The Land of the Long Night Part 13

After they had ascertained who was the champion in the first contest, they continued to ascend the hill in zigzags on their skees, and after this tiresome task they came to where they had left me.

I said to them, "Friends, I am going down the hill, for I shall then be able to see better your great leaping feats, and how wide and deep is the s.p.a.ce you leap over, for from the top of the hill it cannot be seen.

Wonderful, indeed, are your skill and daring! Such tremendous leaps as you made can never be accomplished by man except on skees. I wish I could have been brought up to go on skees like yourselves, from my childhood, then I should enjoy this greatly, and compete for the champions.h.i.+p. It is far better fun than skating." "Certainly," they shouted with one voice, "there is ten times more fun in skeeing than in skating. It is like all sports, the more danger there is in them the greater are the excitement and the interest."

"But," said I, "I must go down this hill in a roundabout way, for I do not want to fall into the hollow over which you leaped."

"It would not hurt you," they cried; "you would find plenty of snow at the bottom if you should fall in." It was agreed that one of the Lapps should go with me and show me the way through a less steep descent to the chasm. We made the descent successfully, and came to a good position from which I could see the men make the great leap.

Looking up, I saw all the Lapps in position ready for the descent and waiting for the raising of the little American flag I always carried with me,--a custom which dates from the time of my travels in Africa--as the signal to start. As I unfolded it, I kissed it with great affection.

How beautiful the stars and stripes looked as they waved in the breeze and over the snow!

At this signal the Lapps started. Suddenly I noticed that one of them--the last one in the row--bore down directly upon me. "Goodness!" I said to my companion, pointing out to him the Lapp above, "suppose this man as he comes down should happen to strike me."

The Lapp heard me with a smile, and replied: "Paulus, do not be afraid; he will guide his skees as skilfully as a skilful boatman steers his boat. I think perhaps he intends to touch you with his hands as he pa.s.ses by you, so do not be frightened; do not move an inch; he is one of the most skilful among us."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Suddenly I saw them fly through the air."]

He had hardly finished these words when the Lapp with railroad speed and dangerously close bore down upon me, and before I could realize it pa.s.sed in front of me within three feet, without however touching me, as my companion had predicted. Still it took my breath away; my heart beat so quickly. Down he went. Before I had time to recover I saw the Lapps in the air, over the chasm, then in the twinkling of an eye they had alighted on the other side. Their momentum was very great, and in less than a minute they had leaped over the river, and continued their forward course, which they could not stop, on the plain below; then lessened their speed gradually with the help of their sticks, the ends of which were thrust deep in the snow.

It was a grand sight. As they leaped over their legs were somewhat bent, and as they struck the snow they righted themselves. While in the air they maintained their skees parallel, as if they had been on the snow, and when they alighted the skees were on a perfect level with each other; no man seemed to be more than two or three feet ahead of another.

I had followed their motions with great curiosity. They seemed to give a spring as they came near the brink of the chasm, bending their bodies forward, straightening themselves as they struck the snow, and continuing their way as if nothing had happened.

On their way back, as they neared me I shouted, "Good for you, boys!

Good for you! It was splendid." I shook hands with every one of them.

They were very much excited over the sport.

The hollow over which they leaped seemed to be about ninety-five feet wide, and the place from which they sprang was about twelve or fifteen feet above the bank on the other side. They told me that some of the great leaps in the country had been over one hundred and twenty-five feet.

"Is it possible!" I exclaimed; "it seems incredible."

Then the Lapp who had pa.s.sed so near me said to me, "You were afraid I would strike you on my way down. We can pa.s.s an object far below us within a few inches when we like. We will show you how we do by and by."

The Lapps once more ascended the hill, and I took a new position by the river and waited for them to come down. They started in the same way as before and came down with very great speed, leaped over the gully, and in an instant, seemingly, they were in the air over the river--a leap of about sixty or seventy feet.

I shouted again, "Well done, boys! Well done!" I was terribly excited myself.

Then they came to me and said: "Now we are going to have a new game."

They planted several sticks in the snow in different positions on the declivity of the hill, and said, "Paulus, we are going to show you how near we can come to those sticks; we will almost touch them with our skees."

When they were ready I raised my flag. They came down the hill almost with the same rapidity as before, but pushed their guiding sticks deeper into the snow; and most of them came within a few inches of the sticks.

After pa.s.sing one they would change their direction and move to another, either on the left or right, further down.

This terminated the day's sport. We returned to our encampment. I had had a day of great delight.

CHAPTER XIX

WE ENCOUNTER MORE WOLVES.--MY GUIDE KILLS TWO WITH HIS BLUDGEON.--A VISITING TRIP WITH A LAPP FAMILY.--EXTRAORDINARY SPEED OF REINDEER.--WE STRIKE A BOULDER.--LAKE GIVIJaRVI.--EASTWARD AGAIN.

Now I kept a sharp lookout over the horizon as we drove along, for I thought wolves might make their appearance again at any moment. My Lapp guide was also apprehensive.

