an ox reindeer, but if the ox is excused work he gets fatter. A wild reindeer is much larger than a tame one. The bull goes into rut a week before St Matthew’s Day and it lasts for a fortnight until Michaelmas. During this period he is wild and butts and often gets so thin that he dies. The cows, therefore, mostly give birth around St Eric’s Day, only very few calves coming later than that. During the rut the hair falls out and the velvet comes off the horns.

The cows never take a bull in their first year, only rarely in the second, but normally in their third year, by which time they have become stronger. They are fully grown at between 2 and 3 years old and the males do not mature any earlier.

In their first year both male and female calves are called “messi”; in the second year the male is called “orryk” and the female “vhenial”; in the third year, after she has taken the bull, the cow is called “vatjama” (which means wife) but “vhunialrotno” if she is sterile – and the male is called “vubbirs”; 4th “koddutis”; 5th “kositus”; 6th “mackanis”; 7th “nammalapp-otakis’. They do not keep reindeer bulls longer than that for they fail to come into rut any longer. Reindeer oxen live longer.

Age. No reindeer lives longer than 12 to 14 years. When an ox has reached a suitable age and gets specially fat in the autumn, or when a cow grows old and becomes “rotno” (sterile), they are slaughtered in the autumn, the Lapps saying that they would die next year anyway and that they are thus fated to die.

Reindeer bulls are slaughtered before they come into rut and hung up in the wind and frost until they have been skinned. The meat, dried by sun and smoke as well as slightly salted, is put in sledges to be taken to storage huts ready for spring, for it is around St Matthew’s Day in spring that the reindeer suffer from “korm”-disease and are not suitable for slaughter. In the early part of the year the Lapps slaughter according to their needs but during the “korm” period they live on this stored meat until they can start milking.

The blood is stored in small casks to keep it fresh and they make gruel from it the following spring. That is made from fat, marrow, meal and water.

The Lapp continues to fetch food from his store as long as there is still suitable snow for travelling, and by then the blood is as thick as pig’s blood. They carry the blood in bladders and stomachs.