ABSTRACT
One day in November 1979, during my fieldwork in the district of Salla in northeastern Finland, I was traveling with two companions, both of them active and experienced reindeermen, in remote, forested country on the eastern borders of the district. Our task had been to check the fence that runs the length of the district's frontier with the Soviet Union, and that serves to prevent reindeer from straying across. On our way back we came across a small herd of deer grazing on the arboreal lichens from freshly cut branches of trees that had just been felled by some forestry workers who were cutting in the area. One of my companions recognized a deer of his own in the herd, and determined to capture it so that the animal could be transferred to an enclosure adjoining his homestead for the remainder of the winter. Taking his lasso (in Finnish, suopunki), he set up a loop which was lightly strung, at about antler height, between a tree trunk and a cut sapling planted a few feet away, so that the rope hung down on either side and along the intervening ground. The free end of the lasso was knotted to a short stick. Some cut branches and brushwood were arranged on each side of the gap in which the loop was set, to form a barrier. Holding the stick to which the free end of rope was attached, my companion crouched in the undergrowth some 15 meters off to the side (figure 3.1). When everything was set up, his partner attempted to coax a group of deer – including the desired animal – towards the trap, driving them slowly from behind with his snowmobile. The deer, already habituated to the roar of motor-saws, seemed scarcely disturbed by the machine, allowing it to come into close range. At the last moment, however, they bolted, straight for the trap. My first companion was ready to tighten the noose, by a quick flick of the stick, at the instant when the animal he wanted was passing through. But the plan misfired – a gelding with unusually tall antlers took the lead, caught the loop and became entangled. The deer we wanted got away.