When we stopped for our meals he said to me, "If our reindeer scent or see wolves, they will become uncontrollable. It will be impossible for us to stop them, and if we try to keep in our sleighs we shall be surely upset, for the animals will be so wild from fright. We had better have our skees handy, so that we can throw them out of our sleighs and then jump out ourselves."

Then, brandis.h.i.+ng his bludgeon, he said fiercely, "I will make short work of some of them. They will never run after any more reindeer."

I brandished my gun, and cried, "Woe to the wolves if they come near us.

I will give them enough buckshot to make them jump."

We continued our journey, the Lapp keeping close to me. Suddenly he stopped and said, "Paulus, I am going to tie your sleigh behind mine and fasten your reindeer to it. I do not know why, but I have an idea, somehow, that there are wolves around, and I expect to see them at any moment. At any rate it is better to be prepared for them."

After my sleigh was attached as he had said, we resumed our journey, I, quietly seated in my sleigh, having no reindeer to drive, only using my stick as a rudder. About two hours afterwards as we skirted a forest of fir trees we suddenly saw two wolves skulking in the distance.

Fortunately we discovered them before the reindeer did. We threw out our skees, and then the Lapp with his bludgeon and I with my gun jumped out.

We were hardly out when our reindeer scented the wolves and plunged wildly in their efforts to escape, and we had to let them go, for we could not hold them.

The Lapp in an instant was on his skees armed with his bludgeon. He made directly for the wolves at tremendous speed. He seemed to fly over the snow, and before I knew it he had slain a wolf by giving him a mighty blow on his skull. Then like a bird of prey he made for the other wolf.

The animal stood still, ready to bite him, but the Lapp pa.s.sed by him like a flash and gave him a terrible blow on his mouth which broke his teeth. Then after he had stopped the speed of his skees, he turned back and gave him his deathblow.

After he had taken breath, he said to me, "Paulus, wait here, for you cannot 'skee' fast enough. I must go after our runaway reindeer and our sleighs," and off he went. He followed the tracks they had left behind them.

I waited one hour, two hours,--I thought he would never come back.

Finally I saw a little black speck over the snow. It was my Lapp, and soon he was by my side with reindeer and sleighs.

In the afternoon we came to a tent, where we were kindly received, and there we slept. The next morning the owner of the tent said to me, "The snow is very fine for sleighing, for it is crisp and well packed. The weather is cold and travelling with reindeer could not be better, for the animals will feel fine. Some of my people and I want to go and visit my brother and his family. Will you come with us?"

"Yes," I replied, "I shall be very glad to go with you."

A short time after this five reindeer made their appearance; they were all males, and splendid animals,--Samoyeds, the finest and largest I had thus far seen. Their antlers were superb.

"These reindeer," said their owner, "are the fastest I have, and are in their prime for driving, for they are between six and eight years old, the age when they are the strongest. They have not been used for two weeks, so they feel very frisky; and it being so cold they will run at a rate that will perhaps scare you, and I am sure they will go as fast as they ever did. No reindeer that I know of can keep pace with them. I have taken great care in training them."

I was delighted at the thought of travelling with such fast animals, and I replied, "I am sure I shall enjoy the drive."

Then everybody got ready for the start. My host, pointing to one of the biggest reindeer, said to me, "This one will be yours, and you will follow me."

We were hardly ready when the reindeer started at a furious rate and in the wildest way. The Lapps held their reins as hard as they could and threw themselves across their sleighs and were carried in that way for a little distance. It was a most ludicrous sight, the like of which I had never seen! But they all succeeded in getting in--they were masters of the situation.

How they succeeded in getting in I could not tell, it was certainly a great feat of gymnastics. My reindeer had started with the rest and was ahead of them all, but soon the Lapps overtook me.

We went on at a tremendous rate. These were indeed the fastest reindeer I had ever travelled with. It was a good thing that I had learned how to balance myself in those little Lapp sleighs. I did not mind any more their swinging to and fro. I rather liked the excitement. And it was exciting enough! We went so fast that things appeared and disappeared almost before I had time to look at them.

We sped with such rapidity that I fancied I was travelling on the Pennsylvania railroad, as I often had done on the Limited to Chicago on the way to see my Scandinavian friends and others. I was thinking of that splendid train with its luxurious cars--of the observation cars with their comfortable chairs, sofas, library; of the bath room, stenographer, and barber, and polite employees, and all the comforts travellers had. Suddenly I thought of its fine dining-room cars, and as I was hungry I imagined I was seated before one of its tables, with snowy-white linen, and enjoying a glorious meal,--oysters, capon, roast beef, vegetables of several kinds, and puddings and fruits; the ice cream I dismissed, for I did not feel like having any, it was so cold.

Then I thought of its comfortable beds--when suddenly a tremendous b.u.mping, which almost threw me out, reminded me that I was not on that luxurious train. I had struck a snag or boulder. This made it clear at once that I was dreaming and was not on the Chicago Limited, but that I was travelling in "The Land of the Long Night."

The air was so rarefied, the drive so exciting, that I shouted with all my might, "Go on, reindeer, go on. This is fine, I never had such a drive in my life."