CHAPTER IX

LAPLAND

Psychologists tell us that man is naturally of a jealous and envious temperament, and that in spite of centuries of civilisation the cave man or woman propensity that is manifested whenever a _crime passionnel_ takes place is to be found in practically every race and at every period of history. This popular conception is, however, only a half-truth, for while jealousy may be said to be found generally among mankind, there is one race in which it is never met with, and probably several others (ethnologically related to it) who rarely manifest any sign of it. Scattered over Russia, Finland, Sweden and Norway, north of the sixth degree of latitude, and therefore well within the Arctic circle, are a nomadic people belonging to the Mongolian race, the Laplanders, who, like the Red Indians of North America, have been in close contact with civilisation for centuries, without being more than superficially affected by it. Indeed, the Lapps are among the most primitive nations in the world, and, living their lives in the uncultured ways of their remote ancestors, have remained so fundamentally averse to the ways of civilisation that untimely death has almost invariably been the portion of any member of their race who has made essay of them. A less discontented nation does not, however, exist than the Laplanders, and, unperturbed by the vicissitudes of life, good fortune, or weather, they appear to lead serenely happy and contented lives, which prove how little happiness has to do with material comfort or wealth.

The popular conception of Lapland is that of a vast desolate waste in the extreme north, perpetually snow-bound, and of the Lapps as a kind of Eskimo whose lot is as hard and cold as the bleak mountains where they tend their herds of reindeer. But this is hardly the case. Lapland is doubtless one of the parts of the world where the winter is the longest and the most trying. The temperature during the greater part of the year usually averages thirty or more degrees of frost, and for over three months the fleeting gleams of the aurora borealis and the light of the moon and the stars are the only substitute for sunlight; yet the Lapps are not without a summer, and for a period of six weeks the sun never sets, while emerald green meadows and leafy woodlands, radiant lakes and wild flowers that are as profuse as they are short-lived, bring a little pleasure and respite to a race whose existence would otherwise be terribly grey and barren.

A visit to these timid and peace-loving people is a comparatively easy matter in this season of the year, as during this time they momentarily abandon their nomadic life and erect their huts on the slopes of the mountains or the shores of lakes. Here they can be observed living in conditions that are almost identical to those under which they were existing in the beginning of civilisation.

Short but sturdily built, the Lapps, like all Mongolian races, have high cheek-bones, oblique eyes, black hair, and dark complexions. When they arrived in Europe is uncertain; probably before the dawn of modern history. Their life, which is spent in contact with Nature, gives them great endurance and hardihood, but they are not hard workers, and once they have made provision for the day or the morrow, they spend most of their time sitting in their huts smoking plug tobacco. Before their conversion to Christianity they were believed to be wizards and to hold dealings with the devil, to whom, and other gods, they were wont to sacrifice reindeer.

The welfare of the Laplanders is inseparably bound up with that of their flocks, and any dwindling in the number of these cattle is invariably attended by a corresponding decrease in their own numbers. In the last two decades many Lapps have died owing to the loss of their reindeer, which have perished in thousands for want of a suitable pasturage. As the last few years have, however, been less arduous, the number of reindeer has shown an appreciable increase, and consequently the threatened extinction of the Lapp race, which a few years ago appeared to be only a question of a few years, has momentarily been arrested, the total number of Lapps inhabiting Sweden being 10 per cent greater than what it was five years ago (the Lapps have increased from 6200 to about 7000), this increase in population being occasioned by a corresponding increase of 30 per cent among the reindeer. (There are over 300,000 reindeer at present in Lapland.)

For the subsistence of a Lapp family a large herd of deer is, however, required, and many Laplanders own from 500 to 1000 or more of these cattle. The meat and milk constitute their principal food, while the hide is tanned for skin and clothes, and many of the smaller household requisites are fashioned out of the bones and antlers.

Last year over 60,000 reindeer were sold in North Lapland, with prices varying from 45 to 60 crowns, mostly to Southern Sweden, Germany, and Hungary, where their meat is highly appreciated. In exchange for these animals and their products the Lapps purchase such necessities as salt, cloth, coffee, tobacco, and flour, their requirements being extraordinarily simple. Their meals consist principally of reindeer meat, which they eat sometimes uncooked, but more usually stewed, fried, or smoked, coffee which they sprinkle with salt, unfermented bread or cake, and brandy, to which some are often immoderately addicted.

