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304 GENERAL REMARKS
inhabitants of Norway ; names apparently derived from the fuper-
{titious practices of the ancient inhabitants of the country ; though
from the difficulty of afcent thefe mountains would feem to be
inconyenient for the purpofes of a place of worfhip. There could
be, therefore, no other inducement for making them the feat of
their devotions, than the religious horror which they impreffed on
the minds of a weak, fuperftitious people.
The veneration for thefe pa/fé-warck has not yet entirely dif-
appeared : fome Laplanders vifit them yearly in their beft clothes,
and though they offer no frefh facrifices, they are careful to leave
the bones of former offerings untouched. On no account will
they pitch their tents in the neighbourhood of thefe facred {pots,
left they fhould difturb the deities with the cries of their children,
er other noifes. When they pafs them, they conduct themfelves
with the utmoft reverence: they would not attack a fox, a bear,
or any other animal, near thefe places; and if a woman be in
their company, fhe is under the neceflity of turning her head
afide, and covering her face with her hands.
The ordinary feafon with the Laplanders for offering up facri-
fices, was about the clofe of the autumn, when they were killing
their fat cattle for the winter’s ftore ; befides thefe, they fhowed
their devotion upon extraordinary occafions, and as neceflity re~
quired.
No woman was allowed to have any concern in the preparation
er folemnization of thefe facrifices; they were exclufively per-
formed by a privileged clafs of men amongft the Laplanders,
called
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