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A LAPP ENCAMPMENT.
105
large supply of ragged red hair, stepped forward a few
yards, and then stood still in the sun and perspired.
His complexion was of a yellow-ochre tint, and his
features exhibited very decidedly the leading
characteristics of the Mongolian type.
In the hut was another man with dark eyes and hair,
and features less decidedly Mongolian. There were also
some women and children, all sitting down on the ground
and perspiring. It was evident, at a first glance, that
hot weather does not suit these people. They are
small-boned, with little muscle, and much fat equally distributed
over the body like the blubber of the cetacea. It
doubtlessly serves the same purpose, that of protection against
the cold, and a reserve of respiratory food; but in this
hot weather it is a greasy burthen, in a perpetual state of
oily fusion, visible to the eye and sensible to the nose.
My first impressions of these Laplanders were very-
disagreeable, and I confess that my courage almost failed
in the matter of entering the hut: the odour of greasy
perspiration, the gloom and squalor of the place, and
the certainty of many fleas about the floor, made me
hesitate upon the threshold, and rather peep through
the low door than boldly walk in.
The inmates had no notion of bidding us welcome,
and seemed equally free from any sense of intrusion,
nor did their faces express any kind of activity beyond
that of perspiring; and yet I never felt so strongly
impressed with the idea of being impertinently intrusive
in thus peeping in and trying to venture upon
entering. Perhaps the smallness of the place produced that
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