233 
LAPLAND. 
{pit chewed elder-bark in his face. He is feafted three 
days fucceffively, and his cap is decorated with an addi¬ 
tional figure wrought in tin-wire. 
The manner in which the young Laplander choofes a 
wife is equally remarkable and ludicrous. When he has 
pitched upon a female, he employs fome friends as medi¬ 
ators with the father; and, thefe being provided with fome 
bottles of brandy, the fuitor accompanies them to the hut 
of his future father-in-law, who invites the mediators to 
enter; but the lover is left without until the liquor be 
drunk, and the propofal difcufled; then he is called in, 
and entertained with fuch fare as the hut affords; yet 
without feeing his miftrefs, who retires and goes out on 
this occafion. Having obtained leave of her parents to 
make his addreffes in perfon, he puts on his belt apparel, 
and is admitted to the lady, whom he falutes with a kifs; 
then he prefents her with the tongue of a rein-deer, a 
piece of beaver's fleffi, or fome other fort of provilion. 
She declines the offer, which is made in prefence of her 
fillers and relations; but makes a fignal to the lover to 
follow her into the fields, where (lie accepts the prefents. 
Thus encouraged, he begs her permifiion to fleep with her 
in the hut; if lire confents, there is no further difficulty; 
if fiie difapproves of the propofal, file drops her prefents 
on the ground. When the lovers are agreed, the youth 
is permitted to vifit his inamorata as often as he lhall think 
proper; but every time he comes, he mull purchafe this 
pleafure with a frefti bottle of brandy; a perquifite fo 
agreeable to the father, that he often poltpones the cele¬ 
bration of the nuptials for two or three years. At length 
the ceremony is performed at church by the prieft of the 
parifii. Even after this event, the hulband is obliged to 
ferve his father-in-law a whole year; at the expiration of 
■which he retires to his own habitation with his wife and 
her patrimony of rein-deer, and receives prefents from all 
his friends and relations. From this period he fequefters 
his wife from the company of all Itrangers, efpecially of 
the male fex, and watches over her conduct with the molt 
jealous vigilance. 
Many of the Lapland women are barren, and none of 
them are very fruitful. A woman, immediately after deli¬ 
very, {wallows a draught of whale fat; the child is walked 
with l'now or cold water, and wrapped up in a hare-lkin. 
The mother is feldom above five days in the draw, and in 
fourteen is generally quite recovered; then Ihe carries the 
child to church to be baptized. Before fiie can reach the 
refidence of the prieft, Ihe is often obliged to traverfe 
large forelts, mountains, lakes, and wide-extended waftes 
of fnow. The infant is fattened in a hollowed piece of 
wood, ftretched naked on a bed of fine mofs, covered with 
the foft Ikin of a young rein-deer, and flung by two firaps 
to the back of the mother, who always fuckles her own 
child. At home this little cradle is hung to the roof of 
the hut, and the child lulled afleep by fwinging it from 
one fide to the other. The boys from their infancy prac- 
tife the bow; and are not allowed to break their fait until 
they have hit the mark. The female children areas early 
initiated in the bufinefs peculiar to their fex. 
Thefe people, though for the mott part vigorous and 
healthy, are not altogether exempted from diftempers. 
They are fubjeCi to fore eyes, and even to blindnefs, from 
the fmoke of their huts, and the fire to which they are al- 
raoft continually expofed. Some watte away in confump- 
tions ; others are afflifted with rheumatic pains and the 
fcurvy ; and a few are fubjecf to vertigo and apoplexy. 
