THE LAPPS. 157 



can be more admirable than the self-denial and heroic fortitude of these minis- 

 ters of Christ, for to renounce all that is precious in the eyes of the world to 

 follow nomads little better than savages through the wilds of an Arctic country 

 surely requires a courage not inferior to that of the soldier 



Who seeks preferment at the cannon's mouth. ' 



The Lapland schoolmaster enjoys an annual salary of twenty-five dollars, 

 and receives besides half a dollar for every child instructed. But the priest 

 is not much better off, as his stipend amounts to no more than thirty dollars 

 in money, and to about 150 dollars in produce. Among this miserably paid 

 clergy there are, as in Iceland, men worthy of a better lot. The famous Lo- 

 stadius was priest at Karesuando, seventy-five leagues from Tromso, the near- 

 est town, and a hundred leagues from Tornea. His family lived upon rye bread 

 and fishes, and but rarely tasted reindeer flesh. Chamisso mentions another 

 Lapland priest who had spent seven yeai'S in his parish, which lay beyond the 

 limits of the forest region. In the summer he was completely isolated, as then 

 the Lapps wandered with their herds to the cool shores of the icy sea ; and in 

 the winter, when the moon afforded light, he travelled about in his sledge, fre- 

 quently bivouacking at the temperature of freezing mercury, to visit his Lapps. 

 During all that time his solitude had been but twice broken by civilized man ; 

 a brother had come to see him, and a botanist had strayed to his dwelling. He 

 well knew how to appreciate the pleasure of such meetings, but neither this 

 pleasure nor any other, he said, was equal to that of seeing the sun rise again 

 above the horizon after the long winter's night. 



It is a singular custom that the pastors preaching to the Lapps deliver their 

 harangues in a tone of voice as elevated as if their audience, instead of being 

 assembled in a small chapel, were stationed upon the top of a distant mount- 

 ain, and labor as if they were going to burst a bloodvessel. Dr. Clarke, who 

 listened to one of these sermons, which lasted one hour and twenty minutes, 

 ventured to ask the reason of the very loud tone of voice used in preaching. 

 The minister said he was aware that it must appear extraordinary to a 

 stranger, but that, if he were to address the Laplanders in a lower key, they 

 would consider him as a feeble and impotent missionary, wholly unfit for his 

 oflice, and would never come to church ; that the merit and abilities of the 

 preacher, like that of many a popular politician, are always estimated by the 

 strength and power of his lungs. 



Though the Lapps (thanks to the efforts of their spiritual guides) hardly 

 even remember by name the gods of their fathers Aija, Akka, Tuona they 

 still pay a secret homage to the Saidas, or idols of wood or stone, to whom they 

 were accustomed to sacrifice the bones and horns of the reindeer. They are in 

 fact an extremely superstitious race, faithfully believing in ghosts, witchcraft, 

 and above all in Stallo, or Troller, the evil spirit of the woods. 



Many of them, when about to go hunting, throw a stick into the air, and 

 then take their way in the direction to which it points. The appearance of 

 the Aurora borealis fills them with terror, as they believe it to be a sign of 

 divine wrath, and generally shout and howl during the whole duration of 



