The history of Lapland wherein are shewed the original, manners, habits, marriages, conjurations, &c. of that people / written by John Scheffer ...

CHAP. XXVI. Of their Child-bearing, and the Education of their Children.

NEXT to Marriage it will be expedient to treat of their Child∣bearing, and their Children. Where we may note first, that they wish for nothing more, and that they take no greater plesure in any thing then fruitfull Matrimony. And hence it is, I suppose, they are so prone to lust, as is elsewhere shown: but altho they desire this so ardently, yet they are very seldome fruitfull in Children, for they can scarce beget more then eight, which number is the greatest, and usually they beget but one, two, or three. An occasion of this their barreness, Sam. Rheen imagines their bad diet, as likewise the extreme coldness of the Country, which I think may be very true. He moreover adds Gods anger, which he collects from this, because tho they are not worn away with War or Plague, yet notwithstanding their Country is never the more populous, and their Na∣tion wasts rather daily. The motive of this anger he supposes to be their ob∣stinateness in maintaining their ancient impieties. They use indeed at this very day, not only in Child-bearing, but other affairs too, to be solicitous concerning the events, and to search after them by their superstitious rites. Their first care is concerning the sex, for as soon as they perceive the wife to be big with child, they have an opinion that they can inform themselves whe∣ther it will prove a Boy or a Girl, after this manner: they forthwith view the Moon (for they imagine that a Child-bearing woman bears some resem∣blance to the Moon, as we shall hear) if there be a Star just above the Moon, they thence collect that the burden will prove of the male sex, if below, of the female. But I wonder they make a comparison between the Moon and a woman with child. For can there be any account given of their resem∣blance? is it, that like the Moon, she grows big with her burden, and when that is laid, lessens again? I rather suppose that these are the reliques of their Pagan superstition, which made the Moon the tutelar Goddess to women with child. For so most of the Pagans did account other, which opinion being outdated, they yet pretend some resemblance between them. Their second care is touching the health or sickness of the child, which thing also they suppose the Moon will inform them in. For if a Star be just be∣fore the Moon, they take it for a sign that the child will prove healthfull, and grow up to be a man. But if it comes just after her, they thence pre∣sage that the child will be a very sickly one, and not long lived.

The woman with child laies her burden in a hut, but (which any body may understand) a sufficient incommodious one, especially if the time of her delivery happen to be in the Winter, for tho they have a fire kindled in the middle of the hut, yet that can give her but little warmth. After her delivery, her first restorative and cordial, is a good draught of Whales

fat, which they procure out of Norway, the tast of which is as strong and ill savoured as of a Sea-calves lard, when dried. The child, as soon as brought forth is washed over as in other Countries, but it is a peculiar custom of the Laplanders, that first they do it with cold water or snow, and then afterwards dip them in hot water, when it begins to fetch its wind, and can scarcely draw breath. And also they use to dip in the water all the other parts of the body, the head only excepted; They heat water, saies Sam: Rheen, in a Caldron, and in that they set the infant streight up to his neck, but they let no water come upon his head, before such time as he is bapti∣zed by the Priest. The new born Babe is instantly wrapped up in an Hares skin, instead of linnen swadling clothes.

