Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter VI
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
THE LAPLANDERS’ LOVE OF HOME.
107
that one has to bend considerably to enter. The height
at the centre is about eight feet, and the diameter of the
whole edifice about fifteen feet. The floor is made of
twigs of fir and juniper. The fire is on the ground
in the centre of the hut, and some arrangements for
hanging a pot over it were visible.
The women had their hair parted in the middle, and
tied in a knot behind as is common in England. Some
wore skin dresses with the fur inside, others a thick
woollen material, with red and yellow stripes about it.
Men and women both seemed to have but a single
garment on their bodies, without any under-clothing; and
it lias somewhat the shape of our overcoats. The legs
are protected with a kind of gaiter, and the shoe, or
<£ comargo," is a large and rather a handsome affair
made of the reindeer skin.
After a while, on becoming familiar with their faces,
they appeared less repulsive, and when they awakened
into a little animation there was something pleasing in
the innocent simplicity of their manner. One woman
was almost pretty, and might have been quite so, had she
been clean, or at all nearly so; she had fine black eyes
and hair, and when she laughed looked somewhat like an
Irish peasant girl.
After being a short time in the hut, and accustomed
to its gloom and odour, I could easily understand how,
amid the snows of an arctic winter, such a hovel might
J O
be an object of strong home affections to its inhabitants;
how a sense of warm, dirty, loving snugness might exist
among a heap of these little people, when all are huddled
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
