Lachesis Lapponica Part 11

_August 19._

At the fair of Calix I obtained some information concerning the commerce of this country, which is very different from that of almost every place in the world besides, insomuch that I am unable to determine which party makes his market of the other. The townsman thinks it is himself who cheats the peasant, but I verily believe he is the party who is cheated.

1. The general plan of traffic here is bartering one article for another.

2. The merchant generally carries his goods home to the peasant's residence in the country, at whatever distance it may be, or else conveys them to the fair, from whence the purchaser is to fetch them.

3. When a townsman sets up trade as a merchant, his princ.i.p.al aim is to get as many country-people to connect themselves with him as possible, who are to supply him with their produce. These are termed _Gield-bonder_, or creditors.

4. The advantage the peasants have in thus confiding to the merchant the whole of their goods, is, that the latter pays their taxes for them to the collector, which must be done either in ready money, or bills of exchange.

5. When the merchant receives the goods from the countryman, no price is fixed upon them between the parties; but when the former returns from Stockholm, he sets down in his accompt-book nearly the sum for which he has disposed of the articles there. In this the peasant trusts to the honour of the merchant, and is paid accordingly.

6. These prices are not communicated to the countryman immediately, nor does he know the price of the salt, tobacco, corn, and other articles, with which the merchant supplies him in return, till they settle accompts; which does not take place till the end of every year, or perhaps not so frequently.

7. As long as a peasant keeps to one merchant, he is allowed credit, and obtains advances of any money for which he may have occasion, even although the goods delivered do not amount to the interest of the sum lent, which is sometimes equal to 1000 dollars. But if he carries any of his goods to another merchant, he must immediately pay what he owes to his original correspondent, or suffer a sequestration of his property.

8. The countryman never brings his own goods to market, unless he happens to be going that way, in which case he usually takes them with him, but otherwise it is expected the merchant should fetch them.

9. When the towns of this part of the country were first built, each had certain parishes appropriated to it, and these were called the trading district of each town, in which no person who did not belong to the town had a right to trade. These exclusive privileges were subsequently annulled by royal authority, and free markets were established, where strangers as well as the neighbouring inhabitants were equally permitted to trade. This open trade has not however taken place at Calix, partly because the peasants are situated at so great a distance from one another, and partly because the merchants in the town conceive that such a plan would ruin them, they being in that case obliged to buy and sell for ready money.

10. Here are no free markets, properly speaking, but only _Upbordsmoten_ (periodical meetings of the collectors of the revenues with the peasants). At these times the townsmen and the peasants meet together at the place of rendezvous, as at Calix every year on the 19th of August, and at Tornea in the depth of winter.

The inconveniences of the above plan of trade are,

1. The merchant lays considerable sums fast, with which he might otherwise extend his commerce.

2. He has the trouble of carrying his goods to the house of the peasant, where-ever it may be, up the country, and of bringing what he takes in exchange from the place of rendezvous to his own house in town.

3. The consequence of such a plan is, that many a merchant has outstanding debts to the amount of 100,000 dollars, the greater part of which he may never get paid.

The inconveniences to the countryman are,

1. He runs in debt more than he can ever pay.

2. The merchant has the advantage of fixing what price he chooses on his goods.

3. He is not allowed to take any measures for his own profit.

The collar of the s.h.i.+rts, worn by the inhabitants of Finland and East Bothland in this neighbourhood, resembles ours, their sleeves being more like those of a woman's s.h.i.+ft.

Young women here commonly wear the bosom open, and have nothing over their s.h.i.+ft, which is gathered round the waist like a petticoat.

The country of East Bothland is chiefly inhabited about the sea-coast, and on the banks of rivers.

An Aurora borealis was seen in the night of the 18th of August, and had been visible for a week past, so early does it begin here.

The rowers of the boat in which I pursued my progress had blisters on their hands caused by pulling at the oars. Their specific was the ladle with which they had just been stirring the pot where fish was boiling.

This they applied, hot as it was, to the part affected, and the blisters disappeared.

What is here called _Taim_ is a sort of salmon, two spans in length at most, the tail scarcely cloven, the mouth not hooked, but otherwise like the common kind. (This is probably the _Salmo salar_ in a young state; and may perhaps be the _Laxunge_, or _Salmo minor_, _vulgari similis_, Artedi Spec. 50, not 80, mentioned in _Fauna Suecica_, ed. 2. 122, though Linnaeus has no allusion there to the _Taim_.)

As soon as the corn is carried from the field, it is usual to thrash it slightly, that whatever is loose may come away, and not be lost in the barn, as also that the coa.r.s.er part may be separated from the finer.

The flail is about a yard long, and rather thick.

The roofs in this part of the country are made of the bark of birch-trees, not covered over with any turf, but held fast by round poles, as thick as one's arm, whose upper extremities, alternately longer and shorter, reach to the ridge, and being bored through, are fastened to it, in such a manner that their ends project about a span each way beyond the ridge, crossing each other. Being thicker at their lower ends, they lie almost close together. Within this there is often a false roof, like a cieling, covered over with birch-bark and earth; but this is only when the house is wished to be very warm.

At the residence of the Governor of the Province at Calix, I saw three swans, which, having been taken when young, were as tame as domestic geese, to which these birds are so much alike in every respect, that I can have no doubt of their belonging to one genus. Their bill is flat, and black at the extremity, as well as the margins, convex and somewhat angular in the middle, so far at least that the swelling part terminates in an angle. The middle is fleshy, where the oblong nostrils are situated; the base flat or quadrangular, with two sinuses pointing upwards, and pale-coloured. The margin is toothed just like the _Concha Veneris_ (_Cypraea_).

A carriage called _Stotting_ is used here, for bringing home wood for fuel in winter, over the ice and snow. It is made of birch-wood, and resembles a sledge.

The length of this machine from a to b is three feet and a half, the breadth of each beam four inches and a half; their thickness two inches, except in the middle, at d, where it is three inches and a half, though in all the other parts of equal dimensions. The transverse bar, c, is one foot and a half long, three inches and a half broad, and is elevated four inches above the longitudinal pieces. e, e, are two slender triangular pieces, two feet in length, and two inches in thickness. f, f, are about one palm and a half each in length and breadth. h is curved upwards about two palms and a half out of the straight line. g is two feet long between the main beams, three inches and a half broad, but scarcely one in thickness.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The sledges, or beams, a, b, differ from the common ones in being broader, and in the elevation or thickness of each at d. The transverse beam c, on which the load is laid, is bored through at each end, to receive the supporting pieces. The slender bars e, e, which may be termed clavicles, are broadest in the fore part, where they also are bored through, and fastened with pegs, serving to give stability to the cross beam c. Two of these carriages are tied together, one behind the other, through the hole in the cross beam, at k. The loop, i, is made of birchen twigs.

At Calix I found the _Hippuris_ (_vulgaris_) with forked branches; _Pentaphylloides facie fragariae_, (_Potentilla rupestris_?); and _Eruca foliis sinapeos_. (What this was does not appear.)

I noticed lime-stone in the cliff at Calix and Tornea.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The scythe which serves at Cronby in East Bothland, for mowing barley, is made exactly like the common one of the Finlanders, with the foremost handle underneath, but, that nothing may be wasted or lost, the machine b c is fixed to the scythe, b being stuck into the hole at a, and fastened with a pin through it at the other side. A cord is tied from the other end c to the handle d, before the scythe is used. The lower, or shortest, bar of this appendage scarcely extends beyond the extremity of the scythe at f. Its position is regulated by a cord, according to the inclination of the blade f g.

The length of the main handle of the scythe, e f, is two ells.

_August 31._

I collected and described various species of _Fungi_.

(Here follow descriptions or characters of several species of _Agaricus_, _Boletus_ and _Hydnum_, given more correctly in the _Flora Lapponica_.)

_September 3._

I stood sponsor to the son of the Burgomaster Geyer Svanberg, who was born the preceding night, or rather between one and two in the morning.

He was named Geyer.

Mr. Svanberg told me the (_Cotyledon_) _Umbilicus Veneris_ grew on a hill called _Karvick_, near Wallivari to the north. (This probably was not confirmed, as the plant does not occur in _Flo. Suecica_.)

_September 4._