TROUT-FISHING IN SWEDISH LAPLAND. 87 



seen for a long period of many consecutive months, 

 and he mnst consequently be prepared with such 

 pieces of information as he finds himself able to im- 

 part in the Swedish or Svensk language, with the aid 

 of a colloquial phrase-book. But if the tourist in 

 Swedish Lapland is so constantly associated with the 

 settlers, or Lapp-bonders, it is but rarely that he falls 

 in with the Laplanders. 



The Lapps, as a markedly distinct and peculiar race, 

 and as living entirely with, by, and upon their tame 

 reindeer (or cariboo), with the exception of the periods 

 when they remain in the neighbourhood of settlements, 

 have always formed an attraction for the anthropo- 

 logist. At first sight dirt appears to be their most 

 prominent characteristic, and next to that their short- 

 ness, prominent cheek-bones, and long, coarse hair. 

 Both men and women are often troubled with nervous 

 afflictions. The women wear leather breeches under 

 their dresses. The Swedish settlers in Lapland fre- 

 quently intermarry with the Lapps, who are computed 

 more or less wealthy according to the number of their 

 reindeer, a thousand deer being regarded as unusual 

 wealth, while they are also assessed for taxes in this 

 respect. They are inclined, in consequence, rather to 

 under than to over-estimate the number of these 

 animals which they possess. Among the Lapps them- 

 selves the most important object taken into con- 

 sideration on the conclusion of marriage arrangements 

 is the fortune on either side. Love must be satisfied 

 to rank as merely an affair of secondary importance, 



