THE JOURNEY UP. 63 



of the Laps and settlers have far to come to 

 church; and this is the case with most of these 

 northern parishes, for between Umea and Pitea we 

 passed peasants' carts on the Friday afternoon 

 travelling to church on the following Sunday. 

 The northern peasant is not over religious, but 

 there are certain holy days in the year when he 

 would as soon miss his dinner as his visit to the 

 church, and then no distance stops him. 



The church at Iockmock was a curious, eight- 

 cornered, old wooden building, and close to it stood 

 the " watch-house.' ' What on earth they could 

 want for such a building in this wild track I could 

 not make out, certainly not to put the drunken 

 Laps in, for the church would scarcely have held 

 them. 



We took up our quarters with the priest, a 

 real, nice little specimen of a Lap pastor. He had 

 been located in Lapland forty years, and his whole 

 little world seemed truly to be centred in this rude 

 spot. Save one journey down to Lulea, he told me 

 he had never left Iockmock, for, as the poor old 

 man observed, "travelling is expensive. I can't 

 go down to Lulea and back under 50s." Still he 

 seemed happy and contented, and if it is true that 

 a man's children are his greatest riches in this 

 world, and that he is most happy who " has his 

 quiver fullof them," I take it my old friend must have 