No race lives as strenuous or hard an existence for the greater part of the year as this unfortunate people, over which hangs interminably the tragic suggestion of the inevitableness of the grind of life. And except for certain months when they have abundant leisure for making their articles of reindeer horn and clothing, or for taking a well-earned rest basking in the July sunshine, they are almost continually on the move, breaking up camp almost daily in order to find a suitable grazing ground for their reindeer and the moss without which they could not possibly live through the winter. Throughout this period and the spring and autumn months they are exposed almost unceasingly to the most rigorous of climates and to a cold that is almost lethal, their patience and good humour being as exemplary as their fortitude.

Like most nomads, they are treated as a privileged race by the Swedish Government, which fully realises the value of their wholly distinctive industry in the utilisation of enormous territories that are absolutely unsuitable for any other purpose. They consequently pay no taxes or rent, are excused military service and political or civil obligations, and are allowed to roam or to camp at will within the very extensive areas that have been allotted to them, while the most ample protection is afforded to their lives and their industry. They have, however, often proved a bone of contention among the several northern nations in which they are to be found, and regulations have often had to be formulated governing the inter-State migrations of their flocks, the latter resolutely refusing to confine their wanderings to any particular country, while their owners on their side have proved equally powerless to prevent their incursions in foreign territory. But I must also mention the attempts which have been made to provide the Laplanders with a groundwork of education, and the Swedish State has appointed teachers, frequently of Lapp birth, who, moving about among the nomads and residing with them at their various winter and summer encampments, have diligently sought to render them more amenable to modern ways.

[Illustration: LULEA, LAPLAND The export harbour for iron ore.]

For over six years, in fact, every Lapp child is now compelled to receive instruction in Lapp and Swedish, and is taught the scientific raising and management of reindeer and the rudiments of natural history, nature study, and hygiene. The Lapps make good and exemplary pupils, and frequently reach a higher level of education than Swedish children of the same age; but on reaching the age of thirteen their mental development suddenly ceases, and they become incapable of progressing any further. Their thirst for acquiring knowledge then rapidly transforms itself into a tendency to revert to the prejudices and customs of their race and a corresponding inability to appreciate the benefits of civilisation so complete that no amount of persuasion ever succeeds in inducing them to modify their natural aversion to water or to cleanliness. The Lapps, in short, live like animals, and neither wash nor take off their clothes even at night. After their evening meal, and with about as much formality as is displayed by a dog which is weary of eating and sinks into sleep, they quickly remove their raw-hide moccasins, drop down on the soft deerskins that are spread on the ground, and are asleep almost in the very act of falling. As their mode of eating is usually characterised, moreover, by an equal disdain of refinement and a way of attacking the meat or bone that is very reminiscent of a savage devouring his food, it is abundantly clear that the great majority of the Laplanders have little progressed beyond the first stage of civilisation, and, consequently, that it is waste of time trying to induce them to modify their traditional way of living. Highly significant, moreover, is the fact that the medical authorities of the hospital which has been built at Kiruna for those Lapps who are unable to find a cure for their ailments only retain their patients for a period of two months. They tell me that if a Lapp does not mend in that space of time it is useless keeping him any longer, as he invariably succumbs after two to three months’ experience of civilisation, or becomes a victim to consumption. There is, however, one danger to the race which the Swedish authorities are determined to stamp out, and that is the heavy child mortality which is prevalent in all Lapp settlements, and every effort is being made to induce the Lapp mother to adopt a less Spartan and antiquated method of dealing with her progeny. The problem offers almost insurmountable difficulties, however, as the Lapp mother refuses to countenance modern methods of rearing children, and consequently only the hardiest infant continues to survive. The only apparent good, therefore, which has so far resulted from the Lapps’ contact with civilisation has been their conversion to Christianity. They are now a deeply religious nation, and hold Sunday in such respect that they absolutely refuse to have any money transaction on that day, while their standard of morality stands higher than that of far more civilised communities. They belong to the Laestadian sect, and their Lutheran aversion to graven images is such that they are inclined to regard any image wrought by the magic of the camera as an insult to the Deity. It is only, however, when they worship their god that they cast off all reserve and display any marked exuberance, and they should be seen when possible after their services, as they sing their folk-songs and talk animatedly together. Laestadianism, if a somewhat repellent and sombre creed, would appear, therefore, to concord with the prevailing temper of the Laplanders, which probably accounts for the fact that it has spread throughout the entire race and is the dominating influence in their lives. Such are the principal characteristics of the curious people which I have endeavoured to describe, and of all the races which I have come across none have proved of more engrossing interest.