Weapons
Bow and gun
The wooden bow, the birch-bark cover, and the glue of perch skin are on the hunting page. In this chapter the book adds a steel bow. It is so stiff that the foot is put into a ring at the head, and the string is drawn to a bone nut with an iron hook from the girdle. The arrowhead is iron or bone, sharp for a large animal and blunt for a small one. For the bear there is a spear, which the book says is so like the spears he knew that it needs no description. The guns were made at Soederhambn, in Helsingia. The Bothnians bought them and sold them on. Powder and lead came from there, and sometimes from Norway. The book says the gun was enchanted, as other hunters did, so that it should not miss. That is not set out here. (Schefferus 1674)
The skis
The book calls the skis Skider, Skier, Andrer, Ondrur, and Skiidh. Olaus Magnus says they are five or six ells long, and that one is always a foot longer than the other. Schefferus does not believe this as a rule. The pair at Leiden is of one length. Of his own, the longer is covered with pitch, and the shorter is plain. The board is not quite straight, but rises a little where the foot is placed. The point turns up in front, not behind. The binding is a withe at the sides, not through the bottom, and it is tied to the back of the leg. A picture in which the ski is a pointed wooden shoe, and the foot enters from behind, he rejects as the painter’s fancy. The drawing of the two skis is on the tools page. (Schefferus 1674)