86 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



that there was not a glass of brandy to be had 

 within the whole 200 square miles of his parish. 

 He told us, likewise, that drunkenness was regarded 

 by his parishioners as the most scandalous vice to 

 which man can be subject, and we could not help 

 suspecting that this was one of the causes of his 

 being so little revered and esteemed by his flock." 



Old Acerbi's priest certainly formed a great 

 contrast to our Quickiock priest, who, besides 

 being a rigid disciplinarian, was a strict tee- 

 totaller. 



As to the true Laps, their reindeer are their 

 only care ; and this " all-useful partner of a world 

 of snows " supplies their every want. Their whole 

 life is spent in wandering from one spot to another 

 in search of pasture. And I should say the life of 

 an Australian savage is far preferable, for he can 

 get his kangaroo and opossum without the trouble 

 of tending them, and he lives as it were in one 

 perpetual summer. During the summer the life 

 of the Laplander may be all very well ; but in the 

 winter, when the whole country is buried deep in 

 snow, it must be dreadful. It is true they build 

 up little huts, and here, as they are all huddled 

 together (men, women, children, and dogs) in one 

 common room with a fire in the middle, they are 

 warm enough indoors. Their wanderings are 

 entirely guided by their reindeer, whose instinct 



