XI
Čæppe unfortunately didn’t get a chance to live out his life (the Lapps calculate a dog’s life to be no more than six or seven years; then he’s worn out and is killed). Čæppe was in fact a fighter who resorted to using his teeth on rivals when he grew hungry for the opposite sex. It was his fate to die for the sake of his hot blood. One autumn day, while the reindeer were in the corral and everyone was very busy there, a dog fight arose among the pack of dogs outside. Čæppe was vanquished. When two dogs fight and the others see which one is weaker, they attack the weak one together. Čæppe didn’t have the strength to fight off his bigger opponents. No Lapp saw what was happening. Otherwise, they tend to break up fighting dogs. When later they let the reindeer out of the corral, there lay Čæppe, dead and pitifully mauled. XI While we were camped on Puollamåive’s south side,the isit, or the siida’s foreman, together with a couple of others, skied to Kattuvuoma to pick up some sleds that were needed. No siida moves before the siida’s foreman decides it should happen. He also decides where to set up camp and attends to the siida’s interests, both internal and external. Now, however, our foreman had left for Kattuvuoma and the trip stretched out a long time for various unforeseen reasons. We couldn’t begin our move. There was much grumbling about this long absence—“the sled-fetching trip makes folk herdless.” That is to say, the herders couldn’t hold back the reindeer. They contained the main herd well enough, but large and small clusters snuck away and went south in search of better grazing.Among them,Sara’s tame old Leksu had disappeared. And it wasn’t a good thing for reindeer to be descending alone now in the big forest during slaughtering time, for that’s where the farmers lived, and when the Lapps were up in the highest edge of the birch forest, they couldn’t control what happened to their animals so far away. Along with that, such unguarded reindeer could result in having to pay compensation for damage to the hay. The eternal hay compensation that makes the relationship so tense between farmers and Lapps could be prevented rather easily, if the farmers were ordered to take their hay home within a reasonable time. If the hay wasn’t taken home by a more definite, fixed date, then the farmer himself would have to bear the blame for what happened. Currently these miserable haystacks in the reindeer’s way act as bait that makes for a not-inconsiderable extra income. With the Lapps in the High Mountains Hay compensation in Sweden and grass compensation in Norway are in many cases nothing more than pure extortion from the Lapps. Both countries should make it a point of honor to abolish this unjust relationship. Certainly, there are Lapps who are careless about watching the reindeer, but it’s far from as bad as complaints make it sound. The Talma Lapps, with whom I traveled in the autumn and winter, were skilled and conscientious herders. Still, they couldn’t prevent some groups of reindeer leaving the herd and going off by themselves; such a group is particularly impossible to watch. There’s no overabundance of manpower among the Lapps. Finally, around November , we started moving away from Puollamåive toward the mountain of Tavanjunje. It was the first time I would attempt to drive a sled pulled by a reindeer. Before we left, Sara ordered me to wear a heavy fur parka.Nikki said when he saw me,“Now you look like other people.” The dogs obviously felt the same; they no longer squinted distrustfully at me, and I didn’t need to do what I had before—arm myself with a stick before going to the other tents. Lapp dogs have, like other dogs, a sharp eye for clothes, and as long as I wore woolen clothes (summer clothes—the fur parka was so heavy that for the longest time I tried to avoid it) here in wintertime, I was suspect. We had to walk the first part of the route away from the tents. Only twenty-five centimeters of snow had fallen, and tussocks and rocks sixty centimeters high stuck out everywhere. It was enormous work to plod...
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