88 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



golden motto ; but I cannot lielp thinking that 

 there must be a great deal of humbug in all our 

 sanitary reforms, wash-houses for the million, etc., 

 when I look at these dirty little fellows. I do riot 

 suppose one of them ever washes his face, or 

 changes his clothes till they rot off; and yet we 

 see tough old Laps who have never had a day's 

 illness in their lives, and, although " verging on 

 threescore," can still do their thirty English miles 

 a-day over the fells, with 401b. on their backs, 

 without " turning a hair." Certainly I never saw 

 in Lapland what we used in the colony to call a 

 "clean old man;" and of all dirty old men, a 

 " Lap Gubbe " beats all. Truly, as old Acerbi 

 quaintly observes, " a certain unsavoury smell 

 attends on every Laplander," and what with their 

 blear eyes, dirty faces, unkempt hair, and old skin 

 clothes, I don't wonder at it. He, however, seems 

 to have fallen among a very bad lot, according to 

 the following description : — " laziness and stupidity 

 were prominent in all the Laplanders did, in all 

 that appertained to them. The only things that they 

 were able actually to perform were to keep up an 

 everlasting chatter, to smoke their pipes, to chew 

 tobacco, and to drink brandy." Sickness is almost 

 unknown among them. When their time is up, 

 notice to quit comes without any warning ; and 

 when a Lap falls upon a bed of sickness, it is usually 



