274 REIN DEER. 



such a degree in the marshy districts, as to oblige 

 the inhabitants, in order to walk abroad with com- 

 mon comfort, to anoint their faces with a mixture 

 of tar and milk, which composition is in univer- 

 sal use at that season ; men, women, and children, 

 being alike smeared with the black cosmetic, as 

 Linnaeus quaintly terms it. In reality, therefore, 

 the great happiness of the Laplanders consists in 

 being free from the calamities of war, from most 

 of the diseases of Europe, and in being ignorant 

 of the wants of luxury, arising from the more 

 artificial life of polished nations. 



Their manner of travelling in sledges, drawn 

 by Rein Deer, has been described by various au- 

 thors. 



There are in Lapland two races of Rein Deer, 

 the wild and the tame. The latter are far preferable 

 to the former for drawing the sledge, to which the 

 Laplander accustoms them betimes, yoking them 

 to it by a strap, which goes round the neck, and 

 comes down between the legs. The sledge is ex- 

 tremely light, and covered at the bottom with 

 the skin of a young deer, the hair turned to slide 

 on the frozen snow. The person who sits on this 

 guides the animal with a cord, fastened round the 

 horns, and encourages it to proceed with his voice, 

 and drives it with a goad. Some of the wild 

 breed, though by far the strongest, are yet found 

 refractory, and often turn upon their drivers, who 

 have then no other resource but to cover them- 

 selves with the sledge, and let the animal vent its 



