THROUGH LAPLAND. 
105 
from thofe northern latitudes. At three o’clock after midnight 
we entered a cabin, in which there were, befldes the matter of 
the houfe, his mother, his young wife, and two infant children. 
They were faft atteep, and we waited for fome time, that we 
might awaken them gently : they all of them lay on the ground, 
wdiich they had covered with the branches and leaves of the fra¬ 
grant and aromatic birch ; over thefe w r ere fpread fome rein-deer 
fkins. They flept as the maritime Laplanders do in general, with 
their clothes on ; but thefe being very large and loofe, occafion 
no inconvenience by impeding in any degree the circulation of the 
blood. The wife awoke firtt, and catting her eyes on one of our 
boatmen, whom fhe knew, fhe was glad to fee him, and entered 
into converfation with him in Lapponele. The hufband and his 
aged mother alfo awoke foon after, but the children continued in 
their found deep. The old woman perceiving our Laplander* 
burft into a flood of tears ; the young woman likewife wept; fo> 
did the boatman; and fo by inftin&ive fympathy did we all* 
without knowing w 7 hy. For a moment we preferved a dead 
filence; when our interpreter having entered the cabin, and found 
us in tears, afked in Finnifh the reafon of all this forrow } 
The occafion was this—the old woman had feen the boatman 
about a year before, when fhe w 7 as in perfect health ; but fince 
that time fhe had been feized with a ftroke of apoplexy, which 
had totally deprived her of the ufe of fpeech. After this general 
emotion had fubfided, we afked for fome rein-deer milk and 
cheefe. Our landlady immediately went out of the cabin and 
Vol. II. P conducted 
