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LAPLAND, or LAPPLAND
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See also:LAPLAND, or LAPPLAND , a name used to indicate the region of See also:northern See also:Europe inhabited by the Lapps, though not applied to any administrative See also:district. It covers in See also:Norway the See also:division (amter) of Finmarken and the higher inland parts of See also:Tromso and Nordiand; in See also:Russian territory the western See also:part of the See also:government of See also:Archangel as far as the See also: Each principal valley has a considerable See also:village at or near the tail of the lake-See also:chain, up to which a road runs along the valley. The village consists of wooden cottages with an See also:inn (gastgifvaregard), a See also: In April the See also:snow is melting from the branches; See also:spring comes in May; spring See also:flowers are in blossom, and See also:grain is sown. At the end of this See also:month or in See also:June the See also:ice is breaking up on the lakes, See also:woods See also:rush into See also:leaf, and the unbroken daylight of the northern summer soon sets in. See also:July is quite warm; the great rivers come down full from the melting snows in the mountains. See also:August is a See also:rainy month, the See also:time of See also:harvest; See also:night-frosts may begin already about the See also:middle of the month. All preparations for winter are made during See also:September and See also:October, and full winter has set in by See also:November. The Lapps.—The Lapps (Swed. Lappar; Russian Lopari; Norw. Finner) See also:call their country Sabme or Same, and themselves Samelats—names almost identical with those employed by the Finns for their country and See also:race, and probably connected with a See also:root signifying " dark." Lapp is almost certainly a See also:nickname imposed by foreigners, although some of the Lapps apply it contemptuously to those of their countrymen whom they think to be less civilized than themselves? In Sweden and See also:Finland the Lapps are usually divided into See also:fisher, mountain and See also:forest Lapps. In Sweden the first class includes many impoverished mountain Lapps. As described by Laestadius (1827-1832), their See also:condition was very miserable; but since his time matters have improved. The 'principal See also:colony has its summer quarters on the Stora-Lule Lake, possesses See also:good boats and nets, and, besides catching and drying fish, makes See also:money by the See also:shooting of See also:wild See also:fowl and the gathering of eggs. When he has acquired a little means it is not unusual for the fisher to See also:settle down and reclaim a See also:bit of See also:land." The mountain and forest Lapps are the true representatives of the race. In the wandering See also:life of the mountain Lapp his autumn See also:residence, on the See also:borders of the forest district, may be considered as the central point; it is there that he erects his njalla, a small wooden storehouse raised high above the ground by one or more piles. About the beginning of November he begins to wander south or See also:east into the forest land, and in the winter he may visit, not only 1 The most probable See also:etymology is the Finnish lappu, and in this See also:case the meaning would be the " land's end folk." such places as Jokkmokk and Arjepluog, but even See also:Gefle, See also:Upsala or Stockholm. About the beginning of May he is back at his njalla, but as soon as the See also:weather grows warm he pushes up to the mountains, and there throughout the summer pastures his herds and prepares his See also:store of See also:cheese. By autumn or October he is busy at his njalla killing the surplus See also:reindeer bulls and curing See also:meat for the winter. From the mountain Lapp the forest (or, as he used to be called, the spruce-fir) Lapp is mainly distinguished by the narrower limits within which he pursues his nomadic life. He never wanders outside of a certain district, in which he possesses hereditary rights, and maintains a See also:series of camping-grounds which he visits in See also:regular rotation. In May or April he lets his reindeer loose, to wander as they please; but immediately after midsummer, when the mosquitoes become troublesome, he goes to collect them. Catching a single See also:deer and belling it, he drives it through the wood; the other deer, whose See also:instinct leads them to gather into herds for mutual See also:protection against the mosquitoes, are attracted by the See also:sound. Should the summer be very cool and the mosquitoes few, the Lapp finds it next to impossible to bring the creatures together. About the end of August they are again let loose, but they are once more collected in October, the forest Lapp during winter pursuing the same course of life as the mountain Lapp. In Norway there are three classes—the sea Lapps, the See also:river Lapps and the mountain Lapps, the first two settled, the third nomadic. The mountain Lapps have a rather ruder and harder life than the same class in Sweden. About See also:Christmas those of Kautokeino and Karasjok are usually settled in the neighbourhood of the churches; in summer they visit the coast, and in autumn they return inland. Previous to 1852, when they were forbidden by imperial See also:decree, they were wont in winter to move south across the Russian frontiers. It is seldom possible for them to remain more than three or four days in one spot. Flesh is their favourite, in winter almost their only See also:food, though they also use reindeer See also:milk, cheese and See also:rye or See also:barley cakes. The sea Lapps are in some respects hardly to be distinguished from the other coast dwellers of Finmark. Their food consists mainly of cooked fish. The river