The Polar World: A popular description of man and nature in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the globeHartwig, G. (Georg)
History
The Polar World: A popular description of man and nature in the Arctic and Antarctic regions of the globe
Hartwig, G. (Georg)
Antarctica; Arctic peoples; Arctic regions; Natural history
Their legs are extremely thick and clumsy, but their hands are as small
and finely shaped as those of any aristocrat. The reason for this
is that from generation to generation they never perform any manual
labor, and the very trifling work which they do is necessarily of the
lightest kind. Their limbs are singularly flexible, easily falling
into any posture, like all the Oriental nations, and their hands are
constantly occupied in the beginning of conversation with filling a
short tobacco-pipe, the head being turned over one shoulder to the
person addressed. Such are the traits by which the whole tribe is
distinguished from the other inhabitants of Europe, and in which they
differ from the other natives of the land in which they live.
The summer garb of the men consists of the “poesk,” a sort of tunic,
generally made of a very coarse light-colored woollen cloth, reaching
to the knees, and fastened round the waist with a belt or girdle. Their
woollen caps are shaped precisely like a night-cap, or a Turkish
fez, with a red tassel and red worsted band round the rim, for they
are fond of lively hues strongly contrasted. Their boots or shoes
are made of the raw skin of the reindeer, with the hair outward, and
have a peaked shape. Though these shoes are very thin, and the Lapp
wears no stockings, yet he is never annoyed by the cold or by striking
against stones, as he stuffs them with the broad leaves of the _Carex
vesicaria_, or cyperus grass, which he cuts in summer and dries. This
he first combs and rubs in his hands, and then places it in such a
manner that it covers not only his feet but his legs also, and, being
thus guarded, he is quite secure against the intense cold. With this
grass, which is an admirable non-conductor of heat, he likewise stuffs
his gloves in order to preserve his hands. But as it wards off the cold
in winter, so in summer it keeps the feet cool, and is consequently
used at all seasons. The women’s apparel differs very little from that
of the other sex, but their girdles are more ornamented with rings
and chains. In winter both sexes are so packed up in skins as to look
more like bears than human beings, and, when squatting according to
the fashion of their country, exhibit a mound of furs, with the head
resting upon the top of it.
According to their different mode of life, the Lapps may be aptly
subdivided into Fjälllappars, or Mountain Lapps; Skogslappars, or Wood
Lapps; and Fisherlapps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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