46 THE VOYAGE OF THE VEGA. [chap. 



mountain peaks ; ^ and after having in this way travelled six- 

 teen miles, and crossed an arm of the sea, they followed the 

 western strand, leaving on their right the open sea, which like 

 the neishbourinof mountains has its name from the river Petzora. 

 They came here to a people called Fin-Lapps, who, though they 

 dwell in low wretched huts by the sea, and live almost like wild 

 beasts, in any case are said to be much more peaceable than the 

 people who are called wild Lapps. Then, after they had passed 

 the kind of the Lapps and sailed forward eighty miles, they came 

 to the land, Nortpoden, which is part of the dominions of the 

 King of Sweden. This region the Rutheni call Kayenska 

 Selma, and the people they call Kayeni. After sailing thence 

 along a very indented coast which jutted out to the right, they 

 came to a jjeninsula, called the Holy Nose,^ consisting of a 

 great rock, which like a nose projects into the sea. But in this 

 there is a grotto or hollow which for six hours at a time 

 swallows up water, and then with great noise and din casts out 

 again in whirls the water which it had swallowed. Some call 

 it the navel of the sea, others Charybdis. It is said that this 

 whirlpool has such power, that it draws to itself ships and other 

 things in its neighbourhood and swalloAvs them. Istoma said 

 that he had never been in such danger as at that place, because 

 the whirlpool drew the ship in which he travelled with such 

 force, that it was only by extreme exertion at the oars that 

 they could escape. After passing this Holy Nose they came to 

 a rocky promontory, which they had to sail round. After having 

 waited here some days on account of head winds, the skipper 

 said : ' This rock, which ye see, is called Semes, and we shall 

 not get so easily past it if it be not propitiated by some offer- 

 ing.' Istoma said that he reproved the skipper for his foolish 

 superstition, on which the reprimanded skipper said nothing 

 more. They waited thus the fourth day at the place on ac- 

 count of the stormy state of the sea, but after that the storm 

 ceased, and the anchor was weighed. When the voyage was 

 now continued with a favourable wind, the skij^pcr said : ' You 

 laughed at my advice to propitiate the Semes rock, and con- 

 sidered it a foolish superstition, but it certainly would have 

 been impossible for us to get past it, if I had not secretly by 

 night ascended the rock and sacrificed.' To the inquiry what 

 he had offered, the skipper replied : ' I scattered oatmeal 

 mixed with butter on the projecting rock which we saw.' 

 As they sailed further they came to another great promontory, 

 called Motka, resembling a peninsula. At the end of this 



^ An erroneous transposition of mountains seen in Norway, the north- 

 eastern shore of the White Sea bein,^ low land. 



2 An unfortunate translation, which often occurs in old works, of 

 Swjatoinos, "the holy headland." 