Lapps, many of whom, however, are descendants of Finns proper, breed See also:cattle, See also:attempt a little tillage and entrust their reindeer to the care of mountain Lapps. In Finland there are comparatively few Laplanders, and the great bulk of them belong to the fisher class. Many are settled in the neighbourhood of the Enare Lake. In the spring they go down to the Norwegian coast and take part in the sea See also:fisheries, returning to the lake about midsummer. Formerly they found the See also:capture of wild reindeer a profitable occupation, using for this purpose a palisaded See also:avenue gradually narrowing towards a pitfall. The Russian Lapps are also for the most part fishers, as is natural in a district with such an extent of coast and such a number of lakes, not to mention the See also:advantage which the fisher has over the reindeer keeper in connexion with the many fasts of the See also:Greek Church. They maintain a See also:half nomadic life, very few having become settlers in the Russian villages. It is usual to distinguish them according to the district of the coast which they frequent, as Murman (Murmanski) and Terian (Terski) Lapps. A See also:separate tribe, the Filmans, i.e Finnmans, wander about the Pazyets, Motov and Pechenga tundras, and retain the See also:peculiar See also:dialect and the Lutheran creed which they owe to a former connexion with Sweden. They were formerly known as the " twice and thrice tributary " Lapps, because they paid to two or even three states—See also:Russia, See also:Denmark and Sweden. The Lapps within the See also:historical See also:period have considerably recruited themselves from neighbouring races. Shortness of stature' is their most obvious characteristic, though in regard to this much exaggeration has prevailed. Duben found an See also:average of 4.9 ft. for See also:males and a little less for See also:females; Mantegazza, who made a number of anthropological observations in Norway in 1879, gives 5 ft. and 4.75 ft., respectively (Archivio 1 Hence they have been supposed by many to be the originals of the " little folk " of Scandinavian See also:legend.per l'antrop., i88o). Individuals much above or much below the average are rare. The See also:body is usually of See also:fair proportions, but the legs are rather short, and in many cases somewhat bandy. Dark, swarthy, yellow, copper-coloured are all adjectives employed to describe their complexion—the truth being that their habits of life do not conduce either to the preservation or display of the natural See also:colour of their skin, and that some of them are really fair, and others, perhaps the See also:majority, really dark. The colour of the See also:hair ranges from blonde and reddish to a bluish or greyish See also:black; the eyes are black, See also:hazel, See also:blue or See also:grey. The shape of the See also:skull is the most striking peculiarity of the Lapp. He is the most brachycephalous type of man in Europe, perhaps in the world .2 According to See also:Virchow, the See also:women in width of See also:face are more Mongolian in type than the men, but neither in men nor women does the opening of the See also:eye show any true obliquity. In See also:children the eye is large, open and See also:round. The See also:nose is always low and broad, more markedly retrousse among the females than the males. Wrinkled and puckered by exposure to the weather, the faces even of the younger Lapps assume an See also:appearance of old See also:age. The See also:muscular'See also:system is usually well See also:developed, but there is deficiency of fatty See also:tissue, which affects the features (particularly by giving relative prominence to the eyes) and the See also:general See also:character of the skin. The thinness of the skin, indeed, can but rarely be paralleled among other Europeans. Among the Lapps, as among other lower races, the See also:index is shorter than the See also:ring See also:finger. The Lapps are a quiet, inoffensive See also:people. Crimes of violence are almost unknown, and the only See also:common See also:breach of See also:law is the killing of tame reindeer belonging to other owners. In Russia, however, they have a bad reputation for lying and general untrustworthiness, and See also:drunkenness is well-nigh a universal See also:vice. In Scandinavia See also:laws have been directed against the importation of intoxicating liquors into the Lapp country since 1723. Superficially at least the great bulk of the Lapps have been Christianized—those of the Scandinavian countries being Protestants, those of Russia members of the Greek Church. Al-though the first attempt to convert the Lapps to See also:Christianity seems to have been made in the See also:firth See also:century, the See also:worship of See also:heathen idols was carried on openly in Swedish Lappma'k as See also:late as 1687, and secretly in Norway down to the first See also:quarter of the 18th century, while the practices of heathen See also:rites survived into the 19th century, if indeed they are See also:extinct even yet. Lapp See also:graves, prepared in the heathen manner, have been discovered in upper Namdal (Norway), belonging to the years 182o and 1826. In See also:education the Scandinavian Lapps are far ahead of their Russian brethren, to whom See also:reading and See also:writing are arts as unfamiliar as they were to their See also:pagan ancestors. The general manner of life is patriarchal. The See also:father of the See also:family has See also:complete authority over all its affairs; and on his See also:death this authority passes to the eldest son. Parents are See also:free to disinherit their children; and, if a son separates from the family without his father's permission, he receives no See also:share of the See also:property except a See also:gun and his wife's See also:dowry.'
