Västerbotten [1]

There was far too little juniper here and what there was was small and pressed to the ground.

At SKALLBACKEN there was a little rill flowing out of the hill itself and I stuck my stick into it without touching bottom.

At a number of places along the road there was a white crust, ‘Byssus alba’ [lichen], which consisted of a white, roughish, sourmilk-like skin with white grains on it.8 The ‘Muscus foliosum’, ‘conicum’, ‘sulphureum’ [lichen] that I mentioned earlier lay in great quantities all along the road.9 ‘Muscus tectorius’ [moss] and ‘Polytrichum’ [moss] grew abundantly in the bog, together with ‘Vaccinium nigrum’ [Blaeberry].

I could not get anything but water to drink anywhere.

‘Agaricus pedis eqvini facie’ [bracket fungus] grew on walls like pin-cushions.

As protection against the rain the people used a collar made of birch-bark fastened around their necks with a pin.

The womenfolk washed the floors by placing their right foot on a brush made of dry spruce-twigs and scrubbing back and forth with it.

I was given “missne”, which is ‘Trifolium aquaticum’ [Bogbean]. They grind it and mix it in with dough for bread or boil it with berries into a pure, but it is bitter. The root of the plant is the part they use.

I went in a Lapp boat part of the way and I shall describe it farther on.

When they are short of tobacco, the farmers smoke hop-buds, juniper berries or juniper bark. For snuff, they use ashes mixed together with just a little snuff.

The women sieve the milk through flat mats made from the hair from cows’ tails.

I arrived at TEGSNӒSET in the evening. It belongs to the parish of Umeå, so the people have a considerable journey of 45 miles to get to church. To get there, they have to set off on Friday morning and are thus unable to attend except on the days of obligation and sometimes at Whitsun, Christmas and Easter. What would it cost to build a small church? The authorities have a responsibility before God in this matter! Timber for the purpose was provided in the days of the late Abraham Lidelius but has now rotted, for the clergy sometimes have their difficulties – not that they are particularly great.

28th. I journeyed from Tegsnäset to GRANÖN but, as I was to go by boat from there to Lycksele and it was very windy, I had to wait until the following day. I did not get here, in any case, until 9 o’clock and then had to wait until 11 o’clock as the people had gathered for prayers and homilies. I could not set off as it was a good 35 miles to Lycksele and there was no farm to rest at on the way.

The farmer here had shot a small beaver and I questioned him as to what beavers eat. The answer was the bark of birch, pine and rowan but, for preference, aspen bark. If the beaver can get a plentiful supply of this, its castor gland grows bigger. This fact is confirmed by Assessor Rothman, who had earlier expressed the opinion that the substance from which beaver castor is produced is the middle layer of the bark of the aspen tree and that the latter has the same smell though it is not so strong. A decoction of that bark ought, therefore, to have the same effect, if a large enough dose is taken.

Beaver meat is eaten like that of hare or squirrel, which are, indeed, of the same family. The Romans in ancient times ate mice as a great delicacy, see Munday. Beaver is boiled, rarely roasted. The tail is thrown away, the feet are eaten and the skin is taken off and stretched. It is worth 12 daler. Beaver castor costs half a daler per mark. I was given a piece of cooked beaver but I did not find it to my taste since it had not even been slightly salted.