CONCERNING LAPLAND. 
1 55 
pens to lie in his way, without flopping his courfe. The children, 
as foon as they are able to walk, climb up the hides of the moun¬ 
tains, and excrcife themfelves in the ufe of thefe fkates. 
When they travel with their rein-deer, the celerity of their 
pace can only be conceived when feen : they drive with equal 
expedition up the top of mountains and down them, infomuch, 
that the vibration of the reins upon the backs of the rein-deer is 
fcarcely perceptible to the eye. The Laplanders on the coaft are 
exceedingly fkilful in the management of their boats. Our good 
miffionary fuppofes this extraordinary agility of the Laplanders to 
proceed in a great meafure from the train-oil, which from their 
birth conftitutes a principal part of their food. But the fad; is, 
that from their infancy they are pradifed in feats of adivity and 
bodily exertion : they learn to afcend the mountains, to carry heavy 
loads of timber, to hunt the wild, and to follow the tame rein¬ 
deer for confiderable diftances. In this manner they alfo become 
inured to buffering every degree of heat and cold with patience. 
It is chiefly by the exercife of hunting that they are rendered 
fwift of foot, and their agility is favoured by the fmallnefs of their 
ftature. They are content with little, and have minds incapable 
of being affeded by thofe paffions, which prey upon and deftroy 
the bodies of a great part of mankind. They Ileep equally on 
both fides,* and do not accuftom themfeves to retire to red be- 
* In ntramvis dormiunt aurem , nec plumis indormire mollibus magn 'i csjlhnant , are 
the words ot the Bifhop of Drontheim, from whom this particular is borrowed. 
It is to be obferved, that in Germany, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, it is 
ulual to fleep on one feather-bed, and to have another over it initead of blankets 
X 2 and 
