Some Mythical Tales of the Lapps 191
but simple and clumsy, and therefore no match for the superior shrewdness of his small antagonist. He is some- times represented as a man-eater, and sometimes as blind or one-eyed, and especially as leading a solitary life in the wilds (whence a recluse is now nick-named a Stalo).^ It is doubtful if the Stalo is purely mythical. The stories about him have probably as much historical basis as the numerous tales about the struggles between Lapps and Tsjuderne— the Chudic Finns of the Baltic and other coasts. Professor Friis thinks that the Stalos were old \ iking rovers from Norway and Sweden, and he quotes from L. Laestadius the case of a Lapp woman who reckoned her descent from a Stalo in the twenty-fourth generation, which would give the Stalo's date about 1000 a.d.^ The name is generally thought to mean " Steel One " (from the Norse Staal), referring to their armour. The silver that was obtained in fight with a Stalo was called " Stalo- silver," and L. Laestadius says that " a good deal of this silver is still found among some Lapp families, and passes amongst them by inheritance from father to son. It consists chiefly of buttons or buckles and brooches, which the Lapps fasten to their belts. But the shape of these sih'er buckles is quite different from the shape of the silver ornaments which arc now and were formerly used by the Lapps." ^
It may be added that, in addition to the old tales of the Sun's children, legends are current both in Finnish and Swedish Lappmark about a certain Lapp family named after the Sun Peive, or Baeive, who were famous for their heroic strength and courage. They lived in the neighbour- hood of Lake Enara, and the first we hear of is Peter Baeive, who had three sons, Vuolab (Olaf) Isaac, and John, all of whom were men of might, but the most illustrious was Olaf. According to one story, Peter was
' Lex. Lap/), p 4 1 r . - Friis, Lappiske Evenly r og Folkesagn, p. 75.
- I'riis (Eveiityr), p. 74.
