EMPLOYMENT OF SEWING-NEEDLES. 131 



We have long known also that the Laplanders use the tendons of the Reindeer 

 in sewing their garments of skin. Olaiis Magnus*, who wrote about the middle 

 of the Sixteenth Century, remarks, in speaking of Lapland, then but little known, 

 "Nervi loco lini (ibidem ob frigora non crescentis) ad indumentorum usum, 

 instar fili prseparati, deputantur." 



A century later Schefferf gave an account of the manner of their preparing this 

 thread, of which he mentions the coarse, fine, and very fine sorts, none of them, 

 however, being very long. 



This agrees well with the report of the poet Regnard, who visited that country 

 in 1681, and says " the thread used by the Laps is made of Reindeer sinews ; the 

 finest is employed in sewing their garments, and the coarsest in fastening the 

 planks of their canoes." 



It is Linnaeus, however, who has given the fullest details of the making and using 

 of this thread J ; and we therefore transcribe the passages in full : " They [the 

 women] make their thread of the sinews in the legs of the Reindeer, separating 

 them, while fresh, with their teeth, into slender strings, which they twist together " 

 (vol. i. p. 133); and " The te'ndons in the legs of the Reindeer serve to make thread 

 or cord. In each hind leg are two tendons, one before the other ; in each fore leg 

 one behind and two or three before it. The Laplanders lay hold of with their mouth, 

 split, and moisten them, rubbing them from time to time with Reindeer marrow, 

 preserved in bladders for that use, in order to render them as supple as possible. 

 Each string is made sharp at both ends, and drawn through holes of various sizes 

 in an instrument made on purpose (of wood or metal), to render it as fine and 

 smooth as they can. Two such threads are then twisted together by means of the 

 hand upon the thigh or knee. They are generally held with the left hand, and 

 twisted with the right upon the left knee, proceeding downwards, the thread being 

 moistened from time to time with saliva " (vol. ii. p. 25). 



Neither Linne, Regnard, nor Scheffer, however, as far as I can find, have 

 mentioned how the needles used by the Laps in their day were made. It is quite 

 probable that they were of metal, possibly of steel, since in the above-cited 

 passage from Linne there is mention made of an implement " of wood or metal " 



* Olai Magni Historia de gentibus septentrionalibus eanimque diversis statibus, &c., fol., Komse, 1555, lib. 

 xvii. cap. 30, p. 598 ; and Olai Magni gentium septentrionalium historise breviarium, 12mo, 1652, p. 443. 



t Joannis Schcffcri Argentoratensis Lapponia, &e., 1673, Frankfort, 4to, p. 262 ; ' Histoire de la Laponie,' 

 traduction franchise, Paris, 1678, 4to, pp. 240, 241. 



J Lachesis Lapponica ; or a Tour in Lapland, now first published from the original MS. Journal of the 

 celebrated Linnoeus [translated by C. Troillius], by J. E. Smith, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1811. 



