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FJELD LAPPS AND FISHER LAPPS. 123
women is quite elegant in form, and embroidered in
many colours, sometimes being interwoven with gold
and silver thread.
It must be bitter cold in the winter-time to live in these
little boats, and sleep out on the water in the long dark
nights, when the snow is falling heavily; but the Lapps
are a healthy, hardy people, and these fishers, though
poorer than the fjeld Lapps, have the advantage of
breathing a better atmosphere in the summer-time : yet
how they contrive to cover themselves in the winter I
do not know. The reindeer skins, which the fisher
Lapps use as bed covering and for clothing, are obtained
from the fjeld Lapps in exchange for dried fish.
The fjeld Lapp is a considerable capitalist, a flock of
400 reindeer being only sufficient to support a family;
and such a flock is estimated by Mr. Laing to be
worth about 120/. It is said that many of them possess
hoards of buried treasure in the shape of silver coins,
cups, spoons, &c. The captain of the steamer showed
us some silver spoons and small silver drinking-cups he
bought of a Lapp. The spoons had a very large bowl
and a short twisted handle; the cups were ornamented
with a rather elaborate, pricked pattern; the
workmanship of both was very rude, but the metal contained
very little alloy. Still they are practically in a state of
extreme poverty, and sometimes suffer great privations:
those who have not enough reindeer to subsist upon,
combine the avocations of both fjeld and fisher Lapp.
The number of Lapps in Norway, according to the
census of 1847, was 14,464.
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