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288 GENERAL REMARKS 
SECTION XXL 
Of Sports and Amnfements. 
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r T’^HE Laplanders do not obferve Chriflmas as a feflival; nor 
^ have they any fimilar days that they particularly diflinguifh. 
They know nothing, or very little, of playing at cards. They 
exercife themfelves in throwing at a mark with a javelin : the 
prizes in thefe games, for thofe who come nearefl the mark, are 
fometimes pieces of money, at other times tobacco, or fuch like 
articles. Befides this diverfion, they have another with a leathern 
ball fluffed hard, which is flruck in the air, and caught before it 
falls to the ground. 
A certain amufement called gaafe fpil, or the game of fox and 
geefe, is in great tequefl with them. This is played by two par¬ 
ties, on a board marked with fquare divifions for the purpofe ; one 
of the parties managing thirteen pegs, called geefe, about this la¬ 
byrinth ; and, as may be imagined, in the dexterity of purfuit and 
efcape confifls the fkill of the players. 
Leaping over a flick held in an horizontal pofition by two Lap¬ 
landers, is another diverfion with which they pafs their time. 
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Sometimes two Laplanders, having each of them a flick in his 
hands, from the end of one a rope being extended to the other, 
will 
