Lachesis Lapponica Part 8

So many Finlanders crowded about me, that I scarcely knew what to do.

They were all blear-eyed to such a degree as to be nearly blind. Many of them were perfectly deprived of sight, and ninety-nine out of a hundred that were so had their eyes shut. It seems in vain to prescribe any remedy for this evil, so long as its cause is every where so prevalent.

This consists in their smoky dwellings. If I had the management of these Finlanders, I would tie them up to the wall and give them fifteen pair of lashes apiece till they made chimneys to their huts, especially as they have such plenty of fire-wood. This improvement in the comfort of their dwellings might surely be accomplished by the authority of the chief magistrate, for I have not been able to learn any sufficient reason for their adherence to their old way of building. If people thirty or forty years of age are thus afflicted, what must become of them by the time they are seventy?

The Finlander's scythe is represented in the annexed figure.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

The handle is rather above two feet in length, straight for about the s.p.a.ce of a foot from the part where the blade is bound on. Afterwards it is slightly curved outwards, and then again, towards the apex, in some degree inwards so as to make a straight line with the base. The top is thicker than any other part. The blade of the scythe is, like that used in our country, about a foot and a half long, and an inch and half broad, very slightly curved. Its back is, like that of our scythes, thickened on one side. The mower takes hold of the top with his left hand, so that the back of the scythe is uppermost, but grasps with his right the part where the above-described curvature ends, so as to be able to give the edge a turn upwards. As he moves forward, he mows first on the right, and then on the left, only turning his hands, and not lifting the scythe, but merely presenting each side of its blade alternately to the ground.

On the south-west side of the town, across a small bay, lies a mineral spring. The water is not ill-tasted. Indeed this is one of the best mineral waters I have met with in the north; but it lies very low, appearing to derive its origin from a stream that runs above, so that its water comes out soiled, as it were, from the earth, and is covered with sc.u.m.

_August 5._

Every body at Tornea was continually talking to me of a distemper to which their horned cattle are subject, and which kills many of them in the course of the winter, but especially in the spring, when they lose from fifty to a hundred head of cattle almost every year. On walking to examine the meadow into which they are first turned out to gra.s.s, I found it a bog or marsh, where the Water Hemlock, _Cicuta aquatica_, (_C. virosa_, _Sp. Pl._ 366. _Fl. Lapp. n._ 103. _Engl. Bot. t._ 479.) grew in abundance, and had evidently been cropped plentifully by the animals in feeding. It seemed probable therefore that they eat it most in the spring, when first turned into this pasture; whence it proves so much more extensively fatal than in summer, when perhaps they only pick up a plant here and there. It grows in all the moist meadows which are mown for hay; consequently the cattle take it likewise in their winter food, and therefore perish, more or less, during that time of the year.

We learn from Wepfer's experiments, who gave it to various kinds of animals, what violent symptoms it occasions. See his book. Nothing appeared to me so interesting, during my visit to Tornea, as to examine into the cause and remedy of this evil. If my ideas be right, the whole might be prevented by employing a woman for a month to eradicate all the _Cicuta_; by which this town, small as it is, might save above two hundred silver dollars. I was informed that the cattle dying from this cause become so infectious, that they cannot be flayed without great danger. The persons employed in that business have their hands greatly swelled by touching the carcase, and several have lost their lives in consequence. The plant in question, therefore, agrees in qualities with the _nanthe_, as it does likewise in place of growth and outward appearance, especially in the _pinnae_ of its leaves.[9]

The meadows hereabouts, among the thickets towards the sh.o.r.e of the bay, afforded me the following plants.

1. _Veronica_ (_maritima_), with an erect stem, branched in the upper part, and bearing numerous spikes. Lower leaves acute, cordate-oblong, sharply serrated, the upper ones lanceolate, serrated, two, three, or four together, opposite on the stalk. Corolla tubular, divided two thirds of its length into two lips, of which the upper is the broadest, ovate, obtuse, and nearly erect; the lower three-cleft, the middle segment narrowest, but all of equal length. Stamens two, very long, awlshaped, situated at the separation of the two lips. Hence the flower is of the personate kind. Pistil reflexed. Capsule heartshaped, narrow at the upper edge. The flowers are numerous in each spike.

