382 
GENERAL REMARKS 
The midwife’s office, throughout Lapland, is generally per¬ 
formed by the hufband. 
The paflor, or parfon of the place, is for the moff part god¬ 
father to all the children of his parifh ; befides which, he does 
the duties of parifh fchoolmafter and churchwarden. 
When occafion requires the whole family to leave the tent, if 
there happen to be a child too young to follow the reft, it is put 
into a cheft, and tied with a cord, that it may do itfelf no mif- 
chief by fire, or otherwife: or, if the child be above three years 
old, it is faftened with a ftrap by the foot, to a ftake driven into 
the ground in fome convenient part of the hut or tent. 
When the Laplanders meet, they embrace each other, crying 
out buurift ! which is as much as to fay, God fave you ! 
The women fhave the heads of their children quite clofe ; and 
contrary to the practice of the ladies in all other countries, to 
ufe the miftionary’s expreflion, klippe de lyjke med en kniv: which 
words, though very much approaching the Englifh language, will 
be perhaps unintelligible, unlefs I tranflate them ; for doing which 
I hope I fhall be pardoned by the reader. The meaning of the 
miftionary’s expreflion is, that the good women of Lapland cut 
their children s lice with a knife and kill them. 
As a remedy for pains in the limbs, they put a couple of liga¬ 
tures about the part, and to the fpace betwixt them apply a burn¬ 
ing firebrand, which they affirm never fails of giving relief. 
No horfes are employed in Weft Fin mark, the labour every¬ 
where elfe performed by thofe ufeful animals, being there done by 
men. 
