FROM 



NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



THE BIRD-BERGS OF LAPLAND. 



" WHEN the Creator of the worlds had made the earth, best loved 

 of all, and was rejoicing in His perfect work, the devil was seized 

 with a desire to bring it all to nought. Not yet banished from 

 heaven, he lived among the archangels in the abodes of the 

 blessed. Up to the seventh heaven he flew, and, seizing a great 

 stone, hurled it with might down on the earth exulting in the 

 beauty of its youth. But the Creator saw the ruthless deed, and 

 sent one of His archangels to avert the evil. The angel flew even 

 more swiftly than the stone to the earth beneath, and succeeded in 

 saving the land. The huge stone plunged thundering into the sea, 

 and hissing waves flooded all the shores for many a mile. The 

 fall shattered the crust of the stone, and thousands of splinters 

 sank on either side, some disappearing into the depths, and some 

 rising above the surface, bare and bleak like the rock itself. Then 

 God took pity, and in His infinite goodness resolved to clothe even 

 this naked rock with life. But the fruitful soil was all but ex- 

 hausted in His hand; there remained scarce enough to lay a little 

 here and there upon the stone." 



So runs an ancient legend still current among the Lapps. The 

 stone which the devil threw is Scandinavia; the splinters which fell 

 into the sea on either side are the skerries which form a richly varied 

 wreath around the peninsula. The rents and cracks in the rock are 

 the fjords and the valleys; the sprinkling of life-giving soil which 

 fell from the gracious Creator's hand forms the few fertile tracts 

 which Scandinavia possesses. To appreciate the full depth and 

 meaning of the childish story one must one's self have visited 



(M70) 3 



