

THE MOSQUITO. 227 



veil an evil of itself of no inconsiderable magnitude under 

 a burning sun, and when perhaps the thermometer ranges 

 at from 80 to 90 in the shade. Even the hardy Lapps 

 and squatters are obliged to guard the exposed parts 

 of their persons in one way or another. Some smear 

 their faces with tar or the like; whilst others again 

 wear a monk-like cowl, which, leaving little more than 

 the eyes, nose, and mouth uncovered, falls down over the 

 shoulders, and thus completely protects the more vulnerable 

 parts, such as the forehead, the ears, and the neck, from the 

 attacks of the venomous insects. When on a journey, more- 

 over, these men are never without a sort of linen sheet, 

 . which they throw over their persons when resting, or at 

 the bivouac. This sheet is a very needful part of one's 

 travelling equipments. When my comrades have been re- 

 posing beneath its friendly shelter, I have seen it so com- 

 pletely covered with mosquitoes, that the sheet itself was 

 hardly perceptible ; all that met the eye, in short, was a living 

 dark mass. 



Even within doors, the Lapland traveller is sadly pestered 

 by these insects; for though peat, placed in an open iron 

 pan, is kept constantly burning at the outer doorway, and 

 the apartment not unfrequently filled with smoke, arising 

 from green boughs, which for that purpose are cast on the 

 fire, yet those troublesome guests find their way into the 

 room in numbers ; so that what with their stings and constant 

 buzzing, a man, unless nature be quite exhausted, has little 

 chance of obtaining any repose. 



The bite of the mosquito gives rise at times to somewhat 

 ludicrous scenes. On one occasion, for instance, When 

 descending a feeder of the great river Muonio, in Tornea 



Q 2 



