Marriage
The suit
The book says a wife was sought among women who had reindeer. Soon after birth a child was given reindeer, and their increase was the child’s portion. The suit was made at the paying of tax, or at a fair. The man brought his father and a spokesman, and waited at the door chopping wood until he was called in. The matter was put first to the parents, not to the woman. The greeting was a kiss in which the noses also touched, or else, the book says, it was no greeting. The gift was a reindeer tongue and other rarities. If she refused, she threw them down at his feet. The suit could last two or three years, because gifts had to be given to the parents and the near kin. The book prints songs for the journey. They are not retyped here. (Schefferus 1674)
1674
The marriage was made in church. The men walked first, and the women after. The bride was led between two people, and the book says she was drawn along as if unwilling. Johannes Tornaeus says the two were her father and her brother. Schefferus rejects Olaus Magnus on a joining by flint and steel. The feast was in the parents’ hut. The guests brought the meat raw the day before, and one man boiled it and carved it. There was no room for the children: they climbed onto the roof and let down a hook on a thread. Thanks were given, and hands taken. The husband stayed a year in his father’s service. For the dowry the book says a hundred reindeer or more, and silver, copper, a tent, and bedding. It says two wives, and divorce, were unknown. An older claim, that a wife was offered to a guest, it reports and doubts. (Schefferus 1674)
