SECTION IX.
Houfehold Furniture o f the Laplanders.
V | MTE inventory of the articles which conilitute the Laplanders
houfehold furniture is very fh o rt: he has fufficient to
anfwer his wants, and more than this would prove an incumbrance.
The tent of the mountain Laplander is pitched one day
in one place, and the next day removed to another: it is much
the fame with the maritime Laplander. Chairs, tables, and
things of this kind, which other people require, are to them totally
unneceffary, and therefore they have them not. I f they
poffeifed them, they would have no where to place them, and
when they removed they muil leave them behind-; for they could
not, without the greateft inconvenience, carry them away. A
few copper veffels, tin kettles, wooden bowls, and horn fpoons,
form the whole of their kitchen utenfils. To this fcanty and unexpen
five catalogue, a few o f the richeil individuals add two or three
pewter diihes, and iome lilver ipoons. The mountain Laplander
has no light in his hut during the night but what the fire affords
h im : the maritime Laplander ufes a lamp. A fea ihell holds
the oil, which fupplies the wick made of a kind of rufh, and thus
is the conilant light of a lamp readily procured from materials
8 near
near at hand. The moil ornamental piece of furniture the Laplander
poiTeiTes is his child’s cradle: this is a piece of wood properly
fhaped, and hollowed with his own hand. It has a receis
for the infant’s head. Cords are fixed to go round it, and fallen
occafionally to the mother’s back when fhe travels; and a ring
with beads is fufpended from the upper part, to amufe the child
as it lies on its back with its hands at liberty.