A LAPP ACQUAINTANCE. 
247 
greater part of her mornings in gravely butting at her 
irreverent tormentor. 
But I must relate our last week’s proceedings in 
a more orderly manner. 
As soon as the anchor was let go in Hammerfest 
harbour, we went ashore; and having first ascertained 
that the existence of a post does not necessarily imply 
letters, we turned away, a little disappointed, to examine 
the metropolis of Fimnark. A nearer inspection did not 
improve the impression its first appearance had made 
upon us; and the odour of rancid cod-liver oil, which 
seemed indiscriminately to proceed from every building 
in the town, including the church, has irretrievably con¬ 
firmed us in our prejudices. Nevertheless, henceforth 
the place will have one redeeming association connected 
with it, which I am bound to mention. It was in the 
streets of Hammerfest that I first set eyes on a Lap¬ 
lander. Turning round the corner of one of the ill-built 
houses, we suddenly ran over a diminutive little per¬ 
sonage, in a white woollen tunic, bordered with red and 
yellow stripes, green trousers, fastened round the ankles, 
and reindeer boots, curving up at the toes like Turkish 
slippers. On her head — for, notwithstanding the 
