A PATENT CRADLE. 573 



If during a journey a Lapland woman gives birth to a child, she 

 places the new-born in a piece of hollow wood, where a hole has been 

 cut out to receive the little one's head ; then slings this cradle on 

 her back, and resumes her journey. When she halts, she suspends 

 her wooden chrysalid to a tree, and the wire-work protects it from 

 the teeth of ferocious beasts. The reverse of this simple medal is an 

 old age almost inevitably very unhappy. It is said that when a 

 Laplander has no longer the strength to render himself useful, his 

 children abandon him by the roadside, with just provisions enough to 

 support him for a few days. The traveller frequently encounters in 

 the forest the skeletons of old men who have thus perished in gloomy 

 solitude." 



The cradle to which our authority refers is described by Professor 

 Forbes as cut out of solid wood and covered with leather, in flaps so 

 arranged as to lace across the top with leathern thongs ; the inside 

 and the little pillow are rendered tolerably soft with reindeer moss, 

 and the infant fits the space so exactly, that it can neither stir hand 

 nor foot. 



The Lapp hut, says Professor Forbes,* is formed interiorly of 

 wood, by means of curved ribs uniting near the centre in a ring, 

 which is open, and allows free escape for the smoke ; the fire being 

 lighted in the centre of the fioor. The exterior is covered with turf. 

 The door is of wood on one side. The inmates recline on skins on 

 the floor, with their feet towards the fire ; and behind them, on a 

 row of stones near the wall of the hut, are their various utensils. 

 Their clothing chiefly of tanned skins and woollen stuffs looked 

 very dirty. 



The Samoiedes (or Samoyedes) are scattered, to the number of 

 about a thousand families, along the coasts of the Frozen Sea, in the 

 government of Archangel, and, in Siberia, in the governments of 

 Tobolsk and Tomsk. Ethnologists generally consider them to have 

 a common origin with the Finns of Europe. In stature they are 

 * Professor Forbes, " Norway and its Glaciers" (Edinburgh, 1858). 



