ABSTRACT
SCRICFINNIA 1 is the region between Biarmia and Finnmark, but one of its corners projects a good way towards the Gulf of Bothnia in the south, as if it were a tail. The country is so called chiefly because its inhabitants achieve a wonderful speed by means of certain flat planks, curved like bows at the front and attached to their feet. They steer themselves with sticks held in the hand, by means of which they move rapidly just as they choose, upwards, downwards, or aslant over the top of the snow; but with this proviso, that one plank is a foot longer than the other, whose length varies according to the height of the man or woman. So, if a man or woman is eight feet tall, the plank for one foot should be exactly the same number of feet long, but the other nine. 2 They have seen to it beforehand that the planks are covered underneath with the very soft hide of a reindeer calf, which in shape and colour resembles a deer, but is much taller and bigger (their features will be discussed later in the book about animals). 3 Various explanations are given as to why the planks are covered with such soft hides: that it enables these folk to make their way over deep snow with a swifter glide; that, by a crosswise movement, they can more readily avoid the chasms and precipices among the rocks; or that, when they are travelling uphill, they should not slip back; this is because the hairs, like bristles or the spines of a hedgehog, rise on end, and by the wonderful power of Nature prevent them from sliding backwards.
A very swift means of racing on flat planks attached to the feet
Size of the planks
Why hides are fixed beneath the planks
