The food of thefe people in fummer confifts of fifh dried in the
fun. When the fiihery happens to be very productive, they fell
the furplus, or give it in exchange for meal, fait, or iron, which
they want for domeftic purpofes. They like better to receive meal
in exchange for their fiih, than to apply themfelves to the labour
o f the foil. Among them agriculture is ftill in its primitive
ftate. They make no ufe of the plough, but work the ground by
the force o f their arms, though the parfon has been at much
pains, b u t without fuccefs, to teach them the advantage of that
implement. He ufed himfelf to yoke his cow to the plough, and
cultivate a fmall field of his own, in order to fet an example to
others. As foon as the fnow has begun to fall in autumn, they
carefully obferve the traces of the bear, and go out to attack him
in parties of three or four perfons. About the middle, of Auguft,
the feafon when the birds caft their feathers, they have confider-
able fuccefs in the chafe of wild ducks and other aquatics, w hich
they knock down with the oar, thefe animals being then unable
to efcape from them by the afliftance of their wings.
Wh en they have cu t down their hay and fufficiently dried it,
they put it upon a fort of frame, raifed high above the ground,
on four polls, io as. not only to fecure it from being humid, by the
overflowing of the river, but alfo from being carried away by the
force of the current. Some of them poflels rein-deer, which in
fummer they intruft to the care of a Laplander, who conduits
them into the vallies among the mountains, and watches and attends
them in their pafture.
The
The people are extremely fober, they never drink lpirituous
liquors, except on marriage days, when they indulge, but not to
excefs, in mirth and gaiety. The ceremony of marriage is followed
by a dinner in their ftyle, and afterwards by a dance, but
without mufic of any kind, except their cries and the fnapping
of their fingers. They have no reliih for beer; and when-we prevailed
upon them to tafte our wine, they made wry faces and took
it for phyfic. The parfon allured us in the moft pathetic accents,
that there was not a fingle glafs of brandy to be had in the w’hole
two hundred fquare miles of his parifh ;. he told us likewife, that
drunkennefs is regarded by the people as the moft fcandalous vice
to which a man can be fubjecl: and we could not help fulpedling
th a t this was one of the caufes of his being fo little revered and
efteemed by his flock.
Difeafe and ficknels are extremely rare among thefe people ;
there have been inftances of peafants in this parifh, who have
lived to the age of one hundred and ten years: and the only disorder
that proves fatal to the inhabitants, is a kind of inflammatory
fever.
CHAPTER