GENERAL REMARKS 
146 
The Bifhop fuppofes that the Laplanders were moR probably the 
earlieR inhabitants of Sweden and Norway, and the RrR adven¬ 
turers from Scythia, being driven from the fouthern parts of Scan¬ 
dinavia into thofe dreary deferts by fubfequent hordes, who over¬ 
ran the diftrids of the weft and fouth, feeking for room and fub- 
RRence. Not only their manners and cuftoms at this day dif- 
cover pretty manifeft traces of their Scythian origin, but thofe 
difmal regions lying towards the Frozen Ocean, from the Ruffian 
province of Kamtfchatka, are Rill inhabited by a race of men 
fimilar to the Laplanders, and who, like them, may have been 
forced back into the rude retreats of freedom, long before national: 
records and credible hiRory. 
rived from one of thefe three Swedifh words: lapp, which fignifies a wolf; or 
lappa, which denotes a bat; or laftly, lapa , which means to run. There can be 
no abfurdity in adopting, on the liypothefis of the Bifhop of Drontheim and 
"Scheffer, either of thefe etymologies. The clothing of the Laplanders juftifies 
the firft, their ill-favourednefs the fecond, and their wandering manner of life the 
laft. 
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