How the Lapps hunt

I have written elsewhere, in Bk I, Ch. 2, about the customs and life of the Scricfinns, the Biarmians, and the people of Finnmark. ¹ Here I shall have to add an account of how, on curved, broad planks or smooth-sliding boards bound to their feet, they glide at lightning speed over the valleys, the snows, and peaks of the mountains, and swoop on the wild animals which they are out to hunt with their bows and arrows. ² Here you may see a woman, her hair loose, aiming arrows; nor is it any wonder, because those who live under the celestial Pole find in the huge compass of their forests such rich abundance of game that the men alone would not suffice to hunt them down if their womenfolk did not race to their sides. Therefore the women join the chase with the same swiftness as the men, perhaps even with greater. ³ But it is the man who shares out the quarry and points out what is to be roasted on the spit; he distributes it with dependable generosity, saying what shall be given to his household and what to his neighbours. ⁴

Way of hunting

Women huntresses

Man shares out the quarry