DAN MEINERTZHAGEN'S DIARY. 62 



he had finished the lot and the flask was nearly 

 full to start with. 



In vain after this did I repeat my stock 

 sentence to him " Mie dahun gotia " (I want to 

 go home); he went on jabbering and talking to 

 himself, and would not listen to any words of 

 mine, so I thought we would have to spend 

 the night where we were, and I had absolutely 

 no idea where that was ; but soon he got up, 

 and leading the way, half holding on to the 

 trees and half balancing himself with his gun, 

 we started on again, and within a couple of hours 

 reached the river, but not where we had left it. 

 On the further side of it was a Lapp encamp- 

 ment with some reindeer, and an old Lapp 

 woman rowed across and fetched us. We 

 walked into the hut, a wooden square one, and 

 very dark inside ; within were two girls, and 

 some children, and in the centre a huge fire 

 filling the hut with smoke. 



The first thing I did was to ask for some milk, 

 but they did not move, so I presumed they did 

 not understand me, or had none, so I sat down 

 and lit my pipe and waited to see if they 

 would give me anything. At last the old 

 woman fetched a tin from a shelf and began 

 grinding some coffee, and fearing perhaps I 

 should get none, as soon as she had ground 



