plied with brandy, until subdued, if not persuaded, they at length request to see the bridal-gifts, which, in fact, represent the sum which the man pays for his wife. If these prove satisfactory, the matter is at once settled, bride and suitor, if present, being the only persons whose opinion is not asked or given throughout the whole transaction. Should a match thus settled by any chance be broken off, the bridal-gifts must be returned; if not, the offending parties render themselves liable to be sued for the debt before the legal tribunals. So far, however, are the Lapps in general from refusing to satisfy these conditions, that it is, on the contrary, usual on such occasions to add some present to the gifts when returned, to make up for the brandy expended to no purpose.

The last day of the fair, the so-called Vadmarsdag, is the most important in the estimation of the Lapp, for this is the day on which ardent spirits may be freely sold and bought, and on this day, therefore, the trader expects to regain whatever he may have lost by the gratis distribution of brandy on the preceding days. The following morning, the fair breaks up; and long strings of strangelooking vehicles, some drawn by reindeer, some by horses, leave the church-place, many of the occupants being still so overcome by the potations of the preceding night, as to necessitate their being tied down to the bottom of the sledge or car.

That these constant temptations to intoxication, whenever the Lapps come into contact with a higher civilisation, have not only directly a demoralising effect, but also indirectly tend to keep them in a low condition, there can be no doubt; but these opportunities fortunately occur only at long intervals, and there is, besides, in the life of a nomade, a simplicity which wards off the worst vices of society. The Lapps are, therefore, upon the whole, by no means a very degraded people; and many virtues, such as chastity, conjugal fidelity, hospitality, reign in their humble tents. Theft of reindeers has hitherto been the most common crime among them, the temptation of appropriating a stray deer in the woods, where no human eye can watch the deed, and where the wolf may so easily bear the blame, being generally too great for their power of resistance. Of late, however, a new passion has been kindled in the soul of the Lapps-that of religious fanaticism-and they are beginning to appear in a new and fearful character.

The Swedish and Norwegian state-churches tolerate no rivals, and use whatever spiritual power they possess to keep their members in due subjection. Baptism and confirmation are enforced by the aid of the civil authorities, and even participation in the Lord's Supper is in a measure rendered compulsory, for the clergyman may refuse to publish the bans of Christian wedlock for those who have not communed at least once in the year. Nevertheless, dissent has crept into Sweden and Norway, and for many years an illiterate sect, strangely enough denominated Lasare (Readers), have rendered themselves conspicuous, and have made many converts, especially among the uneducated classes;

their denunciations, prophesyings, and pretended visions being of a nature to take hold on the imagination of the rude masses. Thirty years ago, the influence of this sect, whose Shibboleth is salvation by faith, and by faith alone, had already extended to Lapland; and many a Lapp who remained deaf to the more moderate lessons inculcated by the regular clergy, was moved by the fanatic ravings of the Læsare; yet, until within the last few years, the naturally phlegmatic temperament of this people saved them from falling into the worst excesses of religious fanaticism, and some of the least civilised among the tribes were even, by the preachings of the Læsare, redeemed from a state of brutal sottishness and violence. Of late, however, the Lapps also have been infected with the rage of prophesying, and of converting the world with fire and sword, if necessary; and some tribes among the Mountain Lapps have enacted in Norway, scenes which equal in savage fanaticism the wild excesses of the Anabaptists of Germany in the sixteenth century.

Leopold von Buch, in his travels in Norway and Lapland, relates that great complaints were made in Finmark of the injurious influence exercised by the Lapps in regard to the cultivation of the soil in that province. It was told that this people, having no respect for boundary-lines or enclosures, constantly allowed their deer to break through hedges, to trespass on private property, and to consume the produce of meadows and fields, destined to serve as winter fodder for the peasants' cattle; and that even when the deer merely passed over the pasture-grounds, the grass was rendered useless, because the cows evinced an unconquerable disgust for anything which the hoof of a reindeer had touched. Were this statement to be depended upon, the Lapps would have great reason to deplore the day when Swedish or Norwegian settlers first established themselves in the lands once exclusively theirs; for in that case, certain qualities inherent in the nature of the animals that constitute their sole possessions, would place them at war with civilisation, and they could look forward to nothing better than gradual extