One day the Snowflake lay becalmed in one of those long narrow fiords by which the whole of the west coast of Norway is cut up, and some of which extend from seventy to a hundred miles inland.
There was no of a breeze, so another boat excursion was talked of. Hearing this, Hans Ericsson informed his master that there was a small settlement of Laplanders about thirty miles or so inland, and that he would be very glad to guide him and his friends to it if they chose.
They jumped at the proposal at once, and in less than half an hour they were on their way to it. Bob Bowie also went on this expedition.
No carioles could be in that wild region, but at a poor fishing-village on the coast they got two of the country carts. These are small rough machines, with a seat on wooden springs. They can hold only two persons, and are light and serviceable, well suited to the rough roads. Fred and Sam led the way; Grant and the followed. Hans acted the part of shooscarle to the former, and the owner of the carts drove the latter.
The first start was up the side of a hill at least two thousand feet, and the road was so steep that it was all that the could do to drag up the empty carts. Having gained the top of the first hill, they came upon a level plateau, resembling the Scottish moorlands, which terminated in a range of wild snow-capped mountains. After resting the ponies a few minutes, they set off at a brisk , and were soon across the level ground. to another plateau, they crossed it, and finally reached the higher mountain-range of the interior. Here they crossed several patches of snow which the summer heat had not yet been able to melt away.
As soon as they were fairly amongst the mountains, the roads became horrible, and it was a matter of wonder that the springs of the carts were not broken. up hills, and dashing down on the other side,—crashing over fallen rocks, and shaving the edge of yawning gulfs and precipices,—thus they advanced till evening, through a country which was the picture of barrenness and desolation.
Rocks were the chief feature of the scenery. They had got to such a height above the level of the sea that there were no pines, only a few birch-trees. There was little soil, but that little was well clothed with vegetation. Rocky mountains, rocky masses, and rocky glens everywhere; but as they went farther inland the scenery improved a little.
Soon they found that instead of travelling inland they had been only crossing one of these broad necks of high land which separate the fords of Norway from each other, and ere long they came in sight of the sea, with precipitous mountains dipping into it.
Here, on a green slope facing the fiord, were seen the conical tents of the strange people whom they had travelled so far to visit.
The inhabitants of Lapland are a distinct race from their southern neighbours the Norwegians, in size, intelligence, , and manner of life. They are as near as may be in appearance, and in some of their habits, insomuch that on first visiting them a stranger might be apt to set them down as real savages. Yet they are many degrees higher than the , such as the Red Indian of North America. The Lapp is as dirty as the Indian, and dwells in as poor a hut, and lives in as simple a style; but he is rich in property—his property being of , while the Indian depends on the chase for wealth and subsistence. Then again, although the Lapp has nothing of the name of a house, he is an educated man, to a small extent. He can read, and, above all, he possesses the Word of God in a language which he understands.
In bodily size, however, the Red Indian beats him; for as a race the Lapps are particularly small, though they are well proportioned and active.
They are seldom visited by strangers; and it is not improbable that when the two carts dashed into their village our friends were the first Englishmen they had ever seen.
It happened to rain heavily during the last part of the journey to the Lapp village. To the surprise and amusement of the travellers, Bob Bowie drew from his cart a huge red cotton umbrella which he had purchased at Bergen, and which, seeing the sky cloudy, he had brought with him in the hope that he might have occasion to use (that is, to display) it.
The rain, however, did not depress the spirits of the party a . Nothing in the shape of water could damp their enthusiasm.
If any one wants to see a poor, , , , yet jolly race of human beings,—a race of beings who wear hairy garments, sup reindeer’s milk with wooden spoons, and dwell in big bee-hives,—he has only got to go to Lapland and see the Lapps.
Quitting the carts at the of the village, the travellers advanced into the centre of it just as the natives were driving a of reindeer into an enclosure to be milked.
There could not have been fewer than three hundred reindeer-stags, does, and numerous ; and these, they afterwards learned, constituted the entire wealth of three families of Lapps.
As Fred and his friends strode into the enclosure, and came upon these good people rather suddenly, their was unspeakable at finding they had bagged a party of giants along with their deer. Even scraggy Sam Sorrel looked quite big compared with them.
After the first gaze and shout of surprise, they crowded round the strangers, and they all—men, women, and children—began to eye and paw them over, and to examine their costumes with deep interest. The diminutive size of the Lapps became very apparent as they were thus engaged. None of the men were much, if at all, above five feet, several were under that height, and the women were short in proportion.
If the of these Lapps were small, their hearts must certainly have been very large, for they received their visitors with great warmth and delight. Altogether they were a and , though ill-dressed race of mortals.
The men were clothed partly in deer-skin, partly in coarse cloth, and these garments were reduced by long service to a uniform dirty-brown colour. They showed signs of being slept in by night as well as worn by day.
There was a schoolmaster amongst them. Only fancy, a Lapp schoolmaster, four feet nine or ten inches high! Sam Sorrel took a of this gentleman on the spot, with his wife and child. What the schoolmaster taught, or whom he taught, or when or where he taught, are questions to which Fred could obtain no answer. To look at him, one would have imagined that eating, sleeping, and reindeer were the only lessons that he was able to teach. Yet it was found on that some of them could read Norse; and Sam actually discovered an old man in one of the huts poring over a New in that language. There seemed something strangely incongruous in all this. They were dirty and ; they had no houses, no tables or chairs, no civilised habits of any kind; yet they could read, and they had a schoolmaster! A very dirty one, to be sure, and not very deeply learned, I dare say; still a dominie, without doubt. On the strength of their acquirements, Fred presented the tribe with a Norse New Testament.
Besides being four feet ten, the schoolmaster was comical and quizzical. He was evidently the wit of his tribe. His face was yellow and dirty; his nose was short and red, in addition to which it was turned up at the point; his eyes were small, and sloped at the inner corners towards the nose, like those of the Chinese. His dirty leathern was belted so low down, and his little legs were so short, that there was considerably more of him above the belt than below it. On his head he wore a cap, somewhat like that of a jockey in shape, and his lower limbs were encased in tight but ill-fitting leggings. Altogether, this man was the most disreputable-looking schoolmaster that was ever seen either at home or abroad.
While both parties were making acquaintance with each other, the rain fell more heavily.
“You’d better put up your umbrella, Bob Bowie,” said Fred.
Bob, who had forgotten the umbrella, in consequence of being so much taken up with the Lapps, at once put it up. Being extremely proud of this curiosity, he was glad of the opportunity to display it. A shout of surprise and delight greeted its appearance. It was clear that the Lapps had never seen one before. The schoolmaster at once seized it out of Bob’s hand, and about with it over his head, to the ............