SOME WANDERINGS IN THE NORTH OF FINLAND. 105 



to lie in the hay and try to dry our feet, but there was not 

 much sleep to be got, for myriads of mosquitoes and midges 

 assailed us on all sides. Behind us we could hear owls 

 screaming in the forest. 



Three reindeer were close to us next morning when we 

 started cheerfully in the hope of finding the hay-cutter's 

 path to his house ; but the path only led to the side of a 

 large lake, across which he used to row in his boat, and 

 presently we were toiling through larger swamps than 

 ever. But Siberian Jays, another new bird, did much to 

 encourage us : they are most handsome creatures with dark 

 heads and much rufous colour on the tail and flanks, and 

 were so tame that one picked up a worm within a few yards 

 of us. We were, however, thoroughly tired of swamp and 

 moss that morning before we got out of it, and hungry too, 

 and were glad at last, from the top of a hill, to see a wide 

 lake below us, with a farm by the side of it. 



What a splendid bathe we had in the lake, and how we 

 enjoyed the bread and the large bowl of cream in a corner 

 of the rough room of the farm, while our entertainers sat on 

 a bench, and occupied themselves with hunting for insects 

 in a way that reminded us of the monkeys in the Zoo ! On 

 the land side this farm seemed to be surrounded by swamp, 

 and so with difficulty we at last persuaded two women 

 who were reaping their corn to take us somewhere in a boat. 

 They sat in the stern, and steered with a paddle, while we 

 rowed with most peculiar sculls, sitting on the bottom of a 

 very leaky boat, until we reached a rather larger settlement^ 

 about five miles off, on the other side of the lake. Here we 

 spent the night in a house in which four generations were 

 living together. The great-grandmother looked by far the 

 oldest woman I have ever seen. She was quite blind, and 

 very scantily clad, and w^andered about barefooted, with a 



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