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

CHAP. XXVII. Of their Diseases, Death and Burial.

THO the Laplanders lead a miserable and hardy kind of life, yet they enjoy their health perfectly well. They have not so much as heard of most diseases, and are not all infected with those, that elswhere use to de∣populate whole Countries. There are no acute and burning feavers among them, no plague. And if any infection be brought among them, it instantly loses its force. Some years since an infection was brought into Lapland in hemp, but none were burt by it, besides the women that in spinning chew∣ed it, for the Northern cold easily dissipates the poisonous vapors. The or∣dinary and frequent disease among them is, sore eies, from whence not seldom proceeds blindness. The cause of this may be, that from their infan∣cie they for the most part are forced to be in smoak, wherewith their Huts

are fill'd both in Summer and Winter. Ericus Plantinus gives the same rea∣son, and moreover adds the light of the fire to be a cause of it. And this gives them the greatest trouble imaginable, that their old age usually ends in blindness. They are often troubled also with the Pleuresy and inflam∣mation of the lungs, stiches in the back, and dizziness in the head. The small Pox likewise sometimes takes them. Now as diseases are rare among them, so Physick is altogether unknown. Against all diseases inwardly they use the root of a kind of Moss, which they call Jereh, or in the failance of that, the stalke of Angelica, which they call Fadno, and is any where to be found. For this use they boil the Angelica with the whey of Rain-deers milk, as I said it was a custom among them before, in the Chapter of their food, and so prepared it is made use of as a special Medicine. If they feel any pain in their joints, they apply some fired chips to the place ill affe∣cted, that the ulcer then made may attract the vicious humors, and so mi∣tigate the paine.

They cure wounds with no other ointment or plaister then of resin, which the trees sweat out: if a member be benummed with cold, the Cheese made of Rain-deers milk affords the presentest remedy to it; they thrust a red-hot iron into it, and with the fat of the Cheese that instantly distills from it, they anoint the part affected with incredible success. Others ap∣ply the Cheese it self, slicing it thin like a plate or leafe. This Cheese so boiled in milk is extraordinary good fora cough, and what other distempers, either of lungs or breast arise from cold, if it be taken so heated. It helps the stomach when disaffected by their drinking water. Because diseases are so rare among them, most of themcome to extreme old age. Nay Sam. Rheen saies there are some among them that live to be above an hundred years old, and that most of them usually reach 70, 80, and 90 years, and at this age he saies many of themare still sufficiently brisk and lively, able to manage their business with expedition, to take a journey, to course thorough Woods and Mountains, and to perform other such labour: and lastly that they grow not grey-haired either soon or easily; so that old age dispatches more of them then diseases do. But if any be so dangerously sick as to keep his bed, either worn with age, or some distemper, they first enquire concerning him by their Drum, whither he will recover his health againe or die, as I have in another place shewn this to be one of the uses of the Drum, and Cl. M. Matthias Steuchius in his Letter to me tells us the same; I remember, saies he, I was once told by a Laplander that they can tell the very houre and man∣ner of any mans death by those their Drums.

When they perceive any one neer death, then if there be present any well disposed persons, and versed in the Christian Religion, they exhort him in his agonies to think of God and Christ. If they are regardless of Religion, they instantly abandon the sick person, carefull only about the funeral banquet, which they begin sometimes to celebrate before the person departing is quite dead. Steuchius confirms this by a Story; There was a rich Laplander named Thomas, who when he was taken with a dangerous fitt of fickness, so as to loose all hope of recovery, he summond before him his friends and acquaintance; they when they perceived him to be des∣perate, they hasted to the Victuallers that keeps the Inn towards Norway and Jamptland, and of him they bought Ale and spirit of Wine ready to

