32 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AXD SPORT. 



ing, as he does, extremely large quantities of "pediculce 

 destroyer," the fabrication of which can cost him but 

 little. Pediculce is a common everyday thing with 

 the good Lapps, the majority of whom quietly permit 

 its molestations without hindrance. The foyed ad- 

 ministers justice to the community, and acts on the 

 principle that it must be done in small quantities. 

 The only recognised crime here is reindeer-stealing ; 

 almost every other departure from the usual moral 

 code excepting, of course, murder is quietly over- 

 looked. Let a pair of Lapps half demolish one an- 

 other : why, the law maintains, and correctly too, that 

 they probably only both get a very salutary thrashing, 

 and consequently no further action is necessary. Let 

 words be uttered which in this country would bring 

 the perpetrator within the grasp of the libel laws, 

 there they are passed over without notice ; for, know- 

 ing that they are all equally and alike rascals, what 

 does it signify if, for once, this knowledge is put into 

 words and proclaimed abroad ? But let an unfortunate 

 Lapp for one moment forget the difference between 

 meum and tuum as regards reindeer, and the crime is 

 visited upon him with the utmost rigour of the law. 



One, however, can hardly wonder at the enormous 

 amount of deer-stealing that goes on, considering that 

 the brutes are in a more than semi-wild state, and 

 have often but slight marks to distinguish them by. 

 In fact the reiving of deer can be but looked upon in 

 the same light as smuggling was regarded in the old 



