480 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



anJ they were led by the mother 

 and daughter over the mountains, 

 while the father went before to 

 prepare the new dwelling, and 

 the other children conducted the 

 free herd to their place of pas- 

 ture. The flock amounted to 

 about four hundred head. We 

 had yet seen none under three 

 hundred. With this number a 

 family is said to be in moderate 

 prosperity. It can be maintained 

 on it. They can afford to kill as 

 many rein-deer as are necessary 

 for food and clothing, shoes, and 

 boots, and to sell besides a few 

 rein-deer skins, hides, and horns, to 

 the merchants for meal or brandy, 

 or woollen stuffs. On the other 

 hand, a family lives very miserably 

 on a hundred of these animals, and 

 can hardly keep from starving. 

 Hence, if they are brought down 

 so low, they must give up the free 

 pastoral life on the mountains, and 

 draw towards the sea, and endea- 

 vour as sea Laplanders to gain 

 from that element what they can 

 no longer find among the moun- 

 tains. But their desires are al- 

 ways fixed on the mountains, and 

 every sea Laplander eagerly ex- 

 changes his hut and his earnings 

 for the herd of the Fieldt-Lap- 

 lander. The charms of a free life 

 among the mountains, and of inde- 

 pendence, may have less cflect 

 on tlie producing o'" this inclina- 

 tion than the actual good living 

 of the Fieldt or mountain Lap- 

 landers, which the sea Laplander 

 cannot even procure on holidays. 

 Every day I have seen rein-deer 

 flesh cooked in all these gainmes 

 for the whole family, and gene- 

 rally of young fawns, in large iron 

 kettles. Each person certainly 

 received more than a pound for 

 his share. When the flesh was 



cooked, it was immediately torn 

 asunder by the master of the 

 house with his fingers, and di- 

 vided out among the family ; and 

 the eagerness with which each 

 person received his allowance, and 

 the rapidity with which they strove, 

 as for a wager, to tear it with teeth 

 and fingers are almost incredible. 

 In the meantime the broth re- 

 mains in the kettle, and is boiled 

 up with thick rein-deer milk, with 

 rye or oatmeal, and sometimes, 

 though seldom, with a little salt. 

 This broth is then distributed, and 

 devoured with the same hungry 

 avidity. The sea Laplander, oti 

 the other hand, has only fish, or 

 fish livers, with train oil, and never 

 has either the means or oppor- 

 tunity of preparing such costly 

 soups. The former not only re- 

 lishes his flesh, but finds in it a 

 strong nourishment. In fact, how 

 few boors in Norway or Sweden, 

 or even in Germany, can compare 

 their meals, in point of nutrition, 

 with this. In winter, the food of 

 the Laplanders is more multifari- 

 ous. They then catch an in- 

 credible number of ptarmigans 

 CRz/per, Tetrao Lagopvs), wood 

 grouse (Truren) and a number of 

 other wild birds, partly to eat and 

 partly to sell. They not unfre- 

 quently also shoot a bear, which 

 they eat like the Norwegian pea- 

 sants. They have then also no 

 want of rein-deer flesh ; for the 

 frozen pieces may be long pre- 

 served. They can even preserve 

 the precious milk in winter, al- 

 though they can then derive none 

 immediately from the rein-deer. 

 They expose it in harvest to the 

 frost, and preserve the frozen 

 pieces like cheese. When melted 

 after a lapse of several months, 

 this milk still tastes fresh and de- 



