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372 TRAVELS OF EHRENMALMe
The Laplanders regard the paffion they have taken for brandy as a misfortune. But
when we reprefented to them the danger of this cuftom, and how ufelefs was this foreign
liquor to them; they anfwered, that without brandy they could have no wives. In
fact, the firft propofition of marriage is made with a glafs of brandy in the hand. It
is in joy this bargain is concluded ; “for they fell a woman like a rein-deer, and pay for
her from five to nine crowns. This would yet be too much, if the man were a true
purchafer. ‘The lefs a woman cofts, the more valuable fhe becomes: at this rate, a
Lapland woman mult be an ineftimable treafure. But thofe are ideas taken in a world
where delicacy is an element of fele&t fouls. ‘The Laplanders are not fufficiently cor-
rupted to have occafion for thefe refinements. The fublimity of manners and fenti-
ment fuppofes a fociety depraved, where virtue requires heroifm to refift contagion ;
where we are only great, elevated, fingular, becaule all are little, bafe, and common.
Whether it be a received prejudice, an agreement, or love of preference, it is faid
that the Laplanders have more diflike than inclination for promifcuouifnefs in the inter-
courfe with their women. ‘They do not unite themfelves to one another accidentally,
like their flocks: they even refpe&t the degrees of confanguinity, which are fo reli-
gioufly obferved among civilifed nations, in order to unite again by the ties of love and
blood, families which have been divided by property. If the relations were always to
marry among one another, each race remaining foreign to all the others would form a
diftinG fociety, and difcord would arife from this focial ftate. It is neceffary for families
to intermix, in order that fortunes may circulate, interefts unite, and that prejudices and
manners may be foftened. The Hebrews were commanded to marry in their own tribe ;
but it was perhaps a means of encouraging them all to population. Twelve tribes among
the Jews were more certain of agreeing, than the two claffes of plebeians and patricians
among the Romans. Between thefe two factions nothing could bring back the equili-
brium; among twelve claffes it maintained itfelf: all with emulation counterbalanced
each other, and each was of fufficient weight to prevent the predominance of any one.
Thus the circulation of blood from family to family is an infallible guarantee for the
peace of ftates. We do not hate beforehand a family into which we may one day
enter. We ceafe to defpife a race to which we may be united. We fupport without
fpleen a diftin€tion of rank and honour, from which we are not excluded without
hope, efpecially in thofe empires where labour leads to fortune, and fortune to honour.
In this paflage there are only hafty and fudden revolutions, which clafh all conditions,
when a man finds himfelf fuddenly tranfported by money or favour from the level of
the crowd to the fummit of greatnefs.
Among the Laplanders every one is of the common clafs, and this natural lownefs
does not excite the envy of any body: the order of peafants is the only one. ‘There
are not fufficient riches in Lapland to eftablifh a large body of nobility, a numerous and
powerful clergy, as in Sweden. ‘Their drums of divination do not create much noife,
and thofe of war are almoft unknown.
In fine, the little fruitfulnefs of the Laplanders exempts them from pofleffing of pri-
vileged conditions, fupreme honours, burthenfome and brilliant titles. They are fuffi-
ciently limited to be devoid of ambition, and only know how to defend their life againft
cold and want, without attacking that of otherfen. T hey have few children, and
pe rhaps love them the better. A father rejoices to have a fon, becaufe he has not to
ear for him thofe whims and even virtues which may equally conduc him to misfor-
tune. He never fays to himfelf while receiving him from the breaft of a mother into
his paternal arms, perhaps in my old age I fhall expire on the wheel accufed of having
hen aes this fon, whofe misfortunes or fuperttition fhall have armed his hands againit.
his own life.
As
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