THROUGH LAPLAND. 
57 
when they went to eat, nor when they retired to reft, nor at rifing 
in. the morning. 
Exactly at the hour of midnight, when the fun was elevated 
about two diameters above the horizon, we had an inclination to 
try the experiment, whether we could not light our pipes by 
means of a burning-glafs. The attempt fucceeded completely. 
At this phenomenon the Laplanders lhewed greater emotion and 
wonder than they had yet done on any other occafion. We had 
a notion that they began to take us for forcerers; and under this 
idea we put fome queftions to them on the fubje<5l of forcery, 
of which we had heard fo much in all the accounts of Lapland. 
We afked them, whether they believed that there w r ere any for¬ 
cerers in their country ? They faid, no : and that they did not 
care whether there were any or not. To all our queries they 
anfwered with an air of extreme indifference, and in a manner 
that feemed to indicate that they were fick of our infipid conver- 
fation. We foon perceived that all our queftions made no other 
impreffion on their minds than to awaken jealoufy, and to put 
them more and more on their guard; and to convince them that 
w T e were commiffaries fent amongft them by government. When 
we enquired of them where their rein-deer were, and how many 
they had, they replied, that they were very poor ; they had for¬ 
merly twenty-four, but that only feven remained, all the reft 
having been devoured by the wolf. If we had not been aware 
that the preceding year had been a dreadful one to the Laplan¬ 
ders, by reafon of the immenfe quantities of wolves that poured 
Yol. II. I 
in 
