62 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



sprit, to keep the sledge on its balance, winch 

 goes jolting along, now oyer on one side, now on 

 the other ; and what with steering his reindeer and 

 keeping his sledge upright, he has plenty to do. 

 He is so packed in with skins, that he is part and 

 parcel of the sledge, and if he upsets he can't roll 

 out. It is rare fun to see, when a sledge does go 

 over, how viciously the reindeer turns round to at- 

 tack the driver, or sets off at Ml speed, dragging 

 sledge and man along in one confused heap through 

 the snow, in spite of all the latter' s oaths and im- 

 precations* which a foreign tongue appears to the 

 English ear to make cc still more horrid and 

 awful." I never rode in one of the sledges, and 

 when I saw the Laps start from Iockmock, on 

 their homeward journey to the fells, I did not fancy 

 that I had lost much. 



There was nothing picturesque in the appear- 

 ance of Iockmock, seen as it was by us in its 

 winter dress ; but when we returned in the 

 summer it looked very different. A cluster of 

 little, low wooden houses stuck up here and there 

 without any regularity, and half the village seemed 

 to consist of empty sheds for the accommodation 

 of the Laps when they come down from their 

 distant homes to the church three or four times in 

 the year. The parish of Iockmock is twenty 

 Swedish miles long and three broad, so that many 



