Lycksele Lappmark

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.

‘Chamaemorus’ [Cloudberry] was now flowering abundantly, its petals varying in number from 4, 5, 6 to 7, and what is remarkable is that I saw it flowering just as prolifically in shade on the tops of mountains. This was also true of ‘Ernpetruni’ [Crowberry].

I found again the same insect with half-sheathed wings that feeds on fish. Also a different insect, black and spotted. The former runs around among the scales on fish, the latter is always to be found in the chaff on hut floors. The latter smells like ‘Ruta’ [Common Rue].

The women’s tunics have a piece of brown cloth inset in the back.

4th June. By a hut I saw some black, rough, roundish pieces of pitch-black material. I asked what they were and was told that they were reindeer stomachs turned inside out. They put milk in them during the summer and it then keeps in a dried state until winter when they soften it up with water. Some people use bladders instead. In the mountains they boil the milk together with ‘Acetosa’ [Common Sorrel] and conserve that.

I wondered, and I now wonder even more, how these poor people can live on fish alone. It is sometimes boiled fresh, sometimes dried and boiled, sometimes dried and roasted on a wooden spit placed by the fire. They roast it well and, when they boil fish, they do so better and longer than I have ever seen done. They have no soup foods at all apart from fish and even that is no more than just the water in which the fish was boiled. If the fishing fails, they have no way of getting anything to eat. Not until Midsummer do they begin to milk the reindeer and after that they have milk to sustain them. They slaughter reindeer in the autumn and this provides them with some small sustenance for the winter – a poor enough one, though.