LAPLAND. 



393 



Furaiiurv 



or coagulated together with its cream ; or boiled down, 

 when quite fresh, to the consistence of gruel, in which 

 state it is called sweet cheese ; or coagulated with ren- 

 net, and boiled with meal ; or drained in a napkin, 

 when just beginning to ferment, and, when sufficiently 

 firm, eaten with sweet cream. In winter the new milk 

 freezes as soon as drawn from the animal ; and in this 

 state is kept in small vessels of birch-wood, as an ex- 

 traordinary delicacy, to be eaten with a spoon as it 

 thaws before the fire. In autumn it is collected in casks, 

 or other vessels, in which it speedily sours ; and, as the 

 cold weather comes on, freezes hard. It is frequently 

 mixed also with cranberries, and put into a clean paunch 

 of the rein-deer, when it soon congeals, and, together 

 with the paunch, is cut into slices tor use in winter. 

 They make butter of the whole milk of the rein-deer, 

 which the women accomplish by stirring it about with 

 their fingers till it acquires the desired consistency. On 

 making cheese it is necessary, on account of the extra- 

 ordinary richness of the milk, to mix it with water ; 

 and the cheese, which is still remarkably tat, is used 

 cold, boiled, or roasted. The whey, boiled with meal, 

 forms another preparation ; and sometimes it is kept 

 for a long time merely in a viscid state. Besides the 

 calf's rennet, the Laplanders produce a similar prepa- 

 ration by infusing the saind ot the cod-fish, or the in- 

 testines of the rein-deer, in a quantity of butter-milk. 

 They use a great proportion of venison in their daily 

 fare. From the time that the dried fish is consumed, a 

 family of four persons uses at least one rein-deer every 

 week ; and three of these animals are accounted equi- 

 valent to an ox. This venison, *!:'.iight red as required, 

 is cut into small pieces and boiled, which are dipped, 

 as they are eaten, into the fat previously scummed from 

 the pot, and washed down by a ladle full of the broth 

 taken occasionally dunng the repast. The legs are boil- 

 ed for the sake of the mrrow, which forms one of the' 

 gre.itest delicacies ; and the entrails are cooked for food, 

 though never along with the meat. Even the bones 

 are most economically broken down, and stewed as 

 is any od can be procured from them. The lights 

 only are reserved for the dogs. The flesh of the rein- 

 deer is frequently prepared, also, by roasting on wood- 

 en spits, stuck in the ground, and placed before the 

 fire ; and occasionally parts of it are smoked by hang- 

 ing in the upper part of the tent. It is killed only ia 

 winter, and always used fresh. The blood is preserved 

 in bladders, kegs, *cc. and mixed with a kind of gruel. 

 Both the maritime and mountain Laplanders eat the 

 flesh of bears, beavers, wolves, foxes, seals, otters, glut- 

 tons, squirrels, martins, and almost all quadrupeds that 

 they can conirive to catch or kill.* The Laplanders 

 make u.-e "I very little bread, except a little barley- 

 cake, baked with water, or milk, or whey, upon the 

 he irth. The poorer people grind the chaff, and rven 



exhausted, or falling short, . some of the straw, along with the corn. Sometimes 



the inner bark of the fir and pine tree, collected when 

 the sap is rising, drieil in the sun or over a slow fire, is 

 ground into meal and mixed with the barley flour. An- 

 other kind of bread is prepared from the Calla palus- 

 ///> or water dragon, the roots of which are taken up in 

 spring before the leaves shoot out, dried, pounded, 

 ground, boiled, till it becomes thick like flummery, and, 

 alter standing in this state three or four days to lose its 



, i wear in Ike arrouiu. at tmrellen on thi. point. Aceibi. who chiefly follows the I);. <nry 1-canis, says, 



that tfcer eu all aaimab but swii*. pork being to a Laplander an abomination i but Thomson, who takes Linnaeus as his guide, affirms, that 

 aloMat UK ruprd. upn which lie natira do not feed arc the fox and wolf, and speaks of their fattening swine with men! 



r ,'. frmn r . . ,rX I '.!. ,!'. . 



TIT. 4f P 



protection from the gnats in summer, and from the cold 

 in winter ; but, in consequence of the wetness of the 

 wood which they are obliged to employ as fuel, this 

 smoke is so pitchy and dense, as to render it incon- 

 ceivable how human beings should be able to exist, or, 

 t least, to preserve their eye-sight in such a situation. 

 In the huts thrre is usually a stall near the door, fur the 

 sheep and cattle, which enter by the same door, and pass 

 the night tinder the same roof with the family. Both 

 the maritime and mountain Laplanders have sheds and 

 hovels around their dwellings as receptacles for provi- 

 sions, and other household stuffs, which are not in im- 

 mediate 1 request ; and generally one of these is an empty 

 space under their hay-stack, which is built on a frame 

 of posts. Frequently, also, the mountaineers dig holes 

 in the ground, and pave them with stones, as store-pla- 

 oci tor the flesh of the rein-deer. 



household furniture of the Laplanders consists 

 of horn spoons, pots and kettles, made of brass or cop- 

 per, sometimes of stun* ; wooden bowls (if birch 

 wood, capable of holding about 1 2 quarts ; a basket for 

 holding cheeie ; and. a barrel for their oil, and other li- 

 quid*. A few of the ric-lur natives possess two or three 

 pewter dishes, and silver spoon*. The maritime Lap- 

 lander* use a lamp : i sea-shell, with a rn-li- 

 wick ; but the mountaineers have rarely any otlier 

 light than what the fire affords. A few rennet bags 

 filled with milk lor winter use, are suspended from the 

 roof; and one or two racks for cheese placed along the 

 upper part of the house. Oval fir-boxes, capable of 

 containing a few articles, and covered by a lacing of 

 cords, are used ai panniers hi transporting their goods ; 

 and two of them, weighing above two pounds each, arc 

 carried by a rein-deer. The meat ornamental piece of 

 furniture in the house of Laplander is the cradle; 

 which is piece of wood properly shaped and hollow- 

 ed, with a recess for the head of the child. Cords are to 

 fixed as to paw round it and fasten it to the mother's 

 back when she travels ; and a ring of beads is suspend- 

 ed from the upper part to amuse the infant as it lies on 

 its back with its hands at liberty. In this case of wood 

 the infant* are rocked or swung, and sometimes fed 

 with unboiled milk through a hom. In four months 

 they are generally able to stand on their feet ; but many 

 of then art supposed to die from improper manage- 

 ment, and especially from an early exposure to cold. 

 The diet of the Laplanders consists almost wholly of 



food. Those who reside on the coast subsist 

 chiefly on fish, with a little beef and mutton occasion- 

 all*. They are fond of the cod fish roasted as soon as 

 cstttfrht ; and consider its liver, bruued and mixed with 

 cranberriea. as a very savoury dish. Salmon is split 

 and dried, and, in tlut state, is eaten without any far- 

 ther cooking or pr|>aration, except dipping each piece 

 in train oil beta* patliint it in their mouth*. When 

 their stock o' 



they collect the heads and but. liein betore tin- 



fire, stew them in a kettle along with slice!) of seal- 

 Mubber, and art tfce mess with a seasoning of train oil. 

 The mountain Laplanders subsitt principally on the 

 milk and dean of the rein-deer. Its milk is used in a 

 great variety of ways ; fresh or boiled, or trailed and 

 cnawulsted with sorrel ; or coagulated in a sour state, 

 and so solid as to be capable of being cut into slice-, ; 



