164 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



of the victim, is still acted, though not so frequently as formerly ; but the cus- 

 tom of begging the bear's pardon with many tears is completely out of date. 

 The animal's interment, however, still takes place with all the ancient honors 

 and ceremonies. After having been skinned, and its flesh cut off, the body is 

 buried in anatomical order — the head first, then the neck, the fore paw, etc. This 

 is done from a belief in the resurrection of the bear, who having been decently 

 buried, will, it is hoped, allow himself to be killed a second time by the same 

 Lapj^; while a neglect of the honors due to him would exasperate the whole 

 race of bears, and cause them to wreak a bloody vengeance on the disrespectful 

 hunter. 



The wolf is treated with much less ceremony. Many a wealthy Lapp, the 

 owner of a thousand reindeer, has been reduced to poverty by the ravages of this 

 savage beast, which is constantly prowling about the herds. Hence one of the 

 first questions they put to each other when they meet is, Lekor rauhe ?" " Is 

 it peace ?" — which means nothing more than, " Have thfe wolves molested you ?" 

 Such is their detestation of these animals that they believe them to be creatures 

 of the devil, contaminating all that touches them while alive. Thus they will 

 never shoot a wolf, as the gun that killed him would ever after be accursed. 



At the first alarm that wolves have appeared, the neighbors assemble, and 

 the chase begins. For miles they j)nrsue him over hills and valleys on their 

 " skiders," and kill him with clubs, which they afterwards burn. They will not 

 even defile themselves with skinning him, but leave his hide to the Finnish or 

 Russian colonists, who, being less scrupulous or superstitious, make a warm 

 cloak of it, or sell it for a few dollars at the fair. 



Among the Fjall Lapps there are many rich owners of 1000 or 1500 rem- 

 deer, 300 of which fully sufiice for the maintenance of a family. In this case 

 the owner is able to kill as many as are necessary for providing his household 

 with food and raiment, while the sale of the superfluous skins and horns enables 

 him to purchase cloth, flour, hardware, and other necessary articles — not to for- 

 get the tobacco or the brandy in which he delights. The price of the entire 

 carcass of a reindeer, skin and all, varies from one to three dollars Norsk (four 

 shillings and sixpence to thirteen shillings and sixpence). A fine skin will al- 

 ways sell for one dollar in any part of the Korth. It will thus be seen that a 

 Lapp possessing a herd of 500 or 1000 deer is virtually a capitalist in every 

 sense of the word, far richer than the vast majority of his Norwegian, Swedish, 

 or Russian fellow-subjects, although they all affect to look upon him with su- 

 preme contempt. 



The daily food of the mountain Laplanders consists of the fattest reindeer 

 venison, which they boil, and eat with the broth in which it has been cooked. 

 Their summer diet consists of cheese and reindeer-milk. The rich also eat 

 bread baked upon hot iron plates. 



Their mode of killing the reindeer is the method used by the butchers in the 

 South of Italy — the most ancient and best method of slaying cattle, because it 

 is attended with the least pain to the animal, and the greatest profit to its pos- 

 sessor. They thrust a sharp-pointed knife into the back part of the head be- 

 tween the horns, so as to divide the spinal marrow from the brain. The beast 



