Lapps

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

the inhabitants of Lapland (q . v.) The Lapps, who call themselves Sabme or Sabmeladsjak (the Norwegians call them Finns), belong to the Ural- Altaic stock, and are consequently closely related to the Finns ( Suomi). As a race they are the shortest people in Europe (four or five feet in height), and the most brachycephalic. In other respects they are spare of body, with dark, bristly hair and scanty beard, and short, often bandy, legs. The mouth is large, the lips thick, and the eyes small and piercing, but not obliquely set. The Lapps are usually distinguished as Mountain, Sea, Forest, and River Lapps. The Mountain Lapps, the backbone of the race, are nomads; they move constantly, seeking Arctic moss for their reindeer herds, their only source of wealth. The Sea Lapps, mostly impoverished Mountain Lapps, or their descendants, dwell in scattered hamlets along the coast, and live by fishing. The Forest and River Lapps are nomads who have taken to a settled mode of life; they not only keep domesticated reindeer, but hunt and fish. The nomad Lapps live all the year round in tents. The reindeer supplies nearly all their wants, except coffee, tobacco, and sugar. They live on its flesh and milk; they clothe themselves in its skin; and use it as a beast of burden. In winter, harnessed to a boat-shaped sledge (pulk), it takes them the longest journeys, across frozen lakes and rivers, and over the mountains and through the forests. It is computed that there are 400,000 reindeer in Lapland, for the most part semi-wild. In his personal habits and in his clothing the Lapp is the reverse of cleanly. He is, however, very good-natured. As a rule, "saving , almost miserly," "selfish and cute in all his dealings," not very trustworthy in the matter of speaking the truth, but on the whole inclined to take life easily. The Lapps all profess Christianity; those of Norway and Sweden belong to the Lutheran Church, those of Russia to the Greek Church. The Norsemen treated the Lapps as a subject race as early as the 9th century, but had to reconquer them in the 14th; the Russians followed suit in the 11th, and the Swedes in the 16th. From the 13th to the 17th century the Lapps were kept in a state little better than slavery by Swedish adventurers known as Birkarlians. But at the present day both the Scandinavian governments bestow on them every kindness.