the fame notes. The Laplanders, after exhaufling their breath,
perfevered in uttering the fame cry in a kind of fainting or fading
voice, as long as there was a particle of air in their lungs. Their
mufic, without meaning and without meafure, time or rythmus,
was terminated only by the total wafte o f breath ; and the length
o f the fong depended entirely on the largenefs of the ftomach»
and the flrength of the lungs. W ith all my knowledge o f the
mufical art, I was quite reduced to a nonplus amidft thofe mufi-
cians of Lapland; and I envied more.than ever the ikill of.the
Abbé Renauld ; an advantage which would have flood me in
great Head in the circumflances in which I was then placed.*
While the Laplanders were uttering cries in the manner ju il
defcribed, they articulated certain words, which induced me to
afk our interpreter their meaning, and whether they were any
vërfes or fragments of poetry. But I foon learnt that their genius
for poetry did not tranfcend their turn for mufic. The
words they pronounced in their vociferation were only repetitions
of the fame expreffions over and over again. For example, “ A
“ good journey, my good gentlemen—gentlemen—gentlemen.—
“ gentlemen—a good journey—journey—journey—my good gen-
“ tlemen—gentlemen—a good journey—journey—journey—jour-
“ ney, &c. and fo on as long as they were able to fetch any
breath: when this was exhaufled, the long was ended.
* The Abbé, in a note under the article Swan, in that part of Buffon’s work
which treats of birds, aiiures us very gravely, que les cris des cygnes eft fournis à un
rilhme conftant et réglé a la mefure à deux tcms. OEuvres de Buifon, vol. xxiv.
page 25. ’ Edition de Paris, 1T83.
CHAPTER
CHAPTER VIII.
Situation of Kautokeino— Boundary between the Swedifh and Danifk
Territories— An Infiance o f jtffl Reafoning - on a political Topic—
Baron Hermelihs Maps of. Sweden, Finland, and Lapland—Difficulty
o f obtaining good Maps o f thofe Countries : thofe which exifl
are fa r from being accurate— D iverfity o f Names given to thefame
Places, and confufion occafoned by this Circumffance— Anecdotes of
the School-mafter o f Kautokeino—Di/lriSi or Parifh o f Kautokeino
— Population and Inhabitants— Wandering Laplanders, and thofe
that have fixed Habitations— Their Mode of Life— Chafe o f the
wild Rein-deer— Annual Fair at Kautokeino, and Traffic carried
on— Cattle and Sheep— Low Eftimation in which the latter are
held—Departure from Kautokeino— State o f the Weather and the
Thermometer— Journey purfued in Boats■— The River Alien:
beautiful Scenery—Mifquetaes.
n n IL L our arrival, the village of Kautokeino was confidered as
wholly infulated in the fummer feafon, and inacceffible to
travellers. The furrounding diftridt is defcribed in the Danifh
book of geography as a country confifling of mountains, feparated
from each other by dangerous and impaffable morafles. It was
this