G4 
LAPLANDEUS. 
ment, and in fourteen is generally quite recovered ; then she carries 
the child to church to be baptized. Before she can reach the 
residence of the priest, she is often obliged to traverse large forests, 
mountains, lakes, and \vide*extended wastes of snow. The infant is 
fastened in a hollow piece of wood, stretched naked on a bed of fine 
moss, covered with the soft skin of a young rein-deer, and slung by 
two straps to the back of the mother, who always suckles her own 
child. At home this little cradle is hung jto the roof of the hut, and 
the child lulled to sleep by swinging it from one side to the other. 
The- boys from their infancy practise the bow, and they are" not 
allov^ed to break their fast in the morning until they have hit the 
mark.. The female children are as early initiated in the business 
peculiar to their ^ex. 
When a Laplander is supposed to be on his death-bed, his friends 
exhort him to die in the faith of Christ, and bear his sufferings with 
resignation, remembering the passion of our Saviour. They are 
not, however, very ready to attend him in his last moments, and, as 
soon as he expires, they quit the place with precipitation, apprehend- 
ing some injury from his ghost, which they believe remains with the 
corpse, and takes all opportunities of doing mischief to the living." 
The deceased is wrapped uj) in woollen or linen, according to his 
circumstances, and deposited in a coffin by a person selected for that 
purpose; but this office he will not perform, unless he is first secured 
from the ill offices of the manes by a consecrated brass ring fixed 
on his left arm. Together with the body, they put into the coffin 
an axe, a flint, a steel, a flask of brandy, some dried fish, and veni- 
son. With the axe the deceased is supposed to hew down the bushes 
or boughs that may obstruct his passage in the other world ; the 
steel and flint is designed for striking a light, should he find himself 
in the dark at the day of judgment; and on the provision they think 
he may subsist during his journey. The Muscovite Laplanders 
observe other ceremonies, that bear an affinity to the superstitions 
of the Greek church. They provide him with money for the porter 
of paradise, and a certificate, signed by the priest, and directed to 
St. Peter, specifying that the bearer bad lived like a good Christian, 
and ought to be admitted into heaven. 
At the head of the coffin they place a little image of St. Nicholas, 
who is greatly reverenced as a friend to the dead. Before the inter- 
ment, the friends of the deceased kindle a fire of fir boughs near the 
coffin, and express their sorrow in tears and lamentations. They 
walk in procession several times round the body^ demanding, in a 
whining tone, the reason of his leaving them, with many other ridi- 
culous questions. Meantime the priest sprinkles the corpse and the 
mourners alternately with holy water. The body is at last conveyed 
to the place of interment on a sledge drawn by rein-deer; which, 
with the clothes of the deceased, are left as the priest’s perquisite. 
Three days after the burial, the kinsman and friends of the defunct 
are invited to an entertainment, where they eat the flesh of the rein- 
deer which conveyed the corpse to the burying ground. This being 
a sacrifice to the manes, the bones are collected into a basket, and 
interred. Two-thirds of the effects of the deceased are inherited by 
