THE JOUENEY UP. 61 



one to see. They have splendid gloves, like mit- 

 tens, some of them ornamented with great taste. 

 The summer dress is much after the same fashion, 

 only the material, at least of the coat (for both 

 men and women stick to the skin breeches all the 

 year round), is of a coarse blue cloth — in the richer 

 Laps ornamented with silver braid. A pair of 

 long snow-skates, or "skiddor" (without which 

 the Lap could do nothing in winter) ; a spear, 

 with a four-edged spike a foot long, as sharp in 

 the edges as a razor, on a stout six-foot aspen 

 shaft ; an old skin knapsack on his back, which 

 holds his provisions and all his small personal 

 gear; a rude case-knife at his side, and a little 

 iron pipe in his mouth — form the Laplander's 

 winter equipment. The sledges very much re- 

 semble a small boat cut off in the middle — -just 

 large enough to hold one ; and although I suppose 

 they know their own business best, I fancied I 

 never saw worse-planned harness than that which 

 fastens the reindeer to these sledges, for they 

 have no shafts, and the driver seems not to have 

 the slightest power of guiding his animal ; and if 

 you asked a Lap, at starting, which way he was 

 going, he might well answer you like the Cam- 

 bridge youth when he mounted his tandem — 

 "Can't tell — ask my leader." The driver is 

 obliged to have a short pole in his hand like a 



