SECTION XII.
O f the Wandering Laplanders, and their Migrations.
H P H E maritime Laplanders only change their habitations twice
a year, th a t is to fay, in fpring and au tum n : in doing this
they leave their huts (landing until their re tu rn ; but this rule is
not obferved by the mountain Laplander, who, like the ancient
Scythians, or the modern Tartaj-s and Arabs, is continually wandering
from place to place. In the middle of fummer the mountain
Laplanders, with their families and herds, move towards the
fea-coaft, and on the approach o f autumn, return to the mountains.
Their progrefs is but flow, for they do not proceed above
four Engliih miles each day, and the whole extent of their migration
from the fea-coaft to the borders of Swedifh Lapland, does
not exceed thirty. When arrived there, they may be faid to be
ftationary; becauie afterwards they only remove to fliort diftances,
as occafion requires, from one hill or wood to another. As foon
as winter is pafled away, they leek the fea-coaft in the fame
leifurely manner, until they reach the fpot which they have def-
tined for their fummer refidence.
On the road by which they pafs to the fea-coaft, the mountain
Laplanders conftrudt a fort of hovel for the purpofe of depofiting
provifions,
provifions, and fuch necefiaries as they may have occafion for in
their journey. In their return to the mountains in autumn, the
rein-deer being in that feafon particularly fat, they kill as much
venifon as they judge neceffary, and lay it up in thefe ftore-houfes,
where it remains during the winter, being intended as a fupply for
themfelves and houfehold in the following fpring, when they fhall
be on their progrefs to the coaft.
In fpring and autumn, the earth being freed from its incumbrance
of fnow, th e mountain Laplander and his family travel on
foot, his tent and the reft of his baggage being conveyed by the
rein-deer; and if his wife have a child at the breaft, the infant is
carried by her in the cradle already defcribed.
W hen he removes in winter, he takes with him everything
belonging to his tent, even to the ftones which form his h ea rth ;
and this he does in order that he may meet with neither difap-
pointment nor delay when arrived at the fpot whereon he intends
to pitch his tent. For the brufhwood with which he carpets the
infide of his tent, as well as firewood, he trufts to what he may be
able to procure within a little diftance. To convey his tent in
the winter feafon, he has a particular fledge, to which he har-
nefles one of his inferior deer; fo that it may be well fuppofed his
tent and all that belongs to it, is o f no great weight.
The following is the order of the winter march : the hufband
proceeds in the leading fledge, and is followed by the wife in the
fecond, which fhe drives herfelf; and if fhe give fuck, ihe has her
child in the cradle by her fide, carefully wrapped up in furs, with
V ol. II. E e a fmall