A KEINDEER EIDE THROUGH LAPLAND. 37 



their priests have also but little influence over them. 

 This, however, is not at all strange, for these priests 

 are of a different race, and all feel more or less the 

 habitual ^Norwegian contempt for the Lapps. The 

 clergy in these regions always live in hope that their 

 ministrations may speedily be rewarded by a living 

 in the south of Norway. They consequently regard 

 their stay in Finmarken merely as a temporary hard- 

 ship, but in reality they exist in thought and sym- 

 pathy far away from the poor Lapps. Of course 

 there are exceptions, but these are few and far 

 between. As a rule, the clergy are represented in 

 Finmarken by young inexperienced men, who per- 

 haps from pecuniary considerations, perhaps with a 

 view to serving their apprenticeship in their profes- 

 sion among a people whose powers of criticism are of 

 the lowest, consent to be, what they consider, buried 

 alive, until the end they have in view be accom- 

 plished. Under these circumstances the relations 

 between priest and people are very slender and pre- 

 carious ; and between want of trust and faith on one 

 side, caused by want of sympathy on the other, 

 the Gospel is preached to unwilling ears ; and thus, 

 except in name and outwardly, the natives are as far 

 from Christianity as ever. 



The moral condition of the Lapps is, as before 

 stated, very low. Conjugal faithfulness is known, 

 but left unpractised; and intercourse between the 

 sexes is on the freest footing. This is, of course, 



