SECTION X.
O f the Rein-deer, the Tame as well as the Wild: Treatment of tanie
Rein-deer, and the various Advantages which the Laplander derives
from them— In this SeSlion mention is made, incidentally, of the
Time about the Winter Soljlice, when the Sun never rifes above the
Horizon; and about the Summer Solftice, when it never Jets. _
r 5 ''H E rutting feafon of the rein-deer begins about the clofe of
autumn, and the female brings forth her fawns in the
ipring of the year. The oldeft and ftrongeft buck, called by the
Laplanders aino-valdo, ufually drives away all the others, and remains
the general hufband of the herd.
It has been a notion that the hinds, or female deers, can only
bring forth in ftormy weather, which commonly prevails about
the feed-time, and which from thence has obtained the name
given it by the Norwegians, of rein-kalve-rein, or fawning feafon :
but this, Mr. Leems informes us, is no more than a vulgar prejudice
; for thefe animals, he obierves, produce their young indifferently,
like all other four-footed beafts. Some of the hinds
bear annually; thefe are called aldo : others, named kodno~ every .
other year; and fome that are denominated Jlainak, are barren.
As foon as the female has fawned fhe lofes her horns. The fawns
from
from their very birth are nimble, and are foon able to run with
equal fpeed and keep up with her dams. Every hind knows her
own fawn, let the herd be ever io numerous.
I f the hind be of an afh colour, her fawn at its birth is red, w ith
a ftripe down the back, and is then called mteejfe. This colour
grows darker, the red hairs falling off towards autumn, when it is
called zhiaermah Some rein-deer, when full grown, are white
with afh coloured fpots : the fawns of a white mother are always
white.
T h e hinds called by the Norwegians fm le r, exceed the bucks in
fize ; many of them have fine branching horns, and fbme few none
at all : the horns grow again as foon as flied ; the new ones appear
at firft like two foft fwellings on the head, of a blackifh colour
; the fkin as they fhoot forth changes to an afh colour, and
peels off when the horns are near dropping. The horns are thick
at the bottom, but thinner as they fpread out, with points like
fingers ; and they are fo branching, that w hen thefe animals fight
they are often fattened by their antlers, and not able to extricate
themfelves without the afliftance o f man. Their haunches are
the fatteli parts ; and thefe are very much fo.before the rutting
feafon.
T h e rein-deer is much infefted in the fummer by a fly which
creeps up its noftrils, and is on th a t account called by Linnaeus
«jlrus ncfalis : the Laplander’s name for it is the trompe. The
rein-deer is likewifo fiibjedl to a diftemper, which is contagious,
and fo fatal, th a t it often proves dellrudtive to numerous herds :
V o l . II. C c ~ this