130 LYCKSELE LAPLAND. 



lander, who has free access to the water 

 only when these adventurers have left it. 

 Though he himself pays tribute for it, he 

 dares not throw in the smallest net during 

 the stay of his visitors ; for, if they find 

 any of his nets, they may throw them up 

 into the high trees, as I was told they often 

 had done. 



The poor Laplander, who at this season 

 has hardly any other subsistence for him- 

 self or his family, can with difficulty catch 

 a fish or two for his own use. I asked one 

 of them why he did not complain of this 

 encroachment; but was told that having 

 once applied to the magistrate, or judge 

 of the district, the great man told him it 

 was a trifle not worth thinking about ; and 

 he esteems the decrees of this exalted per- 

 sonage to be sacred, and altogether infalli- 

 ble, like the oracles of Apollo. He reve- 

 rences his king as a divinity, and is firmly 

 of opinion that if he M^ere informed of the 

 above grievance it would no longer be suf- 

 fered to exist. 



