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

CHAP. XIII. Of the Judicatures and Tributes of the Laplanders.

AFTER the manner of their Government, and the discipline they live under, we descend to those affairs that are managed by it; which belong either to the Courts of Judicature, or to the Tribute. I can scarce find any mention of the former. Their own Kings, when they were a free Nation, exercised this autority, and kept the jurisdiction in their own hands; but when the Birkarli ruled them, it depended altogether on their plesure. Zeigler makes no mention of any Judges among them, but saies that if any dispute happened that was dubious, it was referred to the Courts in Swedland; I suppose he means the more weighty controversies, which the Birkarli could not, or did not dare to decide. But these were very rare with them, for great crimes, as theft, rapine, murder, adultery, or such like are seldom committed, and scarce known by the Laplanders. They neither borrow nor lend mony, being content with what they possess of their own, which are commonly the occasions of quarrels in other Nations, and maintain so many Lawyers. The chief sin they are guilty of, is their magical superstition, which since their embracing Christianity, is forbidden by the Laws, and is not so frequent as formerly. After that Gustavus the first had deposed the Birkarli, and given them governors of their own, they lived under better discipline, and greater diligence was used in seeing Justice done, but Charles the ninth was the first that took care to have them instructed in the Swedish Laws, and that they should regulate them∣selves accordingly. This charge was given by the same King in his instru∣ctions to Laurentius Laurentii, Governor of Lapland, dated from Stockholm on the 10^th of Oct. 1610, wherein he commanded him to govern those of Ʋma, Pitha, and Luhla, according to the Swedish Laws, and to protect them from all injuries. There are at present in Lapland three Governors, and as many Courts of Judicature; the first is called Anundsioeense, or Anger∣mansian, the other Ʋhmensian, Pithensian and Luhlensian, the other is the Tornensian, and Kiemensian. Over these are particular Governors, who in the Kings name pass Sentence, but in the presence of a Judge and a Priest; where it is observable that they added Priests to the Governors, to restrain them from doing injustice by the autority of their presence. Now as to the time when these Courts were called, it is a doubt, but I believe it was at the Fair times, when they met about all public business; this was com∣monly twice in a year, viz. in Winter and Summer, according to an order of Charles the ninth's. It is now in January and February. They were held in the same places where they kept their Markets and Fairs, which were determined in each particular County, as will appear by and by.

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Now we come to the Tribute they paid, which at first was only skins of beasts, paid not by the Laplanders, but the Birkarli, yet only as an ac∣knowledgement of their subjection to the Crown of Sweden. Buraeus calls it naogra timber graoskin, graoskin signifies gray Squirrils skins, of which color the Squirrils were constantly in the Winter; timber denotes the num∣ber of the skins, which were fourty, tied together in a bundle. It is un∣certain how many of these bundles the Birkarli gave, but in the Contract with Gustavus the first, those of Luhla and Pitha were engaged to pay 8, which makes in all 360 skins, besides two Martins skins. Those also of Torne were taxed with the same number; and shortly after this number was doubled, by an agreement made in 1528. But after the Birkarli had lost their pri∣viledges, for the forementioned reasons, and the King received the tax by Commissioners for himself, it is very probable some more alteration were made. In the year 1602 they paid instead of skins every tenth Rain-deer, and one tenth of all their dried fish; which is clear from the commands given by Charles tc-his Deputies Olaus Burman and Henry Benegtson, at Stockholm on the 22^d of July in the same year, to require the tribute in this manner, that so the Laplanders might know what and how much they were to pay: for it seems that from Gustavus the first's time, till then, the Governors used no constant method in raising it, but sometimes de∣manded skins, at other times other sorts of goods that seemed most neces∣sary for present use; so that by this uncertainty the tribute grew very heavy upon the Inhabitants, and their Governors took occasion from it to exact what they pleased under pretence of the public account, for their own proper uses. Yet this custom continued not long, being thought perhaps too burthensome to the Laplanders, and very prejudiciable to their herds; wherefore it was ordered in 1606, that every one which was then 17 years of age, should pay either two Bucks, or three Does out of their herds of Rain-deers, and eight pound of dried fish; as also every tenth Fawn out of their stock, and every tenth tun from their fishery. This tax was also im∣posed on the Birkarli that had any trafic with them. This order was kept a long while, and renewed again by the same King in 1610. The tribute they pay at this time is either mony, Rain-deers, or skins, either plain or fitted up for use. These they pay according to the largeness of the Provinces in which they dwell, the largest of which, they say, are een heel skatt, that is, they pay the full tribute; the lesser een half skatt, that is, half tribute; and so likewise for the rest. He that possesseth a Province of the whole tri∣bute, pays two Patacoons, which they call Skattadaler, and others that have lesser possessions and half tribute, give one Patacoon; those which want mony, pay fish or skins, which are commonly of Foxes or Squirrils, of these 50, of the others one with a pair of Lapland shoes, are equal to a Patacoon: two pounds also of dry fish are of the same value; now to every pound of dried fish they allow five over, because so much is commonly lost in the drying. They call this pound with its addition Skattpund, that is the pound for tribute. They value their Rain-deers at 3 Dollars a piece, and pay the tenths of them, not each family, but every hundred. I have set the prices down here, because if any one had rather keep his Cattel, he can be forced to no more then after this rate. Now concerning the tenths they pay of skins, every housholder is taxed one white Foxe's skin, or a pair of Lap∣land

shoes; if he hath neither of these, half a pound of dried Jack. This is the Tribute yearly received by the Crown of Sweden from Lapland, of which the greatest part is commonly by the Kings gracious favor allowed for the maintenance of their Priests, as was shewn in another place. Now because it is so far both by Sea and Land, before these commodities can be brought to the Kings Storehouses, besides the ordinary tax they give a pair of Lapland shoes, which they call Haxapalka, that is the price for carriage. This is all they pay to the King of Sweden, but besides they are tributary to the Crown of Danmark, and the great Duke of Moscovy, not as Subjects to these Princes, but upon the account of their receiving se∣veral advantages from their Dominions in their hunting and fishing. Those that are thus, are all the allotments of Torna beyond the mountains, who by reason of the liberty they have to bring down their Cattel from the mountains into the vallies in the Summer time, near the Sea shore, and taking the opportunity from thence of fishing, are taxed by the Danes, but not at above half the rate that they pay to the Swedes. These allotments are called Koutokeine, Aujouara, Teno, and Ʋtziocki. The Laplanders also of the allotment of Lnare in Kiemi, are in the same condition, who for fishing and hunting pay both to the Danes and Moscovites as well as to the Swedes: to the first one half, to the other a third part of what the Swedes receive. The tribute was in former time gathered when the Governor pleased, but afterwards only in the Winter, against which time it was all brought into Storehouses, each County having its proper place for that purpose. But when the place for their Markets and Fairs was determined, the Go∣vernor came thither and received it, which course they still take in this business. That this was also the time for receiving it, will appear from the account I shall give of their Fairs in the next Chapter.