sacrifice over their friend, whilst he was alive: when they had spent a whole day in qnaffing, they camme to the sick mans Hut, and by that time found him quite dead. This is an example of the latest date, that hath hap∣pened in these our daies, from whence we may learn how just and reason∣able the complaints were, which were premised to the Charter of Gusta∣vus Aldophus, concerning the Lapland School. Furthermore, it is customary if any die, of whatever distemper, all instantly forsake the Cottage where the departed person lies; for they imagine (which is elsewhere shewn) that there survives something of the deceased, such as the ancient Latins called Manes., and that that was not alwaies benign, but sometimes hurtfull: for this reason they are afraid of the corps of the deceased. And if the person departed were of the richer sort: they wrap his corps in a linnen garment, if a poor mean man, in a woollen tattered one, so as to cover over as well the head, as all the other parts of the body, this they call Waldmar. So indeed do they that are more observant of the Christian rites then ordi∣nary there; as for the others, they cover their dead with their own vestments, and those too the best they had when alive, as N. Matthias Steuchius assures me by a Letter, and confirms it too by a late example that a person worthy to be credited, related to him by an Inhabitant of Ʋndersaok, a near neigh∣bour to Lapland. The body of the dead, saies he, they cover with the best garments he had alive, and shut it up in a Biere. They lay the corps so wrap'd up in a Coffin, or funeral Chest, which is done by one peculiarly intreated to undertake the employment, and who must receive of the nearest kinsman to the deceased person a ring of Alchimy, and wear it fastned to his right arm. Twe reason of so tying this ring is, because they beleive it to be a preservative against the harm the Manes of the deceased person may other∣wise bring upon them, for this reason he is fain to wear this same ring till the Burial be over, I suppose, because then they think the ghost may be more quiet, which is the ancient superstition as well of Greeks as Ro∣mans. The Coffin is usually made of the hollowed trunk of a tree, when they have not wherewithall to make a Coffin, as is common with them that dwell in the barren Mountains near Norway, they lay the corps of the de∣ceased on a Carr or Sledge, which they call Akia, instead of a Coffin. The place of their Buriall in ancient times, before they turned Christians, was the first convenient place they met withall for that purpose, especially a Wood. As for them that dwell at a considerable distance from the Church at this day, they leave not off the custom of burying them any where where they first light, with the Sledge too, especially if there are only bare Rocks, and no Trees to be seen. Others on every side beset the Sledge with the corps too with stocks of Trees, both above and below, on each side, so as that it may not contract filthiness or moulder, nor the corps be torn in pieces, or devoured by wild Beasts.

There are some besides that lay them in Caves, and stop up the mouths of them with stones. But what Peucer writes that they dig a hole, and lay their dead bodies under their hearth, thereby to escape the hauntings of Ghosts, that is neither known nor heard of by the Laplanders:

Whereas saies he, they are strangely frightned and haunted with the Ghosts of their kindred after death, they provide against that by burying their bodies under their hearths: by this only remedy they guard and protect them∣selves

against the hauntings and affrightments of Demons, this if they do, no ghosts afterwards appear; if they neglect to do it, they are per∣petually interrupted and infested with the apparitions of their too offi∣cious kindred.

They are so far from burying the corps under the hearth that they rather remove them to as great a distance as they can, But it is a singular and memorable passage, that those especially who are less obser∣vant of Christian rites, do use to bury with their deceased, first an hatchet, and next a slint and steel, of which ceremony they give this account, that if they ever come to rise againe in that darkness they shall have great need of springing a light; to which the slint and steel may help them, as like∣wise there will be occasion for a ready way, wherein they may travell to Heaven, to which purpose their hatchet may stand them instead, them especially that are buried among thick Woods, that if any Trees obstruct their passage, they may cut them down. And this do they themselves at this day affirm, now they have heard of a last day, and a Resurrection of the dead. But I suppose it rather to be an ancient superstition remaining still in these Countries, nor used only by the Laplanders. I my self saw some few miles distant from Ʋpsal, raked out of the Sepulcher of a famous person, the great Treasurer of this Kingdom, M. Steno Bielke, a steel and flint; which that it was a relique only of Paganism, not the place only, but Tomb over him did sufficiently testify. It is certain that it was the an∣cient persuasion of Pagans, that there was no other way for the dead to arrive at the abodes of the Blessed, but thorough darkness, which they are the more afraid of, because it is the nature of their Country to have thicker darkness and of more durance then is usual among others. As con∣cerning the hatchet, it is no wonder, whereas in other places it is a re∣ceived custom to lay by dead People their Weapons, of which the principal one, among the Laplanders, is the hatchet. As for what appertains to the modern Laplanders, Olaus Petri imagines that they bury these things with their dead, because they beleive that after the Resurrection they shall take the same course of life they lead before, and for that reason they furnish them with the same utensils. Thus do they who are less observant of the Christian ceremonies, and dwell farthest off from the Christian Churches. The others take special care to have their dead carried to the Church-yard, which too the Priests do earnestly request of them. It is said too that some of them, when they have bin accustomed to bury in such a place are so ambitious as to give money to have their deceased bu∣ried not in the Yard, but the Church.

