Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/197

 Some Mythical Tales of the Lapps 187

be buried on the top of a high mountain. And this was done, and the mountain is called " The Mount of the Sun's Daughter " to this day. She was shrouded in birch-bark, but lay upon a bed of njavvi, the long hairs on a reindeer's neck, from which her husband took his name. She was covered over with njavvi, with sand on the top of that ; and fiat stones were placed round her grave, a marking- stone at her head, another at her feet, and another at each arm. The headstone and the covering slabs were engraved ; the slabs were covered with turf, and on the foot-stone was written :

" Lift the turf ; read the epitaph."

The grave is still on the Mount of the Sun's Daughter.

But she herself is not there. Her spirit wanders abroad in the likeness of a beautiful damsel, with a spirit-herd, throughout all Lapland. When she is awake, she is invisible ; but, when she is asleep, she can be seen, and her herd too.

" Under wet black rocks, In green and grassy mountain place?, The Sun's Daughter is seen slumbering. Whoso shall awake the Sun's Daughter with his embrace, Kiss the dreamer out of her slumber, He shall obtain the fair sleeper, Obtain her strong and fertile herd."

But, in trying to take Njavvis-ene and her herd, one is not always successful.

The story of the lazy fellow who found her asleep is given by von Dubcn, and a variant of the same song is to be found in Donner's collection.-^

The tale was that a lazy fellow once found the Sun's Daughter sleeping, with her herd around her. She said, " Very good ; you have embraced the Sun's Daughter. Now make a house for her, but be careful that not a single

1 Von Diiben, p. 336 ; Donner, p. 103.