2. Selleri, (_Apium graveolens_[10],) unless I am much mistaken. The petals are white, spreading, and acute. The partial umbels are broad.

The general one has very rarely one or two (leaves of an involucrum?).

3. _Galium parisiense_ (_uliginosum_), with a square, furrowed, proc.u.mbent stem. The leaves are lanceolate, broader towards the extremity, acute, armed with little p.r.i.c.kles as well as the stem. The flower is not tubular, nor the seeds p.r.i.c.kly. The latter are white, as is also the flower. Four leaves grow together in the lower part of the stem, but in the upper part six. Under the little umbels of flowers are either four or two.

4. _Galium alb.u.m_ (_boreale_). Stem square, erect, branched, especially in the upper part. Leaves four together, sessile, rather broader towards their base, three-nerved, slightly reflexed at the margin. There are two leaves to each of the lesser umbels. Seeds two, roundish, joined into a didymous shape, downy. Flower not tubular.

5. _Cruciata_, if I am not mistaken. (_Galium pal.u.s.tre_, that is, _Cruciata pal.u.s.tris alba_ of Tournefort.) Leaves four, ovate-oblong, bluntish, narrower towards their base. Flower, I believe, not tubular.

See what I gathered in the woody parts of Lulean Lapland. (This was the same species, as appears by the _Fl. Lapp._)

6. _Clymenum parisiense_ (_Lathyrus pal.u.s.tris_). Stem triangular, two of its angles ending in wings, or having a dilated compressed border. There are two little oblong pointed angular leaflets at the insertion of the leaves, which latter are pinnated, ending in a tendril, and composed of two or three pair of nearly lanceolate _pinnae_. The flowers are violet-coloured, three or four on each common stalk.

7. _Angelica tenuifolia_ (_sylvestris_), which I would define _A.

umbellulis globosis_. The general umbel, though often naked, is commonly furnished with one, two, or as far as five, very slender leaves; each partial one has often as many as eight. It is curious that when the plant blooms vigorously, none of the stalks of the umbel can be seen, but the flowers form a complete ball, like the Double Guelder-rose (_Sambucus Opulus_, _flore pleno_,) or the Globe Thistle (_Echinops Sphaerocephalus_). The petals are lanceolate and spreading. Stem striated, or slightly furrowed.

8. _Cicuta aquatica_ of Wepfer (_C. virosa_ above mentioned). I am disposed to refer this plant to _nanthe_, on account of its external aspect, which is wonderfully like the last-mentioned genus. I must examine whether their flowers agree. The footstalks are hollow, inflated, and erect. _Pinnae_ three, rarely four, pair, of a narrow lanceolate shape. Those on the stem have from three to seven serratures each, but the radical ones have more, all distinct; and sometimes the lowermost serrature, at the lower edge, grows out into a sort of spurious _pinnula_. The top of the stem bears from one to three umbels; the general umbel being naked, or rarely furnished with a solitary leaflet[11]. The partial ones have seven short, narrow, acute leaflets.

The tips of the petals are inflexed.

9. (_Pedicularis_) _Sceptrum Carolinum_. Its capsules are rose-coloured, its flowers yellowish white tipped with flesh-colour, and obtuse. The capsules are about equal to the interstices of the spike, which all together is about four inches long.

_August 6._

The day of the holy sabbath, and therefore a day of recreation for both mind and body. I saw in the church (of Tornea) a memorial of King Charles the XIth's own observation of the sun on the 14th of June, 1694.

The sun was visible on that night till very near twelve, when a small cloud hid it from the sight. It was however above the horizon[12]. In winter the sun does not rise above the horizon, but at the solstice it becomes visible. Could it be seen from the pole?

The young women in Finland have much more swelling bosoms than those of Lapland; the latter accord best with the description of the poet,

"_Quales cruda viro puella servat._"

(_Mart._ lib. 8. ep. 63.)

_August 7._

The town of Tornea stands on a small island, inhabited close to the sh.o.r.e on the south-west side. I call it an island, because it is bounded on the north by a swamp; on the south-east by the great river of Tornea; on the west and south-west by an arm of the sea, like a large river in appearance, but so shallow that no vessel can approach within a mile of the town on that side. This arm of the sea was formerly the _king's road_, (a channel obliged to be kept open,) but now it is almost dry in summer time, on the north side, towards the swamp.