For the cure of all their internal difofders, they ul'e no 
other medicine than the decoftion of a certain Jpecies of 
mofs; and, when this cannot be procured, they boil the 
ftalk of angelica in the milk of the rein-deer. In order to 
remove a fixed pain, they apply a large mufliroom, burn¬ 
ing hot, to the part affiefted ; and this produces a blitter, 
which is fuppofed to draw off the pecant humour. To 
their wounds they apply nothing but the turpentine that 
drops from the fir-tree. When they are froft bitten, 
(though, according to the above ext raft from Linnaeus, 
Vol.XII. No. g 2S . 
this feldom or never happens,) we are told that they thruft 
a red-hot iron into a cheefe made of rein-deer’s milk, and 
with the fat that drops from it anoint the frozen member, 
which generally recovers. When a Laplander is fuppofed 
to be on his death-bed, his friends exhort him to die in the, 
faith of Chrift, and bear his Litterings with refignation, 
by remembering the paffion of our Saviour. They are 
not, however, very ready to attend him in his laft mo¬ 
ments; and, as foon as he expires, quit the place'with pre¬ 
cipitation, apprehending fome injury from liis fpirit or 
ghott, which they believe remains with the corpfe, and 
takes all opportunities of doing mifehief to the living. 
The deceafed is wrapped up in woollen or linen, accord¬ 
ing to his circumttances, and depofited in a coffin by a 
perfon felefted for that purpofe ; but this office he will 
not perform, unlefs he is fir it fecured from the ill offices 
of the manes, by a confecrated brafs ring fixed on his left 
arm. The Chriltian religion in this country lias not yet 
dilpelled all the rites of heatlienifli fuperftition : together 
with the body they put into the coffin an axe, a flint and 
fteel, a flafk of brandy, fome dried fifh and venifon. With 
the axe the deceafed is fuppofed to hew down the bufhes 
or boughs that may obftruft his paffage in the other vcorid ; 
the ttfeel and flint are defigned for ftriking a light, fhould 
he find himfelf in the dark at the day of judgment; and on 
the provilion they think he may fubiitt during his journey. 
The Mufcovite Laplanders obferve other ceremonies, that 
bear an affinity to the fuperttitions of the Greek church. 
They not only fupply the defunct with money, but like- 
wife provide him with money for the porter of paradife, 
and a certificate figned by the prieft, and direfted to St. Pe¬ 
ter, fpecifying that the bearer had lived like a good Chrif- 
tian, 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 in all parts of Mufcovy as a friend 
to the dead. Before the interment, the friends of the de- 
ceafed kindle a fire of fir boughs near the coffin, and ex- 
prefs their forrow in tears and lamentations. They walk 
in proceffion feveral times round the body, demanding, in 
a whining tone, the reafon of his leaving them on earth. 
They afk whether he was out of humour with his wife ; 
whether he was in want of meat, drink, clothing, or other 
neceflaries; and whether lie had not fucceeded in hunting 
and (filling ? Thefe and other luch interrogations, to 
which the defunft makes no reply, are intermingled with 
groans and hideous bowlings ; and, between whiles, the 
prieft fprinkles the corpfe and the mourners alternately 
with holy water. Finally, the body is conveyed to the 
place of interment on a fledge drawn by a rein-deer; and 
this, together with the clothes of the deceafed, are left 
as the prieft’s perquifite. Three days after the burial, the 
kinfmen and friends of the defunft are invited to an en¬ 
tertainment, where they eat the fiefh of the rein-deer 
which conveyed the corpfe to the burying-ground. This 
being a facrifice to the manes, the bones are collefted into 
a baiket, and interred. Two thirds of the eftefts of the 
deceafed are inherited by his brothers, and the remainder 
divided among- his fitters ; but the lands, lakes, and ri¬ 
vers, are held in coparcency by all the children of both 
iexes, according to the divifion made by Charles IX. of 
Sweden, when he affigned a certain traft of land to each 
family. 
The commerce of the Laplanders is more confiderable 
than one would expeft in a defert country, inhabited by 
a f’av.age ignorant people. They export great quantities 
of ffili to the northern parts of Bothnia and White Ruliia. 
They likewife trade with the neighbouring countries of 
Norway, Sweden, Mufcovy, and Finland, by felling rein¬ 
deer, fine furs, bafkets and toys of their own manufacture, 
dried pikes, and cheefe made of the rein-deer’s milk. In 
return for thefe commodities, they receive rix-dollars, 
woollen cloths, linen, copper, tin, flour, oil, hidfes, nee¬ 
dles, knives, fpirituous liquors, tobacco, and other necef- 
faries. The Laplanders march in caravans to the fairs in 
Finland and Norway: thefe are computed of a long firing 
