gentleman travelling in tbofe parts, for the improvement of natural
hiftory. This refpeétable clergyman had gone out of the
houfe a few minutes before our arrival. Finding his wife to be a
very intelligent, as well as a civilized and well-bred woman, we
p u t feveral queftions to her reipecting the population and natural
productions of that part of the country, on which fhe produced
her hufband’s mariufcript, elucidating the very fubjects concern-
injr which we defired to obtain fome information.O This manufcript
was divided into five chapters ; the lit. on the population
of the pariih of Enontekis; 2d. on ecclefiaftical affairsg. 3d: on
the colonies eftabliihed there ; 4th. on the nomadical or paftoral
Laplanders ; and the 5th. on natural productions. I made fome
extraéis from the manufcript, which 1 ihall communicate to the-
reader.
The population of the village of Enontekis, and of the whole
pariih, confifts of nine hundred and thirty fouls ; o f which two-
hundred and fifty-eight are colohifts, or fixed Laplanders ; and
fix hundred and feventy-two are nómades, or wandering families,
who live in the mountains taking care of the rein-deer.
Concerning the yearly income of his living, and the rents received
from this pariih, the minifter is filen t: but he fpeaks much
of the far-fpread renown of the church of Enontekis; extended-
even to the moll remote regions of the North. The Norwegians,
he fays, when they are going to undertake any long and dangerous
journey, are in the habit of lending to the church of Enontekis,
a candle to be burned there, or fome other fmall prelent, by way
of
of vow. He informs us that the wandering Laplanders ilill pre-
ferve among them fome remains of paganifm. It happens here
and there in the deferts, that a Hone is feen bearing fome refem-
blance o f the human form. The Laplanders, when they chance
in the courfe of their movements from place to place with their
herds, to pafs by any of thefe ftones, offer up facrifices to the idol.
There is always found near them a number of rein-deer’s horns.
He mentions, that the Laplanders have amongft them a confider-
able quantity of money, which they are in the cuftom of burying
in the earth ; fo that hundreds o f rix dollars are frequently
loft, as the proprietors are often overtaken by fevere illnefs and
death, before they have revealed to any one the place where their
treafures are concealed.
Of the drels of the Laplanders, he obferves, that there is
fcarcely any other difference between th a t of the mountaineers
and that of thofe who have permanent habitations; -except that
thefe laft are, in the fummer leafon, in the habit of wearing
woollen fluffs in place of the fkins of rein-deer; and that they
have Ihirts, which the wandering Laplanders have not. The only
book known among the Laplanders, according to this authority,
is the prayer-book.
He fpeaks of a kind of glue made of the rein-deer’s horns,
which, he fays, is of a moft excellent quality. He further ftates,
th a t the moft common difeafe among the rein-deer, is th a t of the
mi/za; for which there is no remedy, and of which the animal
dies in the fpace of one year. He adds alfo, that difeafes o f the
eyes, liver, heart, and feet, are very common to thofo creatures.