1950-12-23 — Page 3

Reindeer Are Wealth

By ODEN

S

AND OLIVIA

MEEKER

closest to that of the eastern

LAPLAND, Dec. 22. reckoned in reindeer, and sleigh is ANTA CLAUS is since he may own a herd of called Joulupukki 3,000, worth five million fin- here. where he marks, his financial position finds His reindeer. is comparable to that of a Everybody in Finnish British captain of industry. Lapland, like Joulupukki, drives, a reindeer. Joulu- pukki himself lives on a mountain called Korvan- tuturi, which is not far from

the Soviet frontier.

In Lapland he drives his reindeer straight up to the door and rings the doorbell -instead of coming down the chimney. (Inside the Arctic circle it is only the devil who comes down the chimney). And out of his pack he takes toboggans, skates, or new pair of skis, for small admirers who have outgrown their old ones.

Rangifer tarandus feni- cus, the Christmas deer power, is about six feet three inches long and looks Billy every year when his antlers fall off, Fortunate ly, they grow back by Noel. He is the only domesticat

Skolt Lapps who employ a sort of troika with

runners, pull-

ed by three

THE CHINA MAIL, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1950,

reindeer. Reindeer, natural- with reins, 1, are guided They do not use a bit.

ENİ mentner of the deer family, and has been eni- The Lapps, who came to ployed since Neolithic times. He can pull about two hun- nice to their reindeer, dred and twenty pounds, or well as they should be. They pack sixty-five. If he skids sleep on reindeer skins, and cracks from the effect of scald- going downhill he can brake wear reindeer hats, boots ing hot coffee drunk at near- with his forefeet; when tired and mittens. They eat reln- zero temperatures. he lies down in harness deer ment and Lapp spoons until rest and food are pro- are

made from reindeer vided. He can cover thirty- horn. Surgical sutures are five or forty miles a day, made of reindeer sinews. usunily

in a series of long The poor reindeer supplies. A curves. reindeer who the raw material for all his Korvatunturi, he has only follows a straight track has own harness except for one to draw on the local supply a high market value.

bit of metal. - of reindeer. Since almost all Lapps and Finns keep reindeer, and twenty-five

I'inland, from the east, are s many, as forty or fifty comprehensive account of Lap-

extra snuff, aquavit, and Frendi thing else, neither Honesty nor brandy (beer is useless since it Besuty..." reported John. freezes). But the favourite ex- Scheffer, Professor of Law and fravagance is coffee, and when Rhetoric at Upsala University. on the social merry-go-round at

wrote the first Christmas. a Lapp may drinic who in 1674

ព day. Lapp teeth as cups

decay very quickly on this regime because the enamel

For Father Christmas's annual circular tour from

Thoir Clothes

of black or dark blue bara-

conary

THE Lappish costume is tailored thea-the stuff from which tall- coats and smoking jackets are ordinarily made with and scarlet trimmings around the edges and topped off with a tetra-peaked floppy affair known as the Cap of the Four Winds. But barathes, like rationed now in Finland, so that when the Lapps are at a loss to think up something to spend

coffee, is

land.

"According to Schefter, the suitor courts his beloved with roast reindeer tongue, and woog her with love songs:

Kulnatatz, My Reindeer,

We have a long Journey to

O

The Moors are Vast,

And we must haste... Winged with impatient Fire, My Reindeer let us haste.

Belore he can claim the lady, however, the young man must not only

extract permission from her parents but from all her relatives, all mand gifts,

Riding Slipper Reindeer milk is turned thousand sometimes turn THE reindeer pulls a pulk- into cheese which is cut into and put into Lap up at 21 single autumn ka, a small sied with a cubes roundup, there is an ade- single runner on its bottom. pish coffee. The meat is al- wintertime quate number. Lapland is The general effect is that of ways fresh in still based firmly on a rein- someone riding around in since it is frozen solid, deer economy. A Lapp is an slipper. Santa's ready to be cut into paper their money on, they just go cently, but Lapps still

old

AMERICAN COLUMN

Atom spy smiles

WHA

and waits

From Nowell Rogers

to be lost.

thin slices and fried in but- ter. Reindeer meat is often put and bury it in the ground in sold in London as venison, a secret place in the forest, and carefully refrain from telling The certified Finnish gour- anyone so that it will be sure met may dally with saddle of reindeer at his banquet,

Lapps are short, swart, stoop- but the great Lappish de- licacies are the bone mar- ed but agile, with prominent foreheads, Blattish 1108CS and row and the tongue, Mrs

timorous dlapositions. They Eleanor Roosevelt tried the used to be noted as great sor- tongue when she turned up cerers and warlocks who were

under. full

on the Arctic circle last able to slop ships

sail. They could also throw

NEW YORK. to drive around in armour-summer, and she said

ed cars promiscuously shooting was fine, at each other. Bullets might

7HAT price atomic espionage? For Dr Fuchs, in London, it was 14 years.

For

Д

shy,

dark-jowled

ttle American chemist named Hurry Gold. who carried Fuchs's secrets to the Russians, it could have been death.