The woman lying in, hath her peculiar place assigned her in the hut where she lodges, till she recover her health. And it is just by the door u∣sually on the left hand: there is no other reason given for it then that this part of the hut is less frequently disturb'd by company, and there they have all things needfull for them administred. Tho this seldom resort thither be rather, by reason of the womans lying in in that place, either because they would not disturb her with their company, or, which I rather sup∣pose, because they look upon her at that time as unclean. But the women of Lapland seldom keep their beds long after their delivery, and in that while are extraordinary carefull touching the Baptism of their Infants: for after they began more diligently to be instructed in the Christian Reli∣gion, they take the greatest pains imaginable to have their Children bapti∣zed as soon as possibly may be. In former times it was otherwise, most of them then were baptized very late, and at their mature age; some deferred it for altogether. Of this Gustavus the first is a witness, in his Charter, the words whereof I have cited elsewhere. As touching the former Gustavus Adol∣phus in an other Charter and Preface, premised to that which he published Anno 1634, in which the State of the Religion in Lapland is declared at large; Baptism, saies he, is administred indeed to them but only at Winter. if their young children can live till then, it is well; if not, they die with∣out Baptism. Some of their children come to years of Discretion before it, so that with those that are grown up, there is no small paines to be taken when they are to be baptized. The time of Baptism being the Winter time, was because they have Sermons then preached to them, and the Sa∣crament administred, and that no oftner then twice; once about New-years-day, and againe at Lady-day, of which I have treated in another place. Before these times there was not so much done as that, but the Laplanders were fain to come with their Children to the neighbouring Churches of the Swedes in Angermannia and Bothnia, of which Olaus Magnus must be understood to speak, when he saies Lib. 4. c. 17. Once or twice in a year they visit the Baptismall Churches, and bring along with them their sucking Babes in Baskets tied to their backs, to be baptized. But at this day those women that are able, and not impeded by some grievous sickness, carry their Children to the Priest themselves, about a fourtnight after their deli∣very, that by him they may receive Baptism. So much good hath building Churches in Lapland done, and having Sermons there, not in a strange Tongue, but the Laplanders proper own: and so zealous are they for hastening their Childrens Baptism, that the Mother scarce lying in above

a week or fortnight, after her delivery, will undertake a most tedious journy, over the tops of Mountains, thorough wide Marshes and high Woods with her Infant to the Priest; for the women of this Country are naturally hardy, and able to endure any thing without trouble, and there∣fore, tho they feed upon course food in their sicknesses, and drink nothing else but water, yet they recover again quickly. They carry their young Infants to the Priest, one way in the Summer time, and another way in the Winter. In Winter they lay it upon a sledge. In Summer they put it in a Pannier fastned to the back of a Rain-deer. The Infant is not set upon the back of the Raindeer, but is tied in his cradle, and fastned to the pack saddle after this fashion.

[illustration] depiction of two Laplanders walking, one carrying a bow, the other leading a reindeer with a child in a cradle fastened to the pack-saddle

Olaus Magnus makes them put in Baskets, as his words afore quoted do intimate, and those Baskets too to be tied at their backs; and the Picture he makes of them represents not only the woman, but the man too so laden, each with two Children a piece: so that together they travell with four Children, and with wooden shoes on their feet; but here I am afraid the Painter followed his own fancy too much. Certain it is that the Baskets there represented, bear no resemblance to those of Lapland. The Laplanders are wholly ignorant of this sort of Baskets, that are car∣ried at ones back. Nor are their Baskets like wooden square Boxes, such as his figure represents them, but of a round compass, and one part shut down upon the other, as I have said elsewhere. But to return to their Baptism, in it they give their Children names, according to the names of some of their friends and kindred. Samuel Rheen adds that they affect to put Pagan names upon them, such as Thor, Guaarm, Finne, Pagge; but that the Priests avert them from so doing as much as possibly they can. And this is peculiar with them, that they often change their names, and put others upon them then those that were given them at their Baptism, for the love they bear to some friend or kinsman deceased, whose memory thereby they desire to preserve. Tornaeus too avouches the same thing, and if at any time in their younger years they fall into sickness, then they use the name given

them in Baptism instead of a surname, especially they observe this in boies. But altho the Laplanders wives are hardy, so as to be able to undertake a journy a week or two after their delivery, and to go about other emploi∣ments, tho they have made their public appearance, and have been church∣ed by the Priest, yet by their husbands they are looked upon as unclean, till six weeks be accomplished, so that they admit of no familiarity or conjugal society with them for all that space of time. And thus much of their child∣bearing.

