1832.] 
ISLAND OF SUMATRA. 
145 
it, is truly admirable. Its shape is that of a hemispherical bee- 
hive, and he enters it on his belly, when it affords him a similar 
protection to that which the vegetable kingdom receives from a 
covering of snow, and hence the contrivance doubtless originated. 
He has also invented arts and stratagems to capture the walrus 
and seal on the edge of the ice. The skin of the seacalf forms 
his swift-sailing canoe, while its carcass furnishes him with fuel 
and light ; and he patiently' works a gray porous stone into the 
shape of kettles and pitchers, the brims and edges of which he 
tastefully ornaments. 
The Laplander, in obedience to similar calls of necessity, 
has invented methods by which he can catch the raindeer, and 
train it for domestic use, to convey him on distant journeys, or 
to supply his little dairy with luxuries. His boat-shaped sledge, 
in which he travels, is invented and constructed by himself, while 
his wife or daughter draws milk from the deer's distended udder^ 
and converts it to butter and cheese. He has learned to make 
garments of its skin, and to preserve its flesh for food ; to 
draw forth the finny tribes from the sea ; and to build conical 
habitations of poles, with their tops united and covered with 
skins. He is ever active in his fishing or the chase; in at-' 
tending to his raindeer, or in constructing canoes, sledges, harness, 
cups, bowls, &c., while his wife is equally busy in making nets, 
curing the fish, drying the venison, and tanning hides. The Being 
from whom he derived his inventive faculty, " knoweth that he 
hath need of all these things." ~ 
The lawless Arab of the desert, like the wild and independent 
Indian of the Argentine pampas, glories in the fleetness of his 
horse, and constructs portable habitations, well adapted to his 
itinerant life and habits ; but it is the latter that invented the lasso,- 
with which he captures wild cattle, and animals of various kinds j 
it is he who, far less tame himself than the snorting wild-horse 
which he with inimitable grace bestrides, collects, and folds, and 
leads to fertile pastures, the bullocks of the pampas it is he 
" Who, like the active African, instructs 
The fiery steed and trains him to his hand." 
Thus it appears, that it is the call of necessity which brings^ 
into action the intellectual and physical energies of man ; and 
that the inhabitants of more rigorous climates make more rapid 
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