SECTION XXIII.
O f the Gods and Goddeffes which the Laplanders adored before the
Introduction o f Chriftianity.
A LTHO U G H the doilrines of chriftianity have been pro-
mulgated lince the time o f Charlemagne in Norway, the
Laplanders cannot be faid to be chriftians o f an older date than
about a century. Before their fu l l converjion, fays M r. Leems, by
the miffionaries Kent amongft them by the crown of Denmark,
they were given to pradiices of the grofleft idolatry; and io I have
been credibly informed they are itill, though they are at pains to
conceal them from the miffionaries.
There will be little difficulty in believing this, when it is con-
fidered how much more eaiy and natural it is for a people like
the Laplanders, with circumfcribed conceptions, and in a ilate of
perpetual fluctuation from place to place, to believe in corporeal
and limited deities in preference to one fpiritual and omnipotent.
T h a t train of thinking which inevitably fuits itfelf to man’s condition,
mud render iiich ignorant people incapable o f elevating
their contemplation to the heavens, much lefs are their feeble ap-
prehenfions capable of conceiving a pure fpirit and perfect intelligence
: and further, when we reflect on the imperious influence
of
o f cuilom, and the incurability, of prejudices, we fiiall not be fur-
prifed that the Laplanders ihould prefer the polytheifm of their
anceilors even to the chriftian religion.
The deities they worihipped may be divided into four dalles.
The firll were fuper-celeilial: thefe were named Radien Atzhie,
and Radien Kiedde. Then followed celeilial: thefe were called
Beiwe/Aileies, and Ailekes-Olmak. O f the third clafs fome were
fub-celeilial, and inhabitants of air. The chief of thefe was
named Maderatja: this deity was fuppofed to keep the region of
the air neareft the fu n ; others th a t inhabited the region below
the fun, were denominated Maderakka and Horagalles; thofe nearer
the earth were diftinguiihed by the name of Sarakka and Jukf-
Akka. The deities of this d a ß were lo placed that they might
be at hand to affiil mankind when called upon. The gods of the
fourth and lall d a ß were fubterranean, and dwelt beneath the
earth. Of thofe neareft the furface, were Saiwo, Saiwo- Olmak,
Saiwo-Guel/a, and Jabme Akko. Such as occupied the infernal regions,
which the Laplanders fuppofed to be in the very bowels of
the earth, were called Rota, Fudno, Mubben, and Paha Engel.
Thefe infernal deities, Rota and the reft, though coniidered as
evil-dilpoled towards mankind, were nevertheleß worihipped by
the people ; and poffibly for that very realon, in order to deprecate
and avert their malice.
Radien Atzhie, of the d a ß of fuper-celeftials, was the chief divinity,
or the Jupiter of the Lapland theology; he held dominion
over all the reft, his name Radien implying fovereign power, and
the