I proceed next to their Education of them, the first thing that occurs here is their Nursing, which is alwaies by their own Mothers milk, for the Laplanders make no use of Nurses. And this they do not only for some small time, but usuall for two years, three or four together; but if sickness or any other occasion happen, so that they cannot themselves suckle their young ones, they give them the Rain-deers milk, which is grosser and thicker, then they can well draw out of a suck-bottle, (as at sometimes they are accustomed to do, elswhere) and for that reason, if the necessity be urgent they give it in a spoon. Besides their Mothers milk, they instantly accustom their young Infants, to eat flesh, for they thrust into their mouths a piece of Rain-deers flesh, that they may suck the gravie out of it, and so get nurishment.

The rocking the infant in his cradle, follows next, whereby they get him a sleep. Their Cradles are made of the stock of a tree hollowed, like a boat: these they cover with leather, and at the head they erect an arched kind of roof, of leather likewise. In such a cradle they lay & tie in the Infant, without any linnen clothes or sheets, instead of which they lay him on a sort of soft moss, of a red color, which they dry in Summer, and have great plenty of it. When the Infant is to be rocked, they let the cradle hang by a rope from the roof of the hut, and by thrusting the cradle and tossing it from one side to the other, they lull him a sleep. They use likewise to please their young children with some certain baubles, for at their cradles they tie some rings of Alchamy, to make a noise and clinking. To these rings which serve instead of rattles they moreover add some emblems, wherewith their chil∣dren may be timely admonished of their condition and future duty. If it be a boy, they hang up at his cradle a bow and arrows, and a spear made very artificially out of Rain-deers horn, whereby they signifie, that their chil∣dren must diligently practise to be expert and ready in using the bow and spear. If it be a girle; the wings, feet, and beak of a white Partridge, which they call Smaeripa, and is call'd Lagopus having feet like the feet of an hare, thereby implying, that their Daughters must carefully learn to be cleanly, and like those birds nimble and active. As soon as the children come to some age, they instruct them in all necessary arts, the Fathers the boies, the Mothers the girles, for they have no School-masters among them, but each person is his own childerns Master, and they are so far put on by their parents as to be able to perform any works in use among them. Their boies they cheifly teach the Art of Shooting, and hitting marks with an arrow, because in old time they were necessitated to get their living by the help of bow and arrows, whereas the greatest part of them maintain themselves by hunting, and therefore when they have practised never so little the use of the bow, the boies victuals are kept from them, till they can

hit a mark with an arrow, and as it was the custom anciently among the Baleares, and so now among the Laplanders, their boies earn their food every day by their dexterity in shooting, and thereby at last they prove most excellent marks-men. Olaus Magnus makes mention of this their practice, and wonderfully extolls their dextrousness herein, and avers that he himself has seen some of them who could exactly hit a farthing or a nedle, set at such a distance off as would just let them see it. On the boies, that they may take more care to hit the mark, when they have hit it, they bestow a white girdle, wherein they take huge delight, and sometime a new bow. But as the Laplanders do look to their children in time to teach them arts requisite to get their living, so also to provide them means to maintain them∣selves withal, where it will not be impertinent to mention, that tis a cu∣stom with them to bestow upon their infant a female Rain-deer, soon after its birth or Baptism, if it be of female Sex, and upon the horns of it they ingrave her mark, so to prevent all controversies or quarrels, that may arise concerning her right. She receives likewise another, when she cuts her first tooth. Which they call Pannikeis, that is, the tooth Rain-deer. John Tornaeus writes as if these gifts were given only by women. The Wo∣man saies he, that first spies a tooth in his mouth, is fain to honor him with a present of a Rain-deers Calve. This custom might probably have its rise thus, because, when the infants have gotten teeth, they have need of more solid meat, therefore they stock them with Rain-deer as being their cheif∣est food. That Rain-deer then, and whatever encrease comes of it, are pre∣serv'd to the future uses of the child, as may appear by what we have else∣where said, in the Chapter of their marriages, and so likewise of the other Rain-deer which parents give the child besides, for tis usual among them to superadd one to the former, and this they call Waddom, that is, the gi∣ven one. And this is the chief care of the Parents towards their children, but if they die, instead of them are substituted Guardians, as among other nations, out of their nearest kindred, who manage all these affairs for them.