The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1875-02-18
from the Swedish OF z. ToPe
Illus.
SampO Lappelill.
A Little Folks story from JapIand>

Once upon q time there lived a Lap
lander and his wife. DO you know
where Lapianders live
They live in the far, far north, be.
yODd Sweden, Norway, and Finland
where no fields, forests, or real houses
are to be seen, only large dreary bOgs
high mountains, and low huts, to en-
ter which one has to creep through a
hole. These huts are the Laplanders g
homes. Their country is a yer Y
strange one. During the summer
half Of the year there is continual
light, for the sun never goes down /;
and during the winter half there is
continual darkness, and the stars
shine both by night and day.
Ten months Or the year it is winter,
with sleighing, and then the little
LRplanders and their wives drive over
the snow in small boat-shaped sledges,
which are not drawn by hnrses, but
by reindeers. Have you ever seen 3
reindeer 1t is like a small gray
horse in size, but it does not resemble
horse otherwise, for it has large ant
lers, short neck, and a beautiful lit
tie head, with large black eyes; when
it runs, it goes like the whirlwind
over hills and mountains, making a
peculiar clatter with its hoofs. The
Laplander likes to hear this as he sits
in his sledge, and wishes he could
have good sleighing all the year
round.
As said before, once upon a time
there lived Laplander and his wife /;
their home was far away in Lapland,
at place called Aimio, close to the
large river Janajoki, or Jana. You
can see Aimio at the top of the map of
Finland, where Lapland looks like a
white night-cap on Finland's head.
The place is very dreary and wild, but
the Laplander aud his wife believed
that nowhere on earth was the snow
so white, the stars so bright, and the
northern lights so splendid as at
Aimio. They built themselves q hut
there, after the fashion of other Lapp
huts. Now in this north region no
tall trees grow, nothing but small
slender birches, more like bushes than
trees, so they could get no proper
timber for their hut but they took
instead some long slender birch
trunks and stuck them into the snow,
and tied them together at the upper
ends. Over these trunks they stretch
ed reindeer hides, and when their hut
was finished it looked very much like
sugar-loaf. At the top of the sugar
loaf they left a hole to let out the
smoke when the fire was alight, and
on the south side of the hut they left
another hole, through which they
crept in and out. This is the way In
which Lspp huts are generally made
and Laplanders find them warm anC
comfortable, and flourish well il
them, although they have no bed o.
floor save the white snow.
The Laplander and his wife had q
little son called Sampo, which is con-
/ sidered a lucky name in Lapland
Now Sampo was so rich that he had
two names ; one was not enough for
him. Two travellers in large fun
clOsks had once come and rested in
the hut, who brought with them,
among other things, some hard white
Jumps of snow-such as the Lapland.
er's wife had never seen before
which they called sugar. They gave
some bits of this sweet snow to Sam
po, and patted him on the cheek, say
ing: 'Lappelill! 4! LappeliIl ~ They
could not say anything further, be-
cause neither of them spoke the Ian.
guage. After this they travelled on
toward the Arctic Ocean to North
Cape, which is the most northerly
cape OF Europe. But the Lapp moth.
er remembered the travellers and theiI
sweet snow, and began to call her sor
Lappelill.
81 think Sampo is a much better
name," said her husband, taking of
fense. "Ssmpo betOkens riches, an,
I tell thee, mother, don't mar luck-
name. Our Sampo shall yet becorn
King of Lspland, and reign over
thousand reindeer and fifty Lapp hlIts
Thou shalt live to see it, mother; tho
shalt live to see it."
'eYes," said the mother, "but Lap
pelill sounds so nice ~ and she stii
called the boy Lappelill, but the faith
er called him Sampo.
Now there is another fact to be told
and that is the boy had not been bap
tized, for at that time there was n
priest within twenty miles round
Next year we will make Journey {
the priest and get the boy christened, !,
| bnC AdUl1nOGA 4oCO w % Dub h1Gl
next year came some hindranee re
NAMED, so the journey never too
place, and the boy was still unehris
tened.
Sampo LappelEl was now a stou
little fellow between seven and eigh
wears old, with black hair, brown eve.
a snub nose, and q wide mouth ius
like his fathers but this is conside,
ed q mark Of beauty in Lapland. Sam
DO was not weakly boy for his age
He had on his own little snOw-shoes
on which he danced down the big
hills by the Jana, and his own littl
reindeer, which he could harness {
his own little sledge. Oh, you shOuli
haze seen how the snow whirled an
blew about him as he drove thTOug
the deep snow-drifts, till nothing wa
visible Of him except the tuft of hi
black forelOck
"I shall never feel happy until th
boy is baptized" said the mother
"He may be seized by wolves anon
the rocky mountains any day; or
he meets Hisuis reindeer with the gol
den antlers, then woe betide him, o
any other unbaptized being 2"
Sampo heard her words, and begal
to wonder what reindeer il could
that had golden antlers. 'I shouI
like to drive to Rastekais with it.
Rastekais is q very high dreary mo1I
tain about i've or six miles from A