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THROUGH LAPLAND. 105
from thofe northern latitudes. At three o’clock after midnight
we entered a cabin, in which there were, befides the matter of
the houfe, his mother, his young wife, and two infant children.
They were faft afleep, and we waited for fome time, that we
might awaken them gently : they all of them lay on the ground,
which they had covered with the branches and leaves of the fra-
grant and aromatic birch ; over thefe were fpread fome rein-deer
fkins. They flept as the maritime Laplanders do in general, with
their clothes on ; but thefe being very large and loofe, occafion
no inconvenience by impeding in any degree the circulation of the
blood. The wife awoke firft, and cafting her eyes on one of our
boatmen, whom fhe knew, fhe was glad to fee him, and entered
into converfation with him in Lapponefe. The hufband and his
aged mother alfo awoke foon after, but the children continued in
their found fleep. The old woman perceiving our Laplander,
burft into a flood of tears ; the young woman likewife wept; fa
did the boatman; and fo by inftinétive fympathy did we all,
without knowing why. For a moment we preferved a dead
filence ; when our interpreter having entered the cabin, and found
us in tears, afked in Finnifh the reafon of all this forrow?
The occafion was this—the old woman had feen the boatman
about a year before, when fhe was in perfect health; but fince
that time fhe had been feized with a ftroke of apoplexy, which
had totally deprived her of the ufe of fpeech. After this general
emotion had fubfided, we afked for fome rein-deer milk and
cheefe. Our landlady immediately went oyt of the cabin and
Vou. IL P conducted
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