90 A SPRING AND SUMMER IN LAPLAND. 



one weighing 21b. ; and if I had not known that it 

 was reindeer cheese, I should scarcely have dis- 

 tinguished it from a very white cream cheese. If 

 they can only get hold of a bit of silver, they value 

 it as their heart's blood; and like the unworthy 

 servant in the parable, they never invest their 

 money to bring in any return, but if they possess 

 more than they can carry about with them, they 

 hide it in the crevice of a rock, and often forget 

 where it lies. 



Many of the Laps are certainly ridiculously 

 small, and look more like large apes than men ; but 

 I have seen some very fair-sized ones among them. 

 They appear to grow smaller as they grow older. 

 Although in general the women are ugly enough, 

 you sometimes see a very pretty face, and a figure 

 as light as that of an opera dancer. That royalty 

 itself has been smitten by their charms is proved 

 by the fact that at Gellivare was (and I believe he 

 lives now) a settler who, to use the language 

 of the stud-book, was a cross between Louis 

 Philippe (who was for some time in Lapland when 

 a wanderer from his native land) and a Lap girl. 

 I never saw him, but have been told that he was 

 a fine-looking man, not unlike his reputed royal 

 father ; and tliey tell of another Lap girl who was 

 taken back to France by a refugee (who came over 

 here during the French Revolution) as his mistress. 



