Supplementary texts for reading text 1

Exercise 1. Read and translate the text with the help of a dictionary.

The Saami and their traditional trades

The territory where the Saami of Russia settle forms the Murmansk region administratively. Administrative boarders of the region include territories which are also known as "Russian Lapland" or the Kola Peninsula. The Saami language belongs to the west-Finnish branch of the Finni-Ugor nation. The Saami call themselves differently in various dialects: saam', saami, saame, samach, sambs, sam'. There are several (not less than six) Saami languages different from each other due to dialects within them: Norwegian-Saami, three Swedish-Saami, Finnish-Saami and at last Kola-Saami.

Fine arts of the Saami are closely connected with tools, clothes and other articles which have economic importance. When speaking about the Saami's fine arts one should mean mainly ornaments and colour correlation on clothes and utensils. The main types of folklore traditions of the Russian Saami are: fairy-tale epos, songs. The Saami had no special rules or prohibitions connected with telling fairy-tales. Both men and women can tell and listen to fairy-tales, but in both cases the role of men is more active. Every story has a lot of different ways of telling.

Fishery played an important role in the Saami's economy. Goods for trading fishery provided the Saami for fish products; it was the main food for the housekeepers who had not many reindeer. Fishery is a more ancient occupation of the Kola Saami than reindeer-herding. The most important industrial fish of the Kola Peninsula caught by the Saami are salmon, cod (torek), flatfish (kampel'), halibut (paltos) and haddock in a small quantity. The Saami catch whitefish, perch, pike, grayling, salmon-trout, loach, burbot and roach. Notwithstanding the large quantity of water basins full of various fish, lake and sea fishery of the Saami had a rather primitive and stagnant character and allowed them only to make both ends meet without providing any economy growth. Fishing vessels of the Saami used on lakes and seacoasts are simple. People used boats of great size in sea bays and river estuaries, but they seldom used boats larger than with four oars. The Saami made stockfish for themselves for winter. The Saami couldn't sell the fish caught during summer on the market because they didn't have salt and were not able to salt fish. Fishery is one of the most important branches of economy, it was reflected in the Saami's religious belief and their folklore. There were fishing Gods who granted a rich catch or acted vice versa when they were angry. The Saami sacrificed cod liver oil to fishing Gods. We can see numerous sacred Gods-stones near the lakes of the Kola Peninsula. There are still legends about Gods' appearing in the memory of old people. According to stories Gods were people who turned into stones under the influence of witchcraft.

Hunting mammals and birds as well as fishing played till recently an important role in the Saami's household. By hunting the Saami got food, skins for clothes and material to produce different things. Development of exchange relations with the Russians changed hunting greatly: it became not only the means of satisfaction natural needs but also the means of getting goods production such as skins, highly valued by neighbours. Fur animals became stable money goods and this involved the Saami into the sphere of market relations; conditions appeared for activating of hunting and even predatory extermination of animals. In the middle of the 19th century the Saami hunted polar-fox, marten, fox, squirrel, ermine, bear, wolf, wolverine, otter on their territory. Among the birds the trade meaning had partridge, woodgrouse, hazel hen. Among the aquatic birds the most popular were goose, swan, eider and different kinds of ducks. The Saami killed small fur animals by bows, crossbows and traps that were difficult to describe even for old men. Saami's hunting industrial places were spread between settlements and it was strictly forbidden to hunt on the foreign territory within settlements. We can see that recently wild reindeer were of great importance in the economy and folklore of the Saami and terminology of domesticated reindeer was formed later. The most ancient method of hunting wild reindeer was digging out the holes serving as traps on the isthmuses between lakes and swamps, on plateaus, along the reindeer paths and other narrow, often used reindeer places.

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions:

1. What traditional Saami trades do you know?

2. What is older fishing or reindeer-herding?

3. What is the most important industrial fish of the Kola Peninsula caught by the Saami?

4. What other species of fish did they catch?

5. Why couldn't the Saami sell the fish caught during summer?

6. What did the Saami sacrifice to fishing Gods?

7. What was the ancient method of hunting?

8. What animals did the Saami hunt?

9. Have you learnt any interesting and new information on the history of our region?

TEXT 2

Exercise 1. Read and translate the text with the help of a dictionary.