170 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



He who is the steersman of all boats granted us a safe arrival at Kemi, where 

 our Lapland journey terminated."* 



In 1841 Castren published a metrical translation, into the Swedish language, 

 of the " Kalewala," a cycle of the oldest poems of the Fins ; and at the end of 

 the same year proceeded on his first great journey to the land of the European 

 Samoiedes, and from thence across the northern Ural Mountains to Siberia. In 

 the famous convent of Solovetskoi, situated on a small island in the White Sea, 

 he hoped to find a friendly teacher of the Samo'iede language in the Archiman- 

 drite Wenjamin, who had labored as a missionary among that savage people, 

 but the churlish dignitary jealously refused him all assistance; and as the tun- 

 dras of the Samoiedes are only accessible during the winter, he resolved to turn 

 the interval to account by a journey among the Terski Lapps, who inhabit the 

 western shores of the White Sea. With this view, in an evil hour of the 27th 

 June, 1842, though suffering at this time from illness severe enough to have de- 

 tained any less persevering traveller, he embarked at Archangel in a large corn- 

 laden vessel, with a reasonable prospect of being landed at Tri Ostrowa in some 

 twenty-four hours ; but a dead calm detained him eight days, during which he 

 had no choice but to endure the horrible stench of Russian sea-stores in the 

 cabin or the scorching sun on deck. At length a favorable wind arose, and 

 after a few hours' sailing nothing was to be seen but water and sky. Soon the 

 Terski coast came in view, with its white ice-capped shore, and Castren hoped 

 soon to be released from his floating prison, when suddenly the wind changed, 

 and, increasing to a storm, threatened to dash them on the cliffs of the Solovet- 

 skoi Islands. 



" Both the captain and the ship's company began to despair of their lives ; 

 and prayers having been resorted to in vain, to conjure the danger, general 

 drunkenness was the next resource. The captain, finding his own brandy too 

 w^eak to procure the stupefaction he desired, left me no peace till I had given 

 him a bottle of rum. After having by degrees emptied its contents, he at length 

 obtained his end, and fell asleep in the cabin. The crew, following his example, 

 dropped down one by one into their cribs, and the ship was left without guidance 

 to the mercy of the winds and waves. I alone remained on deck, and gloomily 

 awaited the decisive moment. But I soon discovered that the wind was veer- 

 ing to the east, and, awaking the captain from his drunken lethargy, sent him on 

 deck, and took possession of his bed. Exhausted by the dreadful scenes of the 

 day, I soon fell into a deep slumber ; and when I awoke the following morning, 

 I found myself again on the eastern coast of the White Sea, at the foot of a 

 high sheltering rock-wall.'' 



Continued bad weather and increasing illness now forced Castren to give up 

 his projected visit to the Lapps, and when he returned to Archangel, both his 

 health and his purse were in a sad condition. He had but fifteen roubles in his 

 pocket, but fortunately found some Samoiede beggars still poorer than himself, 

 one of whom, for the reward of an occasional glass of brandy, consented to be- 

 come at once his host, his servant, and his private tutor in the Samoiede lan- 



* Reisen in Lappland, etc. 



