REIKEVIG RAY. 
9 
the fairest. Their stature was in general small, 
but one or two of them were rather tall, and, I 
think, not much less than six feet high. Some 
had pretty long beards, while others had as much 
only, as would remain after the operation of shav¬ 
ing had been performed with a blunt knife, or a 
pair of scissars : as to their hair, it was altogether 
in a state of nature, untouched by a comb, and 
hung over their backs and shoulders ; it was mat¬ 
ted together, and visibly swarming with little 
vermin, and their eggs # , which are the constant 
attendants of that part of the human body, when 
cleanliness is neglected. Their dress was simple 
enough, and warm; it consisted of a woollen shirt, 
a short waistcoat, and jacket of coarse blue cloth 
or wadmal, and still coarser trowsers of the same 
materials, but undied: the buttons were mostly 
of horn, and were, probably, from Denmark. 
They had on stockings of coarse worsted, and 
shoes made of seal or sheep skin. Their gloves, 
* Much, and universally as the common people of Ice¬ 
land are infested with these troublesome creatures, and 
greatly as they are sometimes distressed for food, I never 
saw or heard of their applying them to that use, which 
Kracheninnikow observes is common among the Kamtcha- 
dals, of whom, he says, “ Ces peuples sont remplis d’une 
te si grande quantite de vermine, qu’ en soulevant leurs 
tf tresses, ils ramassent la vermine avec la main, la mettent 
,f en un tas, et la mangent.” Vol. i. p. 21, 
