The Land of the Long NightDu Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
General
The Land of the Long Night
Du Chaillu, Paul B. (Paul Belloni)
Lapland -- Description and travel -- Juvenile literature
He remained thoughtful for a little while and then proceeded: "Reindeer
bulls have more fight in them than the females, and sometimes fight
successfully one wolf; but what can they do against a pack of them? Our
life is a hard one indeed when wolves are around, for we have to be
constantly on the watch night and day. The wolves are so wary that they
always approach a reindeer or a herd of them when the wind blows from
the herd towards them, so that neither dogs nor reindeer can scent
them."
"I hope," I said to myself, "that I shall see bull reindeer fight some
of these treacherous wolves and get the better of them; besides I will
make them taste my buckshot, and kill them before the poor reindeer is
overpowered."
After this conversation we went on our skees to scour the country for
wolves, but there were none to be seen, and we returned in time for our
dinner.
The following day, as we stood in front of our tent watching the sun
above the horizon, we saw in the distance a black speck coming over the
snow. We watched! What could it be? The speck came nearer, and we
recognized a woman with a bludgeon coming towards us as fast as her
skees could carry her. As soon as she was within hearing distance she
shouted, "Wolves! Wolves!" The dreaded news had come; the wolves had
made their appearance in our district.
She stopped when she reached us, and with one voice the Lapps asked her
when the wolves had been seen, and if they had attacked any herd. "No,"
she answered, "but they will soon do so, for the tracks of three packs
have been seen." She had hardly spoken these words when she bade us
good-bye, and was on her way to some of her family who had pitched their
tent about four miles from where we were. The bludgeon she carried for
defence against the wolves.
Soon every man, woman, and child of our tent were on their skees. The
men armed themselves with heavy bludgeons and guns and, followed by all
the dogs, we started for the herd, taking a lot of reindeer meat with
us. Now there was to be an increased watch day and night.
I followed the Lapps on my skees, and though I lagged behind, as I could
not go as fast as they did, one of the girls remained with me to show me
the way, and now and then she would stop and scan the country for
wolves.
I was armed with my double-barrelled shotgun loaded with buckshot. "Oh,
if I could encounter the wolves," I said to myself, "what havoc I would
make amongst them."
When we came to the herd we told those who were on the watch the news of
the appearance of wolves. Immediately preparations were made to discover
their whereabouts.
Some of the people went in different directions to reconnoitre, all
armed with their heavy bludgeons. They shouted as they left: "We will
show the wolves if we meet and chase them on our skees what our
bludgeons can do. We will smash their heads and break their legs."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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