168 



THE POLAR WORLD. 



The practice of dram-drinking is so general that mothers pour the horrid 

 dose down the throats of their infants. Their christenings and funerals be- 

 come mere pretexts for indulging in brandy. But their mild and pacific dis- 

 position shows itself in their drunkenness, which is manifested only in howling, 

 jumping, and laughing, and in a craving for more drams with hysteric screams 

 until they fall senseless on the ground — while at the same time they will suffer 

 kicks, cuffs, blows, and provocations of any kind without the smallest irasci- 

 bility. When sober they are as gentle as lambs, and the softness of their lan- 

 guage, added to their effeminate shrill tone of voice, remarkably corresponds 

 with their placal)le disposition. An amiable trait in the character of the Lapp 

 is the warmth of his affection towards his wife, his children, and his depend- 

 ents. Nothing can exceed the cordiality of their mutual greetings after sep- 

 arations, and it is to be feared that but few married men in England could 

 match the Lapp husband who assured Castren that during thirty years of wed- 

 lock no worse word had passed between himself and his wife than " Loddad- 

 sham," or " My little bird." 



In spite of his fatiguing life, and the insufficient shelter afforded him by his 

 hut, the Fjall Lapp is generally vigorous and healthy, and not seldom lives to 

 a hundred years age. Continual exercise in the open air braces his constitu- 

 tion, his warm clothing protects him against the cold of winter, and his gen- 

 erous meat diet maintains his strength. To prevent the scurvy, he eats the 

 berries of the Empetrum nigrum or Ilubus chamcemoriis^ and mixes the stems 

 of the Angelica among his food. But his chief remedy against this and every 

 other bodily evil is warm reindeer-blood, which he drinks with deliglit as a 

 universal panacea. 



The Skogs Lapp, or Forest Lapp, occupies an intermediate grade between 

 the Fjall Lapp and the Fisher Lapp, as fishing is his summer occuj)ation, and 

 hunting and the tending of his reindeer that of the winter months. His herds 

 not being so numerous as those of the Fjall Lapp, he is not driven to constant 

 migration to procure them food ; but they require more care than his divided 

 pursuits allow him to bestow upon them, and hence he inevitably descends to 

 the condition of the Fisher Lapp. Lastadius describes his life as one of the 

 happiest on earth — as a constant change between the agreeable pastime of fish- 

 ing and the noble amusement of the chase. He is not, like the Mountain Lapp, 

 exposed to all the severity of the Arctic winter, nor so poor as the Fisher 

 Lapp. He is often heard to sing under the green canopy of the firs. 



The villages of the Fisher Lapps — as they are found, for instance, on the 

 banks of Lake Enara — afford a by no means pleasing spectacle. 



About the miserable huts, which are shapeless masses oi mingled earth, 

 stones, and branches of trees, and scarcely equal to the dwellings of the 

 wretched Fuegians, heaps of stinking fish and other offal raint the air with 

 their pestilential odors. When a stranger approaches, the inmates come pour- 

 ing out of their narrow doorway so covered with dirt and vermin as to make 

 him recoil with disgust. ISTot in the least ashamed, however, of their appear- 

 ance, they approach the stranger and shake his hand according to the code of 

 Lapp politeness. After this preliminary, he may expect the following ques- 