The Lapps are of See also:necessity conservative in most of their habits, many of which can hardly have altered since the first taming of the reindeer. But the strong current of See also:mercantile enterprise has carried a few important products of southern See also:civilization into their huts. The lines in which See also: Geog. See also:Soc., Ethnog. See also:Section, 1878. the See also:phonetics are different and more complicated. It is broken up of places can often be proved to have no connnexion with the Lapps' They occupied their See also:present territory when they are first mentioned in See also:history. According to Duben the name first occurs in the 13th century—in the Fundinn Noregr, composed about 1200, in Saxo Grammaticus, and in a papal See also:bull of date 1230; but the people are probably to be identified with those Finns of See also:Tacitus whom he describes as wild hunters with skins for clothing and See also:rude huts as only means of shelter, and certainly with the Skrithiphinoi of See also:Procopius (Goth. ii. 15), the Scritobini of See also:Paulus Warnefridus, and the Scridifinni of the geographer of See also:Ravenna. Some of the details given by Procopius, in regard for instance to the treatment of infants, show that his informant was acquainted with certain characteristic customs of the Lapps. into very distinct and even mutually unintelligible dialects, the origin of several of which is, however, easily found in the See also:political and social dismemberment of the people. Duben distinguishes four leading dialects; but a much greater number are recognizable. In Russian Lapland alone there are three, due to the See also:influence of Norwegian, Karelian and Russian (See also:Lonnrot, Ada Soc. Sci. Fennicae, vol. iv.). "The Lapps," says See also:Castren, " have had the misfortune to come into See also:close contact with See also:foreign races while their See also:language was yet in its tenderest See also:infancy, and consequently it has not only adopted an endless number of foreign words, but in many grammatical aspects fashioned itself after foreign See also:models." That it began at a very See also:early period to enrich itself with Scandinavian words is shown by the use it still makes of forms belonging to a Languagr, linguistic See also:stage older even than that of Icelandic. Duben
has subjected the vocabulary to a very interesting See also:analysis for the purpose of discovering what stage of culture the people had reached before their contact with the Norse. Agricultural terms, the names of the metals and the word for See also: The reputation of the Laplanders for skill in magic and See also:divination is of very early date, and in Finland is not yet extinct. When Erik See also:Blood-See also:axe, son of Harold Haarfager, visited Bjarmaland in 922, he found Gunhild, daughter of Asur Tote, living among the Lapps, to whom she had been sent by her father for the purpose of being trained in See also:witchcraft; and See also:Ivan the Terrible of Russia sent for magicians from Lapland to explain the cause of the appearance of a See also:comet. One of the See also:powers with which they were formerly credited was that of raising winds. " They tye three knottes," says old See also:Richard See also:Eden, " on a strynge hangyng at a whyp. When they lose one of these they rayse tollerable wynds. When they lose an other the wynde is more vehement; but by losing the thyrd they rayse playne tempestes as in old tyme they were accustomed to rayse See also:thunder and lyghtnyng " (Hist. of Trauayle, 1577). Though we are See also:familiar in See also:English with allusions to " Lapland witches," it appears that the See also:art, according to native See also:custom, was in the hands of the men. During his divination the wizard See also:fell into a See also:state of See also:trance or See also:ecstasy, his soul being held to run at large to pursue its See also:witch- inquiries. Great use was made of a curious See also:divining- See also:drum, See also:oval in shape and made of wood, 1 to 4 ft. in length. Over the upper See also:surface was stretched a white-dressed reindeer skin, and at the corners (so to speak) hung a variety of charms—tufts of See also:wool, bones, See also:teeth, claws, &c. The See also:area was divided into several spaces, often into three, one for the See also:celestial gods, one for the terrestrial and one for man. A variety of figures and conventional signs were See also:drawn in the several compartments: the sun, for in-stance, is frequently represented by a square and a stroke from each corner, See also:Thor by two hammers placed crosswise; and in the more See also:modern specimens symbols for See also:Christ, the Virgin, and the See also:Holy See also:Ghost are introduced. An arpa or divining-See also:rod was laid on a definite spot, the drum beaten by a See also:hammer, and conclusions drawn from the position taken up by the arpa. Any Lapp who had attained to manhood could in ordinary circumstances consult the drum for himself, but in matters of unusual moment the professional wizard (paid, noide or noaide) had to be called in.
