mountains,' never approach near enough to civilized iocieties to
acquire any ideas of their form and conftitution. Free by- nature,
th e ir manner of living exemptsrithem from th e 1' nefceffityiofi.lajvs.
T%ey: dwell in a country whieh dannbt be inhabited by any other
ra te of iportalsbivThey feed their rein-deer with a vegetable re-
jS<ftedbF«very-other animal. .Their only: fociety confifts in the
nnfciwiafaT ew families drawn together partly by common wants,
and partly b y fecial affeftiom and. when two fuck families, with
theirhferds, chance to meet on th e fame' fpot, th e re ’is land-enough
for th e one to accoft the other in the words of Abraham to
L 0t :— <‘ If thou wilt take the le ft hand, then I will go to the
“ ■right*; or if thou depart to the right hand, then I will go to
“ the left:’’-“
• ffbwas not without; extreme difficulty that we were able to
per&ade our-Laplanders that we were neither kings nor comnaif-
fariesjcftdr p rie ftv but only private individuals' who Were.-travel-
ling from mere cutiofity. T h e principle o f curiofity, which cxifts
only in crfttivated minds, and which is derived either feomsfqlf-
intereft; in fearchof fomething that may be advantageous,'or from
thfenpride' of knowing-more than other men, or from-a defire o f
compaimgiwhatis'already known with fome objeft or ohjefls nofc
yet-iktown^dhi? principle- is'obvjouily too abftrufe, and can- in
ri&" wife enter into theffiead of a raving Laplander. - D.urmg/‘the
whole o f our intercourfe with thefe people, we could never dif-
cover among them the fmalleft iign of- any fentiment of religion
of devotion. They never' offered up any prayer to the Deity
.when
when they w ent to eat, nor when they retired to reft, nor at rifing
in the morning.
Exactly at the hour of midnight, when the fun was elevated
about two diameters above the horizon, we had an inclination to
try the experiment, whether we could not light our pipes by
means of a burning-glafs. T h e attempt fucceeded completely.
At this phenomenon the Laplanders ihewed greater emotion and
wonder than they had yet done on any other occafion. W e had
a notion that they began to take us for forcerers; and under this
idea we put fome queftions to them on the fubjeit of forcery,
of which we had heard fo much in all the accounts of Lapland.
We aiked them, whether they believed that there were any ibr-
cerers in their country ? They laid, no : and that they did not
care whether there were any or not. T o all our queries they
anfwered with an air of extreme indifference, and in a manner
that feemed to indicate that they were fick of our infipid conver-
iation. W e foon perceived that all our queftions made no other
impreffion on their minds than to awaken jealoufy, and to put
them more and more on their guard; and to convince them that
we were commiffaries lent amongft them by government. When
we enquired of them where their rein-deer were, and how many
they had, they replied, that they were very poor ; they had formerly
twenty-four, but that only feven remained, all the reft
having been devoured by the wolf. If we had not been aware
that the preceding year had been a dreadful one to the Laplanders,
by reafon of the immenfe quantities of wolves that poured
> V o l . II. I in