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THROUGH LAPLAND. 67
obliged to ftop my ears with my fingers. It is fcarcely credible,
though it is perfectly true, that the mountain and wandering Lap-
‘landers have not the leaft idea of any thing connected with har-
mony, and that they are abfolutely incapable of an enjoyment
which nature has not entirely forbidden to any other tribe or na-
tion, as far as I have been informed. Artificial mufic appears to
be wholly banifhed from thofe forlorn and folitary diftricts The
only mufical accents to be heard in Lapland are thofe which na-
ture has indifcriminately beftowed on all other countries, without
any regard to man, whofe pride induces him to believe that every
thing in the world is made for him alone. The only melody to be
heard in Lapland is that with which the birds make the woods re-
echo; that of the rivulets ruftling over their pebbly beds; that of
the winds refounding amidft the branches of trees and the deep
gloom of forefts; and laftly, that of the majeftic fall of rivers over
rugged rocks, where the waters break with a crafhing noife, and
fend up their foam to the clouds. But that I may not leave my
reader altogether without an idea of Laplandifh finging, fuch as it
is, or rather of the vociferation of the wandering Laplanders, I
fhall prefent them with two fpecimens, which I find preferved in
my portfolio, among the various notifications of my journey. I
put them on paper, while thofe poor creatures were ftraining their
throats, and the mufic is to be feen in the Appendix. They were
taken down without any regard to time or meafure, becaufe they
had none ; nor are they fo long by a third part as the original
fongs, becaufe there was nothing but a continued repetition of
K 2 the
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