FOR THE CHILDREN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2580, 14 August 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN.

THE WISDOM OF KLEMTI

A SOJOURN WITH THE LAPPS IN

NORWAY

(By H. Mackenzie, in tho London “Daily News.”)

The air was filled with ceaseless clattering. The whole reindeer herd was on the march, and their hoof's clicked like castanets as ’they moved. It was hard work to keep up with them, and I envied Klemti the loose-jointed, bent-kneed run of tho Lapps. “Sooxi we shall reach our njalla,” ho said, turning his almond-shaped slits of eyes upon me; “there we shall put up our tent for a few days and then you can rest.”

All round us stretched the grey-brown moor'-, „ sloping upwards inland to) the flat-topped mountains a-glisten with sunshine on their ice-fields, and shelving westwards to the fjord, whose glitter reajjpeared in unexpected places, so sinuous were its windings. It was late before xve reached the edge of the fjord. The herd ran down eagerly to tho water as if the place were familiar, and the Lapps prepared to camp on a level space close to the njalla—a little wooden storehouse raised high on a single pole, so that it might be out of the reach of marauders during the long months ’when the owners wandered inland.

The herd was milked, the chunks of reindeer meat bobbed about in the great cauldron, and all crowded into the little cone-shaped tent round the fire that smouldered on the ground. Lithe as cats, the absence of seats was no discomfort to the Lapps, nor did they notice the had air that nearly stifled me, and when the last morsel had vanished lixey only looked regretful, whilst I escaped "into the open, with a sigh of relief. THE WHITE REINDEER.

Klemti, the head of the little colony, and the most fluent in Norwegian, sat down outside the tent and began to mend the broken haft of a knife. I placed myself beside him. “Klemti.” I asked, “can you tell me no tales of the Samelats” (that is, Lapps), “you who have lived long and seen much?” He was silent for a moment, and I feared he had not heard. Then he xaised his head and said: “I will tell you about the White Sledge, whose runners leave no track on the fresh-fallen snow.” And he began: “When Samelats die the White Reindeer comes to take their souls northwards in the white sledge—northwards to the dark country where there is no sun. And the souls are so light that the reindeer can draw numbers of ’them at a time. Now, there was once an old Samelat who did not want to die; he had a great herd), of reindeer, all good milkers or strong sledge drawers; he had a young wife to cook for him, and the children of his youth to serve him. He was happy and comfortable. ‘Why then,’ said he, ‘should I go away from Sameland’ (that is, Lappland) ‘to the country of the Unknown?’ But the eldest son was tired of waiting for his inheritance. ‘The White Reindeer has come,’ he lied to his father one day, ‘prepare yourself, for it is going round, and round in a circle, and each night it comes nearer to our tent. ‘Let the weary get into tlie white sledge,’ said

the father, ‘but I will contixls# my way through life on foot.’ ;/ “Then the son grew still more impatient, and every evening before he came into the tent to sleep he would pretend to_ stand watching the White Reindeer circling closer and closer; and if there was any clicking sound after dark he would shudder and whisper : “Hark to tho hoofs of the Reindeer of Death!” So one night, when all the rest were snoring, the old Samelat took his wolf-spear and stole forth. Of course the dogs knew him and never so much as whined. He waited long before ho saw something moving—just a shadow, for the thing itself was so white that his old eyes could not distinguish it from the snow. Nearer and nearer it came, noiselessly; the old man threw his spear—there was a great cry, and red blood began to color the snow. The old man ran toward; there eldest son, wrapped up in a reindTser-skin plastered with snow, whilst the life oozed out of .him from a spear wound. So the'son it was who had to sit in the white sledge, and many a long year passed before the Reindeer of Death returned for the father.” (To be Continued.)