CONCERNING LAPLAND. 
! 59 
amply and inftantly fupplied, and charity appears unsolicited with 
open hands. The miffionary, however, admits, that the Lap¬ 
landers are not entirely exempt from thofe vices which ever pre¬ 
vail more or lefs amongft mankind in a Rate of fociety. They 
cannot refill the temptation of ebriety, and yield to the allure¬ 
ments of avarice. They will get drunk, like the men of other 
countries, when flrong liquor comes in their way ; and cannot 
avoid cheating, like other dealers, when they can do it without 
danger of detection. The fkins of the rein-deer are more or lefs 
valuable, according to the feafon in which they are killed. If the 
animal be Rain in the fpring, his hide is found perforated by an 
infedl which buries itfelf in it, and lays there its eggs ; but it is 
other wife with the rein-deer killed in the winter. To defraud 
the purchafer by trying to obtain the fame price for a defective 
ffiin as for a perfedl one, the Laplander artfully clofes up the 
holes in the fkin ; and, in order to impofe upon the credulous 
trader, will not fcruple to warrant it free from defect, and affiert 
that the beaft was killed in autumn; though he well knows the 
cafe to be quite the reverfe ; that the fkin is full of holes, and the 
deer was killed in fpring, or the world feafon. 
SECTION 
