Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1Linné, Carl von
History
Lachesis Lapponica; Or, A Tour in Lapland, Volume 1
Linné, Carl von
Lapland -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Lapland
The little alpine variety of the Ptarmigan (_Tetrao Lagopus_) was now
accompanied by its young. I caught one of these, upon which the hen ran
so close to me, that I could easily have taken her also. She kept
continually jumping round and round me; but I thought it a pity to
deprive the tender brood of their mother, neither would my compassion
for the mother allow me long to detain her offspring, which I restored
to her in safety.
After having walked four or five miles in the course of the night, I
went to sleep in the morning in one of the cottages of the country.
_July 7._
The inhabitants, sixteen in number, lay there all naked. They washed
themselves by rubbing the body downwards, not upwards. They washed their
dishes with their fingers, squirting water out of their mouths upon the
spoon, and then poured into them boiled reindeer's milk, which was as
thick as common milk mixed with eggs, and had a strong flavour. Some
thousands of reindeer came home in the morning, which were milked by the
men as well as the women, who kneeled down on one knee.
From the top of the head of some of these reindeer I took out the
maggots which trouble them so much. I observed here in plenty the large
fly with a yellow neck, and yellow segments of the body, (_Oestrus
Tarandi_,) which probably is the same insect (in a perfect state), as I
judge by the length of the legs.
My hosts gave me _missen_ to eat; that is, whey, after the curd is
separated from it, coagulated by boiling, which renders it very firm.
Its flavour was good, but the washing of the spoon took away my
appetite, as the master of the house wiped it dry with his fingers,
whilst his wife cleaned the bowl, in which milk had been, in a similar
manner, licking her finger after every stroke.
I also tasted some _jumo_, which they mixed with reindeer's milk, but it
did not please me.
This day I gathered the following plants. (The numbers are continued
from _p. 291_.)
31. _Saxifraga_ with a tuberous root, a simple stem flowering at the
summit, and bulbs in the bosoms of the leaves. (_S. cernua._) This has
much resemblance to the common Saxifrage, (_S. granulata_,) but bears
only one flower at the top of the stem, which is pendulous before it
opens. The petals and stamens are white. In the bosom of each leaf are
about ten naked anther-like little heads (or buds), which grow out into
embryos of future plants. It inhabits watery places.
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