v\ 
began to lament that he had ever com¬ 
menced a journey so hazardous and 
toilsome. He even thought it probable 
that his former companion, unable to 
retrace his steps exactly, might never 
find him; and in this case he must ex- 
pir#from fatigue and want of food, and 
inability to proceed alone in search pf a 
human dwelling. 
At length, however, his guide re¬ 
turned, and with him a most extraor¬ 
dinary-looking person, whose appear¬ 
ance was such, that he was at first 
doubtful whether it was man or woman 
he beheld. It was in fact a woman of 
most unprepossessing aspect. She was 
very diminutive in stature; her face 
and neck were so shrivelled and em¬ 
browned, by living constantly in the 
smoke of a Lapland hut, as to resemble 
the skin of a toad rather than that of a 
human being; the hue of, her dark 
sparkling eyes seemed deepened by the 
