88 TRAVELS IN THE EIGHTIES. 



and in many cases is not taken into account at all. 

 Many a fine Lapp girl, who has no reindeer, may thus 

 live and die without any Lapp having spoken to her 

 of love, while many a remarkable specimen of ugliness 

 (and this means a great deal) has lovers in abundance, 

 provided she be rich. Not that the young Lapp 

 refuses always to listen to the voice of his heart; but 

 he generally prefers that of reason. The courtship is 

 somewhat troublesome. The lover, if he can be so 

 called, proceeds to the parents of the selected girl, 

 armed with a plentiful supply of spirits and of wed- 

 ding presents, and states his case at great length, 

 partly in extempore song and partly in speech, and 

 the proposal is rejected or accepted there and then. 

 Being nominally Christians, they are married by the 

 Swedish priests, and subsequently indulge in a ban- 

 quet of reindeer meat and cheese, washed down with 

 large supplies of strong spirit, to which each con- 

 tributes a share. No knives or forks are used, and 

 the affair is brought to a conclusion in most cases by 

 what resembles an Indian pot-latch, or general drunk, 

 with a promiscuous going to sleep upon the floor. To 

 avoid becoming intoxicated too soon the guests first 

 drink melted fat, with which sometimes their faces 

 are also smeared. 



The forests near the Arctic circle, and in the 

 vicinity of the Eif and Lof fjelds, where I fell in 

 with a large band of Lapps and reindeer, are often 

 the scenes of wolf hunts during the winter. The 

 presence of wolves near the herds of deer is always 



