With the Lapps in the High Mountains: A Woman among the Sami, 1907–1908

XVIII

haven’t even seen a green shoot. Here we’ve had hard winter for nine months. How I understand the Lapps’ longing for summer and a little rest after cold, dark, and hardships for all these months. In the morning we’ll begin a new trek that even the Lapps dread. For example, when Rauna, on one occasion or another complains about anything that’s difficult, her mother will often say to her,“You have nothing to complain about, as long as you’re not still‘in front of the mountains.’” (Vare-ouddan, a place on the last migration route where the mountains are very wild and dangerous.) XVIII Early in the morning the Lapps began to get ready for the last move, from Kåbmejaure.A departure with pack reindeer is always more colorful and more troublesome than when you travel with sleds; these are already packed, and you only have to harness the reindeer. Although all the loads are completely ready and have been weighed by hand so that the loads are precisely as heavy on either side of the reindeer, there’s still much to do. Thick saddle blankets, which consist in the best case of reindeer skins folded once, must be placed on the reindeer.You can also use clothes or a felt for the saddle blanket. Reindeer must have a thick and soft pad for their burdens, since they get sores from rubbing particularly easily. Pack reindeer should be harnessed with painstaking care, and only when the harnesses are pulled into shape and tested should the loads be carefully hung over the reindeer. All of this would have gone quite easily if all the pack reindeer were patient and easy to handle, but that was far from the case. They knew what all this was about and they would have preferred to have nothing to do with the whole business. They kicked and moved restlessly, turned obstinate, and wouldn’t step forward. Only the old, gentle animals that were used to carrying the children stood still and were conscious of their responsibility. All the Lapps were busy and anxious.One of the younger men got into trouble asking his wife several times about different things. She answered brusquely, “You ask questions like you just arrived in a foreign country this evening.” She was busy seating her children on the reindeer.With the little one in the cradle,it’s no problem.The cradle is merely hung off the packsaddle like a normal load. It’s harder for those who are a little bigger. The three-year-old was packed sitting up in a chest and tied in gently. Afterward the child was hung With the Lapps in the High Mountains  on the side of the reindeer,naturally with an equivalent weight on the reindeer’s other side.The children who are too large to be seated in such a way must ride. The wooden pommels on the reindeer to be ridden are especially made for this; they are so long at the highest end that the child can grasp them firmly. The young Lapp who joiked so well was still in our siida, and he helped getting the caravan in order. He was a fellow undeterred by anything, and when the reindeer refused to move forward too many times,he swore and carried on until red flames came out of his head. His curses were colorful, lengthy, and emphatic. Gate reproached him for his dangerous invocation of the Evil One, just before the difficult trek. It would be better if he asked God to help us. But the fellow thought his supplications just as effective.“Our Father only did what He wanted to anyway.” Finally, later in the morning, the caravan set off into the desolate gray landscape, which rose steadily the whole time. Almost immediately, we had to take a detour; that is, we were supposed to cross a river, but the rivers at that period were so deep and rapid that they could only be crossed over natural snow bridges. However, the bridges were the first thing that these particular rivers had destroyed, and the Lapps had no other alternative but to go up to the source of the river and ford it there. We went the whole way up over the mountainside in mud and between willows.There was now water everywhere. This detour delayed us considerably,and it was many hours before we reached the large ravine...