Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/194

 184 Some Mythical Tales of the Lapps

reindeer, and still it was their part to kill them, and to cut them up and cook them. Men have, therefore, the first portion at meals, and the master of the household has his portion cut off nearest the head.

Njavvis-ene had a fair, smiling countenance, long fiowing hair, a lofty forehead, dark regular eyebrows and gentle eyes. Her nose was small and aquiline, her neck of dazzling whiteness, her hands soft, and her body plump and well-liking. She walked erect, with graceful gait, and wore fine, dark skins.

Attjis-ene, on the contrary, had a long, dark, morose- looking face, loose, tangled hair, a broad wrinkled forehead, a pointed chin, broad mouth, big teeth and a tall, thin body. Her voice was particularly piercing and unpleasant, and she was thinly clad in white clothes.

Both widows bore children. Njavvis-ene had a son ; Attjis-ene a daughter. The children grew up. One day the widows went together to gather cloud-berries. " Who- ever fills her basket first shall have the boy," said Attjis-ene. Njavvis-ene would not agree to this proposal at first, but at last she consented. Then Attjis-ene put some moss and twigs into her basket, gathered a few cloud-berries, and pretended to have filled the basket. " Now my basket is full first," she said. " The boy is mine : you must take the girl." When Njavvis-ene found that she had been cheated, she would not let the boy go, but Attjis-ene took him away from her by force, and gave her own daughter to her instead.

As soon as the boy grew big enough to be of use, Attjis-ene went oft", taking her herd of reindeer away from that of

their increase preserved for the child's use. See Scheffer, pp. 293 and 306, 307, These reindeer appear to have been given to boys as well as girls (Rheen, apud Scheffer, p. 307). Cf. K. Leeni, De Lapponibus Finiitarchiae eoruniqm lingua vita et ?eligione (Copenhagen^ 1767), p. 457. So, too, Regnard in Pinkerlon's Voyages (London, 1S08), vol. i. p. 165. It is stated by Fjellner that women inherited a considerable share of the household effects of deceased husbands or relatives (see von Dliben, p. 312, note).