64 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



been among the happiest of mortals, for lie had 

 managed not only to bring into the world, but 

 respectably to bring up, eighteen children on an 

 income of perhaps less than £50 a year, and a 

 finer, healthier sample than those which he had at 

 home I never saw. I did not indulge my curiosity 

 so far as to inquire exactly what his real income 

 might be, but he told me that in his parish were 

 about eighty Laps, each family of whom pay him 

 yearly two pairs of gloves, 201b. of reindeer meat, 

 two squirrel- skins, and a reindeer cheese. Besides 

 this, he had his house and a little bit of land, and 

 I suppose what few settlers there are in his 

 parish all pay him a trifle. 



Musing on the inequality of earthly riches, I 

 strolled down the village street in the afternoon, 

 and, as I saw all the Laps hurrying towards the 

 church, I thought I might as well look in also, 

 and here I saw a sight which I would not have 

 missed for a trifle. Although not Sunday, there 

 was a kind of bye-service on this afternoon, for 

 the special benefit of the Laps who would wish to 

 receive the sacrament before they departed to 

 their native fells. 



The church was fall of Laps, and, although 

 here and there I saw as fine a young fellow as I 

 would wish to meet, the major part of them were 

 little, brown, weather-beaten pigmies, standing 



