SECTION XXI.
O f Sports and Amufenienls.
TH E Laplanders do not obferve Chriftmas as a feftival; nor
have they any fimilar days that they particularly diftmguiih.
They know nothing, or very little, of playing at cards. They
exercife themielves in throwing at a mark with a javelin : the
prizes in thefe games, for thofe who come neareft the mark, are
fometimes pieces of money, at other times tobacco, or fuch like
articles. Befides this diverfion, they have another w ith a leathern
ball'fluffed hard, which' is ftruck in the air, and caught before it
falls to the ground.
A certain amufement called gaafe Jpil, or the game of fox and
geefe, is in great requeft with them. This is played by two parties,
on a board marked with fquare divifions for the purpofe ; one
of the parties managing thirteen pegs, called geefe, about this labyrinth
; and, as may be imagined, in the dexterity o f purfnit and
efcape confifts the Ikill of the players.
Leaping over a ftick held in an horizontal pofition by two Laplanders,
is another diveriion with which they pais their time.
Sometimes two Laplanders, having each of them a ftick in his
hands, from the end of one a rope being extended to the other,
will
will ftrive to difengage the ftick from each other’s grafp ; and in
this, perhaps, they are affifted on each fide by an equal number o f
the by-ftanders: this occafions a fmart ftruggle, till at length the
rope breaks, or the weakeft party gives way, which at once decides
the conteft ; when the wager, for there generally is one depending
on the event, is determined, the prize is affigned to the
viftor. Another exercife confifts in two of them fattening their
hands in each other’s belt, ftriving to raife one another from the
ground, and thus to give each other a fall. They are befides expert
wreftlers; and thefe kind of exercifes are found neceffary to
keep their bodies warm, as well as to fill up their intervals of
leifure, when they are upon a journey, during the ftoppages re-
quifite to be made to give their rein-deer an opportunity of baiting
; for which purpofe, as has already been obierved, thofo animals
muft dig up the fnow in queft of mofs, as it is not pofiible
to carry forage with them in their fledges.
They are in general excellent markfmen ; and fome of them
have been known to hit a fmall objeit with a bullet fired from
tbeir pieces, at a confiderable diftance; and that for a number of
times repeatedly, without a fingle failure.