Gold, haggard but with his 'head high, walked into a court- room in a new brown suit, And he heard the U.S. Government that his price be 25

propose years.

Said Gold's barrister: "I come here to explain a crime, not to excuse one. This case forewarns others how easy it

is

to stray when one is mired in falce idealism. Gold is the moat selfless person 1 ever know."

With a smile back to his cell. the Government

can to track

he sples..

Gold walked He has given all the help down other

HOLLYWOOD'S first leading man has been conscripted. And before Richard Long answers his call-up be must hurry through his last scenes for a picture called “Air Cadel,“

RULING by Judge W. Turney Fox оп Hollywood gangster Mickey Cohen's court petition for a Hcence to drive his ar- mour-plated car: "It would be a fine state of affairs for people

glance off and wound innocent Rush Into Hills bystanders. Petition denied."

it magię darts mica through the air at their enemies (one of the first guided missiles in Europe) and they believed in Thor and the Sun, and a host of demi-

JAPLAND lives on reindeer, and the reindeer live on

rods, dzemons, spectres, spooks

d 20 on.

Reindeer sacrifices Were e-

BANDITS drove up to the t window on the pavement kept reindeer moss, which it scoops open by a bank in Washington's out of the snow with its fore feet. pecially appreciated, and heaps suburbs for patrons deposits

to make They can smell the moss under af ten thousand antiets were without leaving their three feet of snow. During the sometimes dedicated to Stor- cary. Al the point of the gun

stimmer the decr cannot be junkare, the lieutenant god in they "withdrew" £14,200.

kept together in herds because charge of all fish, foxes, bear, they rush off into the hills to wolves, reindeer and other game. HOLLYWOOD about to escape the mosquitos and ad- Sterlunkare resembled a man Interest in getting its flies which lay their eggs un dressed in a conservative black film earnings out of der their skin and in their suit, except for his bird's feet.

nostrils. In the autumn round- ups, after the first snowfall, the deer are caught with the aid of akis, lassos and spitzes.

IS

lose frozen Brilain?

The Film Daily believes so, and gives this reason: "The shows signs of dollar position deteriorating. Sterling's I fluence is expanding."

CHARLIE CHAPLIN'S old silent pictures are all the rage again. TV stations have taken them up. But station WPIX suddenly abandoned plans to

Solurl

(Little

Suga:-box Houses

HOSE Lapps who aren't 30- madie now aften make their res out of Tain rnd Lyle

The cars of young deer are notched with the registered mark of their owners, and for further identification the blast may have migor boxes, (presumably the a familiar name—perhaps Pik- know all about Mr Cube), but Warrior) otherwise they haven't changed to Auders). a great deal since they came

Lapland about a thousand year- show them in its "The Chaplin puted in the nuraer et reiner Christians, but offerings of reln

They are technically Theatre." They bowed to the

a man owns. The govemment, deer horns still turn up for the protests

of the Society cfincidentally, is almost the only Catholic War Veterans,

who outat which may know the ex old gods at the old places. dislike Chaplin's political views.

or Neata (Curved

Government taxes are com-

neo.

en el a man's reindeer gold- Lapp bables are, cradled m ings-to inquire of a Lapp how little pulkka-like affairs, ari many reindeer bo owns js a as soon as they are big enough gaucherie equivalent to asking to run about, the children play a stockbroker the extent of his "reindeer." For each new tooth. bank account.

child is given a real reindeer of his own to take care of.

"He who Intends to marry

Mold well

TINNED BEER and TV sets in the home bring anguish to American bar-owners It is ruining business. Listen to one of them: "My former customers say: 'Tony, I got Lapland. Rich Lapps live very my own set now and drink out much like poor Lapps,

Money doesn't mean much in

A except looks out for

of my own jug. And I can that they like to spend money stocked with Reindeer....for a leave my shoes off."

on clothes, and may buy a Uttle Laplander does not regard any-

•

of whom de-

This custom has died out re-

exchange presents at Christmas,

The leader of its class

AUSTIN

A 70 HAMPSHIRE SALOON

The Austin "Hampshire" is a leader in style and por- formance. You'll like to drive it for its refreshing acceleration, smooth suspension and complete ease of steering and control.

Your passengers too will appreciate the quite, tasteful interior with its comfortable seating and excellent all round visibility,

BRITAIN'S DEPENDABLE CAR

don't

DISTRIBUTORS: ALEX ROSS & CO. (CHINA) LTD. Windsor House

AFBS

Minule Suggestions

CHOCOLATES DY SCHRAZIT OF HOSTON,

REMY-MARTIN

COGNAC AND CUSENIERR CHERRY BRANDY.

782

PERFUMES, OF WORLD RENOWN.

WILKINSON

SELY STROP- PING RAZORS."

MILITARY

IAT

BRUSHES OF

EXCELLENT BADGER HAIR SHAVING

BRUSHES,

JEWELLERY CASKET.

'DUCHERS'

WATSON'S of the GLOUCESTER ARCADE

QUALITY,

Ask for

AND SEE YOU ALWAYS GET-

Carlsberg

BEER

Sole Importers: M THE EAST ASIATIC COMPANY LTD.