188 
GENERAL REMARKS 
the tables of the rich and great in other parts of Europe by the 
name of the defert, the reader will learn with fome furprife, are 
not entirely unknown to thofe fimple people. To gratify their 
tafle they peel off the inner bark of the fir-tree and fometimes 
eat it fre£h, and at other times heighten its flavour by hanging it 
up in the fmoke. To render it completely relifhing, it is con- 
ftantly fteeped in their favourite train oil fauce. Of apples, nuts, 
and the fruits known in other countries, they have neither the 
knowledge or defire to tafle ; but to make amends, they poflefs 
the herb angelica, of which they eat the root and leaves, either 
raw or boiled in milk : thefe, with the berries that are found 
when the fnows are melted, thoroughly ripened by having re¬ 
mained buried during the long winter, ferve to amufe the time 
they ufuallv pafs at table. 
But the Laplander’s chief luxury is that herb in fuch univerfal 
ufe over a great part of the globe, viz. tobacco : this is an enjoy¬ 
ment of which he is fond to a degree of extacy. To obtain the 
flavour of it, when not otherwife to be procured, he will even 
chew flips of the bag which has held it, or chips from the cafk 
in which it has been packed. He takes it either in fubftance by 
chew'ing, or receives its grateful fmoke through a tube. When 
he chews tobacco, he will frequently fpit into his hand and regale 
his nofe with the faliva which has imbibed the pungent falts of 
the herb; thus at once gratifying the fenfes of fmell and tafle. 
When they are aflernbled together at a convivial party, and the 
fupply of their favourite herb is deficient, they place themfelves in 
a circle 
