Österbotten

In winter they work in the “pörten” with the window-holes open. So that it will still stay warm even with the windows open, they close the doors. They keep fires going unless the weather is overcast.

In Torneå they turn the earth with a spade and never use a plough. Likewise in Kemi, where only the ground intended for rye is worked with a plough.

In Kemi a whole dinner service of 5 or 6 plates with spoons, napkins etc. is laid for just 1 or 2 people, – for such is their custom. The inn provides a fixed-price meal.

I found ‘Salicaria foliis alternis, gradualibus, floribus in alis singulis’ [Purple Loosestrife] at the dean’s house in Kemi.

I had intended to travel around Österbotten a little but when I arrived at the inn I could get neither horse nor food since they did not understand me – nor did they want to understand me. I therefore travelled back from…[gap in manuscript] on the 12th August.

The Finns in Österbotten dress very much like Lapps, their clothes agreeing in the following particulars:

They agree: 1. cap 2. light-grey jacket 3. trousers that go into the boots 4. short boots 5. belt with a knife attached to it 6. hooks instead of buttons.

They differ: 1. in that they lack a high collar 2. in that they have a neckerchief 3. the coat is open at the front 4. shirts 5. belt with nothing but the knife hanging from it and a few keys at the back 6. thongs around the knees.

In church I saw that most of them wore a strip of black cloth wound 2 or 3 times around their body below the rib-cage; this stood out black against the grey of the jacket.

The womenfolk, on the other hand, are dressed in bought clothes and are completely different from the Lapp womenfolk.

Österbotten is a waterlogged and low-lying country with many marshy lakes, shallow forest tarns and bogs. The grass grows tall but there is still such a shortage of hay that they buy horse-dung in Torneå, boil it in the built-in cauldrons in their cookhouses and give it to the animals to eat. They also heat water and pour it on reindeer moss.

The bread that the people of Österbotten were eating at this difficult time consisted mostly of the panicle of the barley chopped up small and ground.

The winter rye that was sown a week ago today was already quite green.

I arrived back in Torneå in the evening.

13th. I attended a Finnish church service in the farmers’ church in Torneå. I also witnessed the churching of a wife who had recently given birth – it was accompanied by the elevation of the host. I noticed that most of the Finnish menfolk had white hair or white that had become dark with time. No one had red hair, very few had black, and for the most part it was straight rather than curly.

The physiognomy of both the men and the women is phlegmatic and lacking in liveliness, as indeed their bodies are. There are no subtle facial features; they are colourless.