But here none of the Laplanders will willingly dig up a grave, unless he be extraordinary poor, such whom the richer of them hire at a considera∣ble rate to such an emploiment, or some other of Swedland, whom they can procure. So the deceased person is buried according to the Christian rite, when they have mourned for him, putting on the worst clothes they have, that is peculiar to them, that they leave behind them the sledg whereon the course was brought to the Church-yard and all the vestments wherein the deceased lay during sickness, these they bring to the Sepulcher, for fear I suppose lest any deadly thing should cling to them, and that cannot be used by others without harm. So when the Person is buried, a funeral ban∣quet is provided, the time of it is usually, the third day after the burial,

the banquet is furnished out of the flesh of the Rain-deer; that drew the person departed to his Burial place. That they sacrifice in honor of him, and all the kindred and acquaintance feast upon it. At this feast they take special care, not to loose the bones, but gather them all up diligently, and lay them in a coffer and bury them under ground; if they have the oppor∣tunity of procuring Spirit of Wine, they drink it about to the memory of the person deceased, and call it Saligawiin, that is the Wine of the blessed, meaning, I suppose that they drink it to the memory of him, that is happy by his departure from earth: however it happened, that those kinsmen of Thomas the Laplander, as was above mentioned, made this feast before the due time. They fasten upon the coffer, wherein they shut up the Rain-deers bones, the image of a man fashioned out of wood, bigger or less in propor∣tion to the deceased person; thus much of their funeral rites. Only some of the richer sort repeat the feast every year, in the manner aforesaid, where may note, that the Rain-deers are not only slain for their business of the feast, but likewise in manner a Sacrifice, and that the bones are offered to the Manes of the deceased, at tis more largely treated of in another place. It moreover is apparent that the Laplanders time of mourning is not used to be short, but of a long continuance, especially for the loss of married persons or children, and consists not in ostentation, or appearance, but only in in∣ward sorrow. I come now to their manner of inheritance and division of their goods, which follows upon the death of any one, for the Laplanders likewise have their sort of riches, consisting most in moveables as cattle, silver, brass and copper vessels and the like, but there is nothing for which they are more esteemed then plenty of Rain-deer. Some of them have a hundred, some a thousand or more; Olaus Magnus makes mention of but half these num∣bers Lib. 17. Cap. 28. but what may be read in the papers of John Buraeus, confirms their number to be much greater. Oroveen, tis there said, was so rich in Rain-deer, that their number could not be known. Arent Justinus stole a hundred of them, and yet they could not be missed. And other things which serve for daily uses, they keep in public, or else lay up in their cup∣boards, as I have elsewhere shown, but they bury under ground either sil∣ver plate or mony, and the place they call Roggri, they lay it first in a close box, that in a copper kind of kettle, and that they cover over with boord, and so strew it over with earth and moss, that no body may perceive any thing to be hid there, this they do so privatly, that neither their wives nor children can tell any thing of it, so that it sometimes chances, that, when they dy suddenly, all these things ly buried and never come to the heirs, but what come to their hands are thus divided among them, if they be movea∣bles, the Brother receives two thirds, the Sister one, as was appointed by the Provincial Laws of the Swedes. The two Rain-deers given to the chil∣dren in their tender years, the one the Tooth Rain-deer, the other the Pa∣rents free gift, are exempted from this common division, as likewise their increase, which sometimes comes to a considerable number. If the goods be not moveables, as territories, lakes, mountains and such like, the chil∣dren of either Sex, possess them with equall right, and make use of them indifferently, tho this be not a bare permission, but founded in the divisi∣on of Lapland, made by Charles the Ninth, in which to every family were given its own territories, Lakes, Woods, Mountains, and the like, as has

been mentioned in another place, from whence I suppose tis, that they re∣main still to each single family, and are not liable to division or to be distri∣buted among the heirs as other goods; for these are not their own proper possessions, as other goods are, but only granted from the crown of Swed∣land to them to receive the profits, and upon that score every year they pay a certain tribute, which we have treated of before, so that there remains nothing else to be added here.