FOR THE CHILDREN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2586, 21 August 1909, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN.

THE WISDOM OF KLEMTI. i A. SOJOURN WITH THE LAPPS' IN j NORWAY. ; (By H. Mackenzie, ir, the London I “Daily News.”) (Continued From Last Week.) GRYMTA AND THE .BEAR. “Tell me another tale, Klemti,” I begged. _ He rolled his quid with much facial distortion, but did riot seem displeased. “Will you hear about the White Wolf,” he asked, “or shall I toll how Grymta put a spell on the bear ?” I chose the hoar-story, for I had had enough of the white animals that figure so largely in Lapp legend. “Grymta,” said Klemti, “was an old woman who lived long, Jong ago. She knew everything that can be learnt about spells, for her father had been a mighty magician, and she had inherited his drum.” (Here I must explain a drum for divination —a custom that now only lingers here and there in a furtive way.) “Grymta lived in the tent of her son, who had many children, and the youngest of them all was Grvmta’s favorite: she was never too weary to hush him when he cried, nor too feeble to carry him if he were tired. One day the Sickness” (i.e., smallpox) “broke out among the Samelats; many fell ill In the tent of Grymta’s son; but all who lived recovered before the reindeer had eaten the neighborhood bare — all but Grymta’s favorite. One evening her son came into the tent and said: “To-morrow we must set elf again, although many of us are still weak. The snow is deep and the reindeer are growing thin for want of food. If they should die, what would happen to us?’ ‘The little one must lie still for a week yet.’ said Grymta, “you must wait for him.’ ‘That I will not do,’ answered the son. and there was much talk. The end of it was that Grymta was left behind in a tiny tent that her son put up: and he gave her a sledge, and a reindeer to draw it as soon as she could move. So the rest went away and left her. “Now the first night a bear came”— “But surely bears go to sleep in winter?” I remonstrated. “I am coming to that,” returned Klemti testily. “Listen: he who listens learns.” After which rebuke he proceeded: -A SPELL UNBROKEN. “The first night the bear came down and devoured the reindeer; the second night the bear came down and ate up the sledge; but the third flight the bear came and tore down the hanging over the tent-door, for he intended to take the child. Then Grymta dashed a blazing brand in his face and came forth on to the snow with the child in her arms. And she curtseyed to the bear and began to dance round him — round and I'ound, singing incantations the whole time. The moon was in the east when she began, and the bear’s long shadow stretched westwards; but the moon was in the south when she ended, and the bear’s short shadow was towards the north. And the bear grew so giddy, so dazed, that at last he shut his eyes, laid liis nose between his