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Then like a bird of prey he made for the other wolf. The animal stood still, ready to bite him, but the Lapp passed 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.
Now I felt happy. John's dog also felt happy for he wagged his tail and looked at me, and John said, "Paulus, if you had been lost, my dog would have found you." Then they exclaimed: "We would never have gone to the sea without you. We would have wandered all over the mountains with our reindeer or on our skees to find you.
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 passes by you, so do not be frightened; do not move an inch; he is one of the most skilful among us."
"'So I puts on a pair of them long, slidin' snowshoes they call 'skees' and slips for William Pemberton and the lonesome mountains. People don't call a thing 'skee' unless they hev good reason for it. Before I caught the hang of them durn disconnected bob-sleds I saw where the 'skee' come in.
With reindeer and skees, travelling will become easy, and good distances will be made in a short time. In summer boat stations must be established along navigable rivers, also a tariff made for distances and for food so that there be no overcharge as is done in Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Little hamlets with the church and the school will rise.
Then returning they examined the leaps, to see who among them had made the longest one. 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.
"Paulus," said he, "people must look out carefully not to run into boulders as they go down hill, and a hill full of boulders only those who can guide their skees well can venture to go down. Avoid such hills when you are further north, for otherwise you might even be killed." Shortly after our return to the farm the wind began again to rise, and another terrific windstorm blew over the land.
Then looking at them, I added, "How beautiful they are! How proud I shall be when I walk with them." These skees, or snowshoes of northern Europe, are made of wood from the fir tree; at their thickest part, in the centre, they are between four and five inches in width.
The horse had not carried him far, however, for the drifts would not bear its weight; so, when the three big brothers, hearing his halloo, had taken him a pair of rude skees made of barrel staves, he had helped them free the floundering animal, and had then gone on afoot. His destination was the army post at the reservation, and he had made swift progress toward it.
Then two of the men and two of the women with their dogs and their skees went to relieve the people who were watching the reindeer herd, and Pehr Wasara remarked, "My reindeer are divided in a number of herds for they could not all pasture together. We are afraid of wolves. These people are to remain on the watch all night." The family was very pious; they were, like all the Lapps, Lutherans.
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