Ivalo, Finland -- Watch out for the reindeer," Finnish friends had warned when they heard I'd be driving through northern Lapland.
Reindeer graze alongside the Arctic Road in summer. They like the salt left from snow removal efforts when winter nights are 21 hours long. Traffic doesn't bother them. Blaring horns won't stop them from walking in front of a speeding car.
Knowing that is enough to keep a driver alert through mile after mile of two-lane asphalt through thick timber. Occasional glimpses of vast, mirror-like lakes relieve the tedium. After a while you tend to wonder what inspired the myths about reindeer.
Lapp reindeer are not red-nosed and Rudolphy. They have nothing in common with the streamlined team on Christmas decorations and couldn't fly Santa's freight under any weather conditions.
Big, grayish-beige, oafish and elk-like, they mosey along the flat stretches between forest and highway. Because there are three reindeer for every Lapp in northern Lapland, the reindeer is king of the road. If a reindeer chooses to cross, you do the yielding.
Every reindeer belongs to some Lapp, and the beasts do everything from put food on his table to clothes on his back to money in his bank account. It's been that way since the Lapps were nomads and followed the reindeer to this area near the Arctic Sea. And now the reindeer are tourist bait. First, the outlanders visit reindeer farms where they pay to see, touch and photograph the animals with their owners in full Lapp costume.
Then the visitor can go inside a huge wooden "kota," or tepee, and eat reindeer stew.
"We had some British guests who refused to eat 'Santa's reindeer,' " reported one farmer near Rovaniemi. "We told them these particular reindeer weren't from Santa's herd."
Such sensitive visitors still get their money's worth at a Lapp baptism ceremony around a campfire in a smoke-filled kota. They sit on reindeer rugs, sip strong coffee and hear legends of how good Lapps are reincarnated as reindeer.
They also learn:
Why Lapp boots have curly toes. (They hold the snowshoes in place.)
Why the men wear the Four Wind hats. (The four points are like pockets, providing secure storage for things you wouldn't want to get wet if you fall in the river.)
Why the women wear those big silver brooches covered with small gold disk mobiles. (the flicker of any movement scares eagles away.)
