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
After the herd has lain down in the manner above described, each of the
people takes a small rope, and, making a noose, throws it over the head
of one of the females intended to be milked. The cord is afterwards
twisted round the horns, and the other end tied to a small pole fixed in
the ground. One pole is sufficient to secure four of the animals, which
all hands are afterwards employed in milking, both master and mistress,
men and maids. If the milk does not come with facility, they beat the
udder very hard with their hands; which causes a greater flow. The dugs
are four, very rarely six, all yielding milk, and none of them dry. The
young are not separated from their mothers. After the herd was milked
and gone to pasture, I observed the maid-servant taking up some of the
soft black dung, which, after kneading it with her hands, she put into a
vessel. On my inquiring what could be the use of this, she answered that
the dugs were besmeared with it, to prevent the fawn's sucking too much.
She added that it would dry upon the nipple by the morning after it was
applied, and might then be easily rubbed off. The female reindeer bring
forth their young early in May, and their owners begin milking them on
Midsummer day, and continue to do so till the beginning of November in
the forests, but in this neighbourhood they leave off milking about
Michaelmas. The fawns acquire horns the first year, which are perfectly
simple, like fingers. I could not help wondering how the Laplanders
knew such of the herd as they had already milked, from the rest, as they
turned each loose as soon as they had done with it. I was answered that
every one of them had an appropriate name, which the owners knew
perfectly. This seemed to me truly astonishing, as the form and colour
are so much alike in all, and the latter varies in each individual every
month. The size also varies according to the age of the animal. To be
able to distinguish one from another among such multitudes, for they are
like ants on an anthill, was beyond my comprehension.
_July 10._
I witnessed with pleasure the supreme tranquillity enjoyed by the
inhabitants of this sequestered country. After they have milked their
reindeer, and the women have made their cheese, boiled their whey to the
requisite consistence, and taken their simple repast, they lie down to
enjoy that sound sleep which is the reward and the proof of their
innocent lives. There is rarely any contention among them. The
inhabitants of the neighbouring moveable village had pitched their tents
close together in lines, either from east to west, or otherwise. When my
servant came in, he put his nose close to that of any person whom he
wished to salute, as if he had intended to kiss him, saluting him with
the old expression "_purist_." I inquired whether they actually kissed
each other; but my man answered in the negative, that they only put
their noses together. This custom is in use among relations only.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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