THROUGH LAPLAND. 
67 
obliged to flop my ears with my fingers. It is fcarcely credible, 
though it is perfeffly true, that the mountain and wandering Lap¬ 
landers have not the leaft idea of any thing connected with har¬ 
mony, and that they are abfolutely incapable of an enjoyment 
which nature has not entirely forbidden to any other tribe or na¬ 
tion, as far as I have been informed. Artificial mufic appears to 
be wholly banifhed from thofe forlorn and folitary diftridls The 
only mufical accents to be heard in Lapland are thofe which na- 
£ 
ture has indifcriminately bellowed on all other countries, without 
any regard to man, whofe pride induces him to believe that every 
thing in the,world is made for him alone. The only melody to be 
heard in Lapland is that with which the birds make the woods re¬ 
echo ; that of the rivulets ruffling over their pebbly beds; that of 
the winds refounding amidfl the branches of trees and the deep 
gloom of forefls; and laffly, that of the majefflc fall of rivers over 
rugged rocks, where the waters break with a crafhing noife, and 
fend up their foam to the clouds. But that I may not leave my 
reader altogether without an idea of Laplandifh finging, fuch as it 
is, or rather of the vociferation of the wandering Laplanders, I 
fhall prefent them with two fpecimens, which I find preferved in 
my portfolio, among the various notifications of my journey. I 
put them on paper, while thofe poor creatures were flraining their 
throats, and the mufic is to be feen in the Appendix. They were 
taken down without any regard to time or meafure, becaufe they 
had none; nor are they fo long by a third part as the original 
fongs, becaufe there was nothing but a continued repetition of 
K 2 the 
