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ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS, 379
founding extremely harfh and full of rafticity, yet they mean to exprefs how much they
are affected and moved by his unhappy lot and condition.
Cuap. Il.—O/ the Genius of the Laplanders ; their Virtues and Vices.
THE children of the Laplanders are very brawny in the face, as well as in other,
parts of the body, yet this brawninefs decreafes with their years. The nation in ge-
neral is of a dark and fwarthy complexion, fhort hair, large mouth, hollow cheeks,
long chin, waterifh eyes, the defluxion of which is partly to be afcribed to the nature
of their climate, partly to the exceflive fmoke with which they are infefted in their tents
and huts, partly to the {now which drifts itfelf into the eyes of travellers, who pafs the
mountains about the tempeftuous feafon of their winter ; and partly to be afcribed to
their looking on entire plains and mountains whitened with {now, whence it feldom
happens, on their returning from hunting the rein-deer, that they are not almoft de-
prived of the ufe of fight for, at leaft, fome days.
It has been related to us by certain writers, but of no authority, that the Laplanders
had coarfe rough {fkins like wild beafts.. Another writer alfo of weak credit, has not
ferupled to aflert, that the Laplanders had but one eye, and that placed in the centre
of the forehead. Opinions, which with other ridiculous fables, are moft properly ex-
ploded. There are others too who do not hefitate to afirm, that a certain {trong
fmell is naturally in the Laplanders ; and to this aflertion, though avowedly falfe, fome
have incautioufly given their belief. J, on my part, do not deny, that the Laplanders
fmell very ftrong, but this very {trong {mell I do not aflign to the nature of them more
than to that of other men: when itis obvioufly clear, that that {mell is produced trom
no other caufe but from the clothing of this people, {tained and greafed through by the
conftant fmoke of their huts, and by the oil {queezed from the fat of fith.
The generality of the Laplanders is fhort of ftature,. but of amazing ftrength. A
hardy race, capable of fatigue and cold, beyond the belief of any man; in confirma-
tion of which I fhall deem it fufficient to relate that, when I was curate at Alten in
the Weftern Finmark, a certain Lapland woman, on the fifth day after her lying-in,
about Chriftmas, travelled over thofe mountains covered with a conftant fnow, to me,
begging that I would introduce her duly and after the forms of our rites into our
church. ‘The Highland Laplanders can bear the greateft extremity of cold; and the
maritime along the coat, the moft intolerable heat, which, in their huts, (owing to the
fire having no vent, the duc through which the fmoke fhould pafs being clofed up,)
burns them almolt to death.
And as the Laplanders, by their own nature and habits, are hardy and laborious,
fo even, as we obferved, vulgar medicines and thofe elfewhere of no repute, are fuf-
ficient to repel difeafesand reftore health. Though the tribe of doctors may laugh, yet it
is {o ; and the experience of many years, experience that does not deceive, has confirmed
it. For all-powerful and beneficent Nature.has fo providently and wifely ordained all
things, that what is of no account and common in the opinion of fome men, can furnifh
the moft effential benefit to the indigent and afllicted in thofe places, where more coftly
and excellent medicines are not tobe had. And for -this reafon, nothing is more ac-
ceptable, nothing more agreeable can happen to a Laplander, than for any perfon to
make hima prefent of a {mall bit of the root of nicotian, or a few grains of pepper,
or fome fuch trifling thing.
32 They
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