Jokkmokk

I found here an abundance of ‘Tripolium pratense, corona calyci breviori’ or ‘Aster folio non acri; fl. purpureo’ [Blue Heabane]. NB. also the same with white flowers.

Also ‘Euphrasia’ [eyebright]5 about the same size as the common sort but with quite different flowers in that they were rather small like ‘Tetrahit flore majori et minori’ [Common Hemp-nettle].

The barley was sown here on the 26th May.

3rd. Quite early in the morning I went with the Regimental Quartermaster Mr. Joachim Kock and the Inspector of Mines Mr. Seger Svanberg the 3 1/2 miles to KIURIVAW, a high hill where they have begun to work a seam of silver whose ore as yet only showed up in one narrow fissure.

There were birch trees on the top of the hill but they were very small. Their trunks were quite thick but lacking in height and it could be seen that the topmost branches had been frozen off. The leaves looked like those that sprout from branches that have been burnt in forest fires. I was told that they produce very little sap each year and that consequently their wood is harder than is usual – also, that the trees were fairly old. The farther north I went, the shorter they became.

The people here grease boots and driving harness with fish fat that they have saved. Others buy grease from Norway, where it is produced from coalfish.

4th. I found ‘Andromeda foliis Empetri’ [Mountain Heath].

Foods that the Lapps produce from milk:

“Mes”, that is the whey left over after making cheese, is boiled until it goes thick. Then a little cream from reindeer milk is mixed into it and after that it is dried in reindeer stomachs. It tastes excellent.

“Kappa”, ie. what comes to the surface when “mes” is being boiled, is skimmed off and collected in stomachs. They do not use rennet to curdle their cheese but use the dried stomachs of pike, char or grayling instead. They put these in advance in a small cask and add some milk to it. Whenever some is taken out, they add the same amount of milk so that they do not run short of it.

“Jumo”-milk; a pint of sorrel is boiled in a little water and stirred until it has boiled to pieces. Then it is mixed with reindeer milk, put into a stomach or some other container and served as needed or eaten at once.

Some people make rennet by removing the rennet stomachs from reindeer calves that die in winter. Milk is then poured into them and they are hung up to dry ready for use.

Lapp Medicines:

Their “moxa” is a fine, crumbling wood-powder taken from the south side of birch trees. An amount the size of a pea is placed on the sore place, ignited with a birch twig and allowed to burn away gradually. It is placed where the pain is worst and the treatment is often repeated two or three times. This causes sores which often remain open for six months but which must not be treated, being left instead to heal of their own accord. It is used against all pains; headaches, stings, stomach aches, gouty and rheumatic pains etc. It is the universal remedy among the Lapps, which is why they call it “the little doctor”.

“Kattie” is a poultice or drawing plaster. Good, soft birch bark is burned, placed immediately in water, and then chewed just as is done when they intend to use it for glueing stoneware pots. Then it is mixed with fresh spruce resin and worked with the hands into a black plaster. It is excellent for putting on hard boils etc., which then open very quickly and become soft quite painlessly.

They tie their glazed pots together with string when they get broken and then boil them in fresh milk, after which they hold together again.