I ascended the steeple from whence his majesty king Charles the Eleventh saw the sun at midnight on the 14th of June, 1694.

_August 8._

Nothing worth notice occurred.

_August 9._

Leaving Tornea, I proceeded to Kimi, where is a large salmon fishery, for which this place is remarkable, as Liminge is for its meadows, and Storlionis for its cornfields, but the last yield the greatest profit.

_August 10._

I stayed at the house of the princ.i.p.al clergyman in Kimi till the 11th.

This day I gathered a sort of Pink, _Caryophyllus_, with reflexed petals of a purplish colour, divided into many segments almost to their base.

The claws, not contracted at the summit, bear on the upper side, at the bend, a tuft of dull-coloured hairs. (This was the beautiful and fragrant _Dianthus superbus._) Also a _Salix_ with appendages at the base of its leaves. (What species this was, does not appear.) At the sh.o.r.e of the great river grew _Alsine repens_, _foliis gramineis_, (_Stellaria uliginosa_, _Fl. Brit._ 476. _Engl. Bot. t._ 1074.)

Lying-in women at this place are accustomed to drink brandy seasoned with pepper, partly for the sake of its intoxicating quality, by way of a narcotic, and partly to bring on the labour pains. The clergyman's wife told me an infallible method, as she said, to prevent the pains which often follow childbirth. When the woman's first child is born, and the umbilical cord divided, a spoonful of the blood is given her to swallow. This is to be practised at every succeeding labour, and I was a.s.sured that each would be rendered more easy, without any after pains.

In East Bothnia, as well as in Medelpad, it is customary to have the dairy superintended by a superior female servant, called the _fabodar_, who receives for each cow one pound of b.u.t.ter and one of cheese, besides a pound of _mesosmor_. (See _v._ 1. 197.)

To obtain a greater quant.i.ty of b.u.t.ter, the milk is set by, either in a cellar or in a double-walled house, to be kept as cold as possible, for at least two days, or so long as that it will not stick to the finger.

The milk will not turn sour, but will become very thin and blue, while the cream collects on the top, of considerable thickness and in great perfection. The cream being taken off, and put into the churn, often proves so rich, that after it has been churned but a short time, if the churn be laid on one side nothing will run out. It is no small labour to churn such cream.

Of the remaining milk cheese is made, being warmed before it is coagulated. If the milk has begun to turn sour, it will not do for this purpose. Such thin milk as this is not very fit for eating, but the whey which separates from it in the making of cheese, is by some people made into _syra_. (See _v._ 1. 243. _n._ 11.) This is done merely by putting it, when cool, into a vessel or cask, when, if set by for a considerable time, it will become extremely tough. Most usually however it is boiled, and then kept for two or three days, when, some new milk being added, it is boiled up again to the consistence of flummery, and then set by in some kind of vessel. If it remains for a long while without being touched, it grows hard, and becomes _mesosmor_. (_v._ 1. 243. _n._ 12.) The blue milk above mentioned may be boiled like fresh milk, and does not readily turn sour.

_Gos-mjolk_, or rather _Gas-mjolk_, (from the Swedish verb _gasa_, to work or ferment,) is made as follows. The b.u.t.ter-milk is set by in a tub till it begins to ferment, when about a third or fourth part of the quant.i.ty of fresh milk is added, the whole being allowed to work once more. A serum by this time is formed at the bottom, which is drawn off by means of a c.o.c.k or tap, in the bottom of the tub, and used immediately for food. A similar portion of fresh milk is then put to the remainder, when more whey is, in due time, deposited. This practice is repeated from time to time for the s.p.a.ce of a fortnight, at the end of which the milk in the tub becomes of a thick consistence, and is excellent eating.

_Servet-mjolk_ (Napkin Milk) is made by taking a quant.i.ty of sour milk just beginning to ferment, when bubbles, like hydatids as it were, are formed between the cream and the milk. This is cut across in various directions, and the thicker substance taken off and hung up in a napkin, that the liquid part may drain away. What remains in the napkin acquires a firm consistence, and is eaten along with fresh sweet cream.

EAST BOTHLAND.

_August 11._

I departed from the house of the chief clergyman of Kimi, whose name is Forbus or Forbers, and that of his wife Christian.