History.—The Lapps have a dim tradition that their ancestors lived in a far eastern land, and they tell rude stories of conflicts with Norsemen and Karelians. But no See also:answer can be obtained from them in regard to their early See also:distribution and movements. It has been maintained that they were formerly spread over the whole of the Scandinavian peninsula, and they have even been considered the remnants of that primeval race of See also:cave-dwellers which hunted the reindeer over the snow-See also:fields of central and western Europe. But much of the See also:evidence adduced for these theories is highly questionable. The contents of the so-called Lapps' graves found in various parts of Scandinavia are often sufficient in themselves to show that the appellation must be a misnomer, and the syllable See also:Lap or Lapp found in many names
In the 9th century the Norsemen from Norway began to treat their feeble northern neighbours as a subject race. The wealth of Ottar, " northmost of the northmen," whose narrative has been preserved by See also: The relations of the Lapps to their more powerful neighbours were complicated by the rivalry of the different Scandinavian kingdoms. After the disruption of the Calmar See also:Union (1523) Sweden began to assert its rights with vigour, and in 1595 the treaty of Teusina between Sweden and Russia decreed " that the Lapps who dwell in the woods between eastern Bothnia and Varanger shall pay their dues to the king of Sweden." It was in vain that See also:Christian IV. of Denmark visited See also:Kola and exacted See also:homage in 1599, and every See also:year sent messengers to protest against the collection of his tribute by the Swedes (a custom which continued down to 1806). See also: By a See also:charter of Ivan Vasilivitch (November 1556), the monks are declared masters of the Lapps of the Motoff and Petchenga districts, and they soon sought to extend their See also:control over those not legally assigned to them (Ephimenko). Other monasteries were gifted 1 The view that the Lapps at one time occupied the whole of the Scandinavian peninsula, and have during the course of centuries been driven back by the Swedes and Norwegians is disproved by the See also:recent investigations of Yngvar Nielsen, K. B. Wiklund and others. The fact is, the Lapps are increasing in See also:numbers, as well as pushing their way farther and farther south. In the beginning of the 16th century their southern border-See also:line in Norway ran on the upper side of 64° N. In 1890 they forced their way to the head of the Hardanger Fjord in 6o° N. In Sweden the presence of Lapps as far south as Jamtland (or Jemtland) is first mentioned in 1564. In 1881 they pushed on into the north of See also:Dalecarlia, about 61° 45'N. with similar proprietary rights; and the supplication of the See also:patriarch See also:Nikon to See also:Alexis Mikhaelovitch, for example, shows clearly the oppression to which the Lapps were subjected. It is long, however, since these abuses were abolished; and in Scandinavia more especially the Lapps of the present See also:day enjoy the advantages resulting from a large amount of philanthropic legislation on the part of their rulers. There seems to be no fear of their becoming extinct, except it may be by See also:gradual amalgamation with their more powerful neighbours. In Norway the See also:total number of Lapps was 20,786 in 1891, and in Sweden in 1904 it was officially estimated that there were 7000. Add to these some 3000 for Russian Lapland, and the total Lapp See also:population approximates to 30,000. In Sweden the Lapps are gradually abandoning their nomadic habits and becoming merged in the Swedish population. The majority of the Norwegian Lapps See also:lead a semi-nomadic existence; but the number of inveterate nomads can scarcely reach 1500 at the present day. In Sweden there are about 3500 nomads. As to the language, J. A. See also:Friis, See also:professor of Lapp in the university of See also:Christiania, has published Lappiske Sprogprover: en samling lapp. eventyr, ordsprog, og gader (Christiania, 1856), and Lappisk mythologi eventyr og folkesagn (Christiania, 1871). See also G. Donner, Lieder der Lappen (See also:Helsingfors, 1876) ; Poestion, Lapplandische Mdrehen, &c. (See also:Vienna, 1885). Grammars of the Lapp tongue have been published by Fjellstrom (1738), Leem (1748), See also:Rask (1832), Stockfleth (184o); lexicons by Fjellstrom (1703), Leem (1768-1781), Lindahl (178o), Stockfleth (1852). Among more recent works may be mentioned a See also:dictionary (1885), by J. A. Friis; a reader, with See also:German See also:translations (1888), by J. Qvigstad; a dictionary (1890) and two grammars (1891 and 1897) of the Lulea dialect, and a chrestomathy of Norwegian Lappish (1894), by K. B. Wiklund; a dictionary of Russian Lappish, or the Kola dialect (1891), by A. Genetz; readers of different dialects (1885-1896), by J. Halasz; and a See also:grammar of Norwegian Lappish (1882), by S. Nielsen; further, a See also:comparative study of Lappish and Finnish by Qvigstad in the Acts of the Finnish See also:Academy of See also:Science, vol. xii., 1883; the same author's Nordische Lehnworter See also:im Lappischen (1893) ; Wiklund, Entwurf einer urlappischen Lautlehre (1896) ; see also various articles by these writers, Paasonen and others in the See also:Journal de la Societe Finno-Ougrienne and the Finnisch-Ugrische Forschungen; Qvigstad and Wiklund, Bibliographie der lappischen Literatur (1900). The older literature on the Lapps received a notable addition by the See also:discovery in 1896, among the letters of See also:Linnaeus preserved in the See also:British Museum, of a MS. See also:diary of a journey made in 1695 to the north of Swedish Lappmark by Olof Rudbeck the younger. On missionary See also:work see Stockfleth, Dagbog over mine See also:missions Reiser (186o); E. See also:Haller, Svenska Kyrkans See also:mission i Lappmarken (1896). It was not until 184o that the New Testament was translated into Norwegian Lappish, and not until 1895 that the entire See also:Bible was printed in the same dialect. In the Russian dialect of Lappish there exist only two versions of St See also:Matthew's See also:gospel.
LA See also:PLATA, a See also:city of See also:Argentina and See also:capital of the province of Buenos Aires, 5 m. inland from the port of See also:Ensenada, or La Plata, and about 31 M. S.E. of the city of Buenos Aires, with which it is connected by See also:rail. Pop. (1895) 45,609; (19o7, estimate) 84,000. La Plata was founded in 1882, two years after Buenos Aires had been constituted a federal district and made the See also:national capital. This necessitated the selection of another provincial capital, which resulted in the choice of an open See also:plain near the former port of Ensenada de Barragan, on which a city was laid out after the See also:plan of See also:Washington. The streets are so wide that they seem out of proportion to the low See also:brick buildings. The principal public buildings, constructed of brick and See also:stucco, are the government-See also:house, See also:assembly See also:building, See also:treasury, municipal See also: A noteworthy public See also:park is formed by a large See also:plantation of See also:eucalyptus trees, which have grown to a great height and present an imposing appearance on the level, treeless plain. See also:Electricity is in general use for public and private See also:lighting, and tramways are laid down in the principal streets and extend eastward to the port. The See also:harbour of the port of La Plata consists of a large artificial See also:basin, 1450 yds. long by 150 yds. wide, with approaches, in addition to the old port of Ensenada, which are capable of receiving the largest vessels that can navigate the La Plata See also:estuary. Up to the opening of the new port works of Buenos Aires a large part of the ocean-going See also:traffic of Buenos Aires passed through the port of La Plata. It has good railway connexions with the interior, and exports cattle and agricultural produce. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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