X.] LAPP LOVE-MAKING. 157 



for him. His coat, trousers, and shoes are made of rein- 

 deer's skin, stitched with thread manufactured from the 

 nerves and sinews of the reindeer. Reindeer milk is the 

 most important item in his diet. Out of reindeer horns are 

 made almost all the utensils used in his domestic economy ; 

 and it is the reindeer that carries his baggage, and drags his 

 sledge. But the beauty of this animal is by no means on a 

 par with his various moral and physical endowments. His 

 antlers, indeed, are magnificent, branching back to the 

 length of three or four feet ; but his body is poor, and his 

 limbs thick and ungainly \ neither is his pace quite so rapid 

 as is generally supposed. The Laplanders count distances 

 by the number of horizons they have traversed ; and if a 

 reindeer changes the horizon three times during the twenty- 

 four hours, it is thought a good day's work. Moreover, so 

 just an appreciation has the creature of what is due to his 

 own great merit, that if his owner seeks to tax him beyond his 

 strength, he not only becomes restive, but sometimes actually 

 turns upon the inconsiderate Jehu who has over-driven him. 

 When, therefore, a Lapp is in a great hurry, instead of taking 

 to his sledge, he puts on a pair of skates exactly twice as 

 long as his own body, and so flies on the wings of the wind. 

 Every Laplander, however poor, has his dozen or two 

 dozen deer; and the flocks of a Lapp Crcesus amount 

 sometimes to two thousand head. As soon as a young 

 lady is born — after having been duly rolled in the snow 

 — she is dowered by her father with a certain number of 

 deer, which are immediately branded with her initials, and 

 thenceforth kept apart as her especial property. In propor- 

 tion as they increase and multiply does her chance improve 

 of making a good match. Lapp courtships are conducted 

 pretty much in the same fashion as in other parts of the 

 world. The aspirant, as soon as he discovers that he has 

 lost his heart, goes off in search of a friend and a bottle of 

 brandy. The friend enters the tent, and opens simulta- 

 neously — the brandy — and his business ; while the lover 

 remains outside, engaged in hewing wood, or some other 



