The Mountains [1]

b. the second fish was a whole fresh char cooked on a wooden spit by the fire. It became fat and swollen but lacked salt, and I could not stand the taste of that one either.

c. the third was salted, dried char, which was cooked on the spit and tasted excellent. I chose that one.

They drank the fish stock along with the fish though I could not stomach that either; it was, however, a good habit and certainly laudable in that like helps to digest like.

The reindeer were as innumerable as the trees of the forest. They are driven home for milking morning and evening and I saw how, when it was time to drive them home and they did not want to go, they just sent the dog in. It ran to wherever the girl doing the herding directed or waved it, at which the reindeer became very afraid and went in the direction the girl wanted. I also saw how, when the animals were being driven away again while there was a strong east wind blowing, they went in circles, for they wanted to go where the girl did not want and she wanted them to go where they did not want. The reindeer went backwards, round in a circle and forwards again while the dog ran around with the girl. I was told that reindeer always want to proceed against the wind and, when they are allowed to do that, they run steadily and quite quickly, thinking to keep themselves cool. A little later I happened to see all the reindeer standing in the shadow of a high hill because the sun was so hot. They were standing as if packed together on a patch of snow, for they do not eat when it is hot. The mosquitoes were also troublesome.

The reindeer is very similar to the red deer except for the horns, for the reindeer is alone among all the deer in that even the cows have horns.

When a reindeer walks, a clicking noise comes from its foot. I wondered about this and tried to find the reason but, when I asked, they all answered that it was because Our Lord has created him like that. I asked in what way Our Lord has created him so as to produce a click, but Forbes had no answer to this.1 I took hold of the ankle-joint, pulled it, bent it, stretched it out and pushed it together, but still no click could be heard. By and by I discovered that it is caused by the fact that the hooves themselves are hollowed out on the inner sides. When the reindeer is standing on its feet, the hoof is splayed apart but, as soon as the foot is moved backwards, the points of the hoof strike together and thus make a clicking sound – a fact that I was fortunate enough to establish with my own hand on the animal’s foot.

NB. the female is just as horned as the male, sometimes more so.

When they are castrated, they lose their horns but they grow back. That is not the case, however, with red deer and sheep.

When the reindeer are driven home for milking, they all lie down and, breathing rapidly and with their bellies working quickly, they chew the cud (thus, when Scheffer reports that they do not ruminate, he is completely wrong; Ray’s guess proves to be more correct than Scheffer’s statement).2

When a calf strays away from the cow, he runs frantically in search of her, making noises like a sow until he finds her – he will even run away from the herd and home to the “kåta” etc.

When all the reindeer have lain down, each Lapp takes a thin rope, hangs it in loops on his hand and then casts it at the one he wants to catch so that it falls over the animal’s neck and she is unable to run far away. Then a halter is put over her horns and neck. There are small posts driven into the ground and 4 reindeer are tethered to each post while they are being milked by man and wife, servant and maid. If the milk will not flow quickly, they hit the udder fairly hard with their hands and that makes the milk flow.

They have 4 teats, very occasionally 6, and all of them produce milk. Calves are not separated from their mothers.

When the milking was finished and the reindeer had gone away, I saw how the maid picked up the soft dark dung, worked it with her hands and put it in a container. I asked what use this might be. They replied that it was to smear on the udder, so that the calves would not suckle too much, and they said that it would dry by the following day and could easily be rubbed off then.

The cows calve at the beginning of May and they start milking them on the 24th June or around Midsummer and continue until All Saints’ Day down in the forest but until Michaelmas up here.

The bull has a hanging foreskin that is 2 inches long and almost cylindrical.

During their first year the calves get simple, finger-shaped horns.