their profound Humber. They not only ileep with their doors
wide open, but fo foundly, that it is not eaiy to roufe them. T h e
fadt is, that they are not expofed to any kind of danger or difturb-
ance—they are far removed from the anxieties and fears th a t a ttend
envied pofleffions ; and the only wild heafts that could poflibly
give them any alarm or uneafmefs are, the wolves and bears. But
thelè animals never attack houies, as they procure lufficient
nourilhment by following the wandering Laplanders with their
rein-deer. There are no venomous animals in thofe rude countries ;
and as to men, they all live in the moil perfeft innocence.
Here the neceffity of government, for the diftribution ofjuftice,
and the equal protetìion of the people, exifts not. A fmall number
of inhabitants, dilperfèd over immenfe trads of lands, have
little inducement to make aggreffions on each other ; and the general
equality o f condition that prevails, and above all, the con-
ftitutional feeblenelsof paflion, and equanimity o f temper, prevent
not only inflidion of injuries, but refentment. Though the
Laplanders are defencelefs, yet thè rigours of their climate, and
their poverty, fecure them from invaiion ; and thus they exift with-
fiut combination or protedion, and without bending with fubmif-
fion to iuperiors. Here the melancholy examples, which exift in
all hiftories, of the great tyrannizing over the meaner fort, are not
to be found, nor the falfehood and perjury which generally prevail
among rude and barbarous nations.
In one of the families we viiited, we witnefled a very tender and
affeding fcene, which convinced us th a t fenfibility is not baniihed
from
from thofe northern latitudes. At three o’clock after midnight
we entered a cabin, in which there were, befides the mafter of
the houfe, his mother, his young wife, and two infant children.
They were faft a ileep, and we waited for fome time, that we
might awaken them gently : they all of them lay on the ground,
which they had covered with the branches and leaves o f the fragrant
and aromatic birch ; over thefe were fpread lome rein-deer
ikins. They flept as the maritime Laplanders do in general, with
their clothes on ; but thele being very large and loofe, occafton
no inconvenience by impeding in any degree the circulation o f the
blood. The wife awoke firft, and calling her eyes on one of our
boatmen, whom ihe knew, ihe was glad to fee him, and entered
into converfation with him in Lapponefe. The hufband and his
aged mother alio awoke foon after, but the children continued in
their found ileep- T h e old woman perceiving our Laplander,
burft into a flood of tears ; the young woman likewife w e p t; fo
did the boatman; and fo by inftindtive fympathy did we all,
without knowing why. Tor a moment we prelerved a dead
filence; when our interpreter having entered the cabin, and found
us in tears, aiked in Finnilh the reafon of all this forrow I
The occafion was this—the old woman had feen the boatman
about a year before, when Ihe was in perleft health ; but lince
that time ihe had been feized with a ftroke of apoplexy, which
had totally deprived her of the ufe of fpeech. After this general
emotion had lublided, we alked for lome rein-deer milk and
cheefe. Our landlady immediately went out of the cabin and
V o l . II. P conduiled