356 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



as quickly and nearly as they can in Norway. The bride wears a 

 crown of metal. She wears it of silver or brass if she is fortunate 

 enough to have enough of worldly goods to own such a one; if not, 

 she wears a material that looks something like brass and is inter- 

 woven with bright colored strands and this is handed down from 

 generati(m to generation. She wears such a streamer hanging down 

 from her waist and then when married she wears two. We go into 

 another section of Norway and we tind a costume like this. We find 

 this in the Hollingdel section. It is the most beautiful costume to 

 see. The cap I will put on so that you may have a realization of the 

 way they w'ear them, because the Norwegians seem to understand the 

 ways of coquettishness. We find in Norway most of their imple- 

 ments are wooden and a great many of them are artistic. We find 

 some of their utensils are carved most attractively and one of the 

 wooden things I have here in my hand that represents an old time 

 custom of the Norwegians is a bridal spoon. This is carved out of 

 one solid piece of wood symbolic of the union of the man and woman 

 and at the breakfast feast tlie groom eats out of the one and the 

 bridge out of the other and it is very beautifully carved out. We 

 find as we go up to the central part of NorAvay that we come into a 

 more fertile section and we son:o times see agricultural work done in 

 a way that reminds us of what we do in America. We see them 

 gather the hay in much the same way as we do. And farther north 

 we find still a more fertile country. In the northern section we find 

 a great many Laplanders. There are about'30,000 Laps in Norway. 

 About 3,000 of these are sea Laps who are better off financially than 

 are the field Laps. When we went on north and landed at one of 

 their northern towns called Tromsoe ^ve were greeted by a curious lot 

 of people, a dirty set of people and one feels the people should be 

 fumigated or you keep your distance. The women carry their babies 

 much as the Indian does the papoose and they make caps and dolls 

 for sale. The men carve many things out of bone, pipes and knives, 

 pajjer knives and spoons, and it is a matter of interest that one of 

 the chief industries of the Laplanders is raising and killing rein- 

 deer. The meat is really quite palatable and we had the pleasure 

 of eating it but once at it was out of season, therefore tasteless. One 

 of the men said he was going to begin hunting but would not have 

 reindeer meat by the time he got home and I said: "Why not?" and 

 he said: ''Because it costs so much that I Avill sell it before I get 

 home." I have in my hand a spoon. In this spoon are five little 

 rings. Each ring represents 100 reindeer that this man has killed; 

 so for every 100 reindeer he kills he puts one ring in his spoon. I 

 wish I could convey to you some idea of the beauty of the lights of 

 the midnight sun. It is almost impossible to give you any idea of the 

 wonderful lights and colors that the sun produces in that northern 

 section where they have their days lasting two and one-half months 

 and their nights of corresponding length ; and in all that twenty-four 

 hours there is no suggestion of darkness. One does not know by the 

 light when it is time to sleep or when it is time to be awake and 

 surely the tourist seems to be infected, as the native seems to be, by 

 spending most of the twenty-four hours where he can see the beauties 

 of nature round about him. The first night that we had on the North 

 Cape summit made almost the greatest impression of any upon my 



