In the northmost part of the Scandinavian Peninsula and Finland live the Lapps. There are probably not more than ten or twelve thousand, all told. They have had much contact with the Finns, and speak a language related to Finnish. In many customs they resemble them. This is not strange, as the land they live in is much the same.

But while all Finns are tall, the Lapps are short. Most of the men fall below five feet. Little and thin, they are yet strong and quick in their movements. Their skin is dark, their hair black and straight. Their heads are big and broad, and they have good foreheads and projecting cheek bones. Their eyes often seem to slant downward at their outer corners. While they are really dark skinned, they are not nearly so much so as they appear, for they are usually filthy. When their faces are washed, some of the women have quite fair skin and rosy cheeks. Life is hard among the Lapps, but they often live to be old—sometimes even to one hundred years or more.

Those Lapps who live farthest away from the Finns, Russians, and Swedes still wear the old style of dress. In winter their garments are made of reindeer hide: the hair, which is left on, is worn next the body. Both men and women wear big mittens of skin. They have caps on their heads, and fishermen and herders may be distinguished by the style of these. Fishermen’s caps are pointed, while those of herders are square. In going out over the snow in winter, Lapps have long, narrow runners of wood fastened to their feet, and carry a pole in their hand. These runners are five feet or more in length, and only a few inches wide, and on them—aided by their poles—the Lapps glide along finely over the hard snow.

Some Lapps are constantly wandering. Others settle down in quite permanent homes. The wanderers build tents similar in shape to those of our Sioux Indians and of the Finns. A lot of poles are set up in a circle with their upper ends meeting. This framework is covered with a cloth or with turfs. The settled Lapps live in houses, the framework of which consists of posts set upright and poles lashed across. Small storehouses for food are built near by, and these are set up on four posts to keep the contents out of reach of dogs and other animals.

When they greet each other, the Lapps rub noses together. This mode of kissing is found also among other northern peoples, like the Samoyeds in Asia and the Eskimos in America. Mothers cradle their babies in a sort of trough hollowed out of a piece of wood. This they carry on their backs when they journey, and hang on a tree or set into a snowbank when they work.

Of course every one thinks of reindeer when Laplanders are mentioned. And it is not strange, because reindeer are useful indeed to these little people. They furnish three useful things,—milk, meat, and skins. The reindeer are kept in herds and form almost the only wealth of their owners. Some herds number perhaps a thousand reindeer. These herds must be constantly watched. Men, women, and children all help in the work, and the many dogs kept by the Lapps are chiefly helpful in guarding the herds. The women do the milking, and each of the reindeer cows is milked twice a day. They give little milk, hardly more than a cupful at a milking, but it is rich and thick and can be thinned with a good deal of water. Some of the milk is drunk fresh, and from the rest the women make a kind of cheese. When they wish to milk a reindeer, they approach the animal carefully, throw a lasso over its head and wind this around the snout so as to hold the animal quiet. The reindeer are also much used to carry burdens and to drag sledges.

Besides the flesh and milk of the reindeer the Laplanders eat its blood, which is boiled down into a sort of pudding. The meat which is not eaten fresh is dried and stored away. Fish are dried and smoked. Birds and their eggs are much eaten. Bread, much like the “famine bread” of the Finns, is made from roots and barks. Soup is made of pine bark mixed with fat and flour or meal.

The Laplanders who live in settled houses depend upon hunting during the fall and fishing during the summer. They hunt reindeer, squirrels, and birds. Wild reindeer they take chiefly by pitfalls: they dig a hole, or trench, in the path over which the reindeer is likely to pass, and carefully cover it with branches, earth, and grass. When the animals have fallen in, they are easily killed. Lapps are fond of the eggs of water birds, and to secure them they build nests for the birds in trees near the water, and then rob them after the eggs have been laid.

The Laplanders are great believers in spirits. To summon these they use drums or tambourines, consisting of a ring of wood over which a membrane is tightly stretched. This has jingling objects fastened to it which make a noise when the instrument is beaten or rattled. Upon the membrane are rudely painted, curious figures, usually in red. Thus the sun, animals, and human beings are pictured, and are believed to help the drummer. The Lapps greatly fear their god of storms. He is believed to drive the storms forth from his cave with a club and to bring them back with a shovel. They fear him most at the season when the young reindeer are born, and then pray to him not to let loose the storms, lest the little creatures perish. Through their sorcerers they secure from this god, storm strings with three knots tied in them. Each of these knots represents a storm. If one knot is untied, a little storm is let loose; if two are untied, a greater one; if three, there is a fearful tempest. These strings are used against enemies or those who have tried to do them harm. The neighbors of the little Lapps think these can do them much harm with their wind strings and other magic, and they dread and hate them.