LAPLAND. ^ tG£ 



his carriage. Their surprising speed (for they are said to ritn at the* 

 rate of 200 miles a-day) seems to be owing to their impatience to get 

 rid of their incumbrance. None but a Laplander could bear the un- 

 easy posture in which he is placed, when he is confined in one of 

 these carriages or pulkhas ; or would believe, that, by whispering the 

 rein-deer in the ear, they know the place of their destination. 



Population, inhabitants, manners, customs... Lapland is very 

 thinly peopled. Russian Lapland, according to Mr. Tooke, does not 

 contain more than 1200 families, or about 6000 persons. The popu- 

 lation of the whole of this extensive region is supposed to be not. 

 more than 40,000, or one person to about three square miles. 



Both men and women are in general considerably shorter than 

 more southern Europeans. Maupertuis measured a woman who was 

 suckling her child, whose height did not exceed four feet two inches 

 and about a half. The Laplander is of a swarthy and dark complex- 

 ion ; his hair is black and short, his mouth wide, and his cheeks hol- 

 low, with a chin somewhat long and pointed. The women are com- 

 plaisant, chaste, often well made, and extremely nervousj which is al- 

 so observable among the men, though more rarely. 



Agriculture is not much attended to among the Laplanders. They 

 are chiefly divided into Lapland fishers, and Lapland mountaineers* 

 The former always make their habitations on the brink or in the 

 neighbourhood of some lake, from which they draw their subsistence. 

 The others seek their support upon the mountains and their envi- 

 rons, possessing herds of rein-deer more or less numerous, which 

 they use according to the season, but go generally on foot. They are 

 excellent and very industrious herdsmen, and are rich in comparison, 

 of the Lapland fishers. Some of them possess six hundred or a 

 thousand rein-deer, and have often money and plate besides. They 

 mark every rein-deer on the ears, and divide them into classes ; so 

 that they instantly perceive whether any one has strayed, though 

 they cannot count to so great a number as that to which their stock 

 often amounts. Those who possess but a small stock, give to every 

 individual a proper name. The Lapland fishers, who are also called 

 Laplanders of the Woods, because in summer they dwell upon the 

 borders of the lakes, and in winter in the forests, live by fishing and 

 hunting, and choose their situation by its convenience for either. 



The greatest part of them, however, have some rein-deer. They 

 are active and expert in the chase : and the introduction of fire-arms 

 among them has almost entirely abolished the use of the bow and 

 arrow. Besides looking after the rein-deer, the fishery, and the 

 chase, the men employ themselves in the construction of their canoes, 

 which are small, light, and compact. They also make sledges, to which 

 they give the form of a canoe, harness for the rein-deer, cups, bowls, 

 and various other utensils, which are sometimes neatly carved, and 

 sometimes ornamented with bones, brass, or horn. The employment 

 of the women consists in making nets for the fishery, in drying fish 

 and meat, in milking the rein-deer, in making cheese, and tanning 

 hides ; but it is understood to be the business of the men to look af* 

 ter the kitchen, in which it is said the women never interfere. 



The Laplanders live in huts in the form of tents. A hut is from 

 about twenty-five to thirty feet in diameter, and not much above six: 

 in height. They cover them, according to the season and the means 

 of the possessor, some with briers, bark of birch, or linden ; others 

 with turf, coarse cloth, or felt, or the old skins of rehvdeer, The* 



Vol. I. p 



