MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. 



479 



continual motion. The welfare 

 and the security of the flock rests 

 wholly on them. By them alone 

 are they kept together in their des- 

 tined situation, or, when necessary, 

 driven to others. The wolves, 

 the dreadful enemies of the Lap- 

 landers, are by them driven away 

 from the rein-deer. The timid 

 animal runs frightened up and 

 down the wilderness when the 

 wolf approaches: the dogs then 

 by their barking and snarling keep 

 the flock together, and by this 

 means the wolf will not easily 

 venture an attack. If the rein- 

 deer is to the Laplander what his 

 field is to the husbandman, the dog 

 is to the Laplander what the plough 

 is to the other. When he returns 

 wearied to his gamme, he always 

 willingly shares his rein-deer flesh 

 and liis soup with his dog, which 

 he will hardly do with either father 

 or mother. 



It is an unusual, a new, and a 

 pleasing spectacle to see, in the 

 evening, the herd assembled round 

 the gamme to be milked. On all 

 the hil'^ around, every thing is in 

 an instant full of life and motion. 

 The busy dogs are every where 

 barking, and bringing the mass 

 nearer and nearer ; and the rein- 

 deer bound and run, stand still, 

 and bound again in an indescrib- 

 able variety of movements. When 

 the feeding animal, frightened by 

 the dog, raises his head, and dis- 

 plays aloft his large and proud 

 antlers, what a beautiful and ma- 

 jestic sight ! and when he courses 

 over the ground, how fleet and 

 light are his movements ! We 

 never hear the foot on the earth, 

 and nothing but the incessant 

 crackling of his knee-joints, as if 

 produced by a repetition of electric 



shocks ; a singular noise, and from 

 the number of rein-deer by whom 

 it is at once produced, it is heard 

 at a great distance. When all the 

 three or four hundred at last reach 

 the gamme, they stand still, or re- 

 pose themselves, or frisk about in 

 confidence among one another, 

 play with their antlers against 

 each other, or in groups surround 

 a patch of moss. When the maids 

 run about with their milk vessels 

 from deer to deer, the brother or 

 servant throws a bark halter round 

 the antlers of the animal which 

 she points out to them, and 

 draws it towards her: the animal 

 struggles, and is unwilling to fol- 

 low the halter, and the maid laughs 

 at and enjoys the great labour of 

 her brother, and wantonly allows 

 it to get loose that he may again 

 catch it for her. The father and 

 mother have quietly brought 

 their's together, ana filled many a 

 vessel, and now begin to scold 

 them for their wanton behaviour, 

 which has scared the whole flock. 

 Who would not then think on 

 Laban, on Leah, Rachel, and 

 Jacob ? When the herd at last 

 stretches itself to the number of 

 so many hundreds at once, round 

 about the gamme, we imagine we 

 are beholding a whole encamp- 

 ment, and the commanding mind, 

 which presides over the whole, in 

 the middle. 



We had scarcely set our feet out 

 of the door of the gamme in the 

 morning, when in less than half 

 an hour the house was entirely 

 destroyed, and the rein-deer laden 

 with all the utensils, and in mo- 

 tion to the new place of destina- 

 tion. They were bound together in 

 rows of five with thongs, like the 

 beasts of burthen on St. Gothardt, 



