252 
LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES. 
his long journey—-an unnecessary precaution, many of 
the orthodox would consider, on the part of such lax 
religionists. When they go bear-hunting—the most im¬ 
portant business in their lives—it is a sorcerer, with no 
other defence than his incantations, who marches at the 
head of the procession. In the internal arrangements of 
their tents, it is not a room to themselves, but a door to 
themselves, that they assign to their womankind; for 
woe betide the hunter if a woman has crossed the 
threshold over which he sallies to the chase; and for 
three days after the slaughter of his prey he must live 
apart from the female portion of his family, in order to 
appease the evil deity whose familiar he is supposed 
to have destroyed. It would be endless to recount 
the innumerable occasions upon which the ancient rites 
of Jumala are still interpolated among the Christian 
observances they profess to have adopted. 
Their manner of life I had scarcely any oppor¬ 
tunities of observing. Our Consul kindly undertook 
to take us to one of their encampments; but they 
flit so often from place to place, it is very difficult to 
light upon them. Here and there, as we cruised about 
among the fiords, blue wreaths of smoke rising from 
