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294 ACCOUNT OF DANISH LAPLAND BY LEEMS.
ofa maritime Laplander’s hut in the preceding Chapter, for in the cot ofa mountaineer
the fame obtains) is a fmall piece of wood, the infide of which the hufband with his
wife, on the outfide towards the door the children fleep. A little below, not far from
the door, is alfo another {mall piece, within which, next to the doer, is the fervants bed.
And though all the beds are feparated by this partition piece of wood from each other,
yet fo nearis one to the other, that the parents can touch and handle the children when
in bed, as thefe can their fervants.
The mountain Laplander fleeping in his fummer cot, under a liner covering, equal-
ling in length and breadth the bed itfelf, and coming over his body neither tight nor
clofe, but leaving a due fpace between, goes to reft: for the covering raifes itfelf in the
middle like a fmall oven, touching the earth at the end and oneach fide. But this co-
vering is bound with thongs to thofe bent beams which, as was fhewn in ‘Chapter V.,
{peaking at length of the habitations of the Laplanders, form within the cot of the moun-
taineer, to the intent left when they repofe they fhould be unceafingly annoyed by gnats,
avith which this country in fummer-time abounds.
For the long gnat flies about Finmark every where, and in fuch fwarms, that thofe
who walk between the trees, from the multitude of thefe infects that get about the face,
feem as enveloped ina cloud: they are equally troublefome to man and beait. Thofe
who are ftung by them in the face or hands begin foon after to itch and to fwell, with
certain white ulcers ; fo that you would believe that perfons coming in fummer out of
the country, with commonly a fwoln and deformed face, were infected with the leprofy.
The Laplanders, bufied in the forefts in f{ummer, either in getting in wood, or bark
from trees, with difficulty caneat ‘on account of thefe gnats, who no fooner is the mouth
opened than in a fwarm they fly in. When the winds fet in ftrong they inftantly de-
part; but when they fubfide, return again and fill all places, with their accuftomed
humming.
The recreation which the mind might be difpofed to take from the agreeable return
of fummer, after the long wearifome time from the feftival of Michael the Archangel to
the month of July of the year following, is difappointed indeed, in a great degree, by
thefe annoying infects. But how rude and immitigable the temperature of heaven is in
this quarter of the world, may be learned from this, that when on the feftival of St. John,
and of courfe in the middle of fummer, I had been on a vifit with Peter Andius, a pro-
vincial judge, who lived in Talvigia, near the fhore, I found a great heap of fnow lying
near the windows of the room I flept in, as yet unthawed.
And as the faid infects are fo troublefome to men, fo do they create no lefs trouble to
the rein-deer and the reft of the cattle ; for whenever the hordes are returning from
pafture, thefe annoying gnats in a fwarm fix themfelves on the back of each beaft, not
to quit him until they have taken their full of blood; for when they are driven off by the
hand, drops of blood begin foon after to flow from the back of the animal. — It is with
difficulty that they endure fmoke; and for this reafon, when the cattle is brought to
the milk-pail, the Lapianders burn turf, or fome other moiftened materials, that will
furnith plenty of fmoke, to the intent that, the gnats driven off by thefe-means, they
may milk the cattle quietly and without difturbance. And thoughthis kind of infect is
fo feeble and infirm as to perifh with the flighteft touch of the finger, yet is it able to
penetrate with its fting the very hard hide of a horfe, thick woollen {tockings, and others
things of equal hardnefs,
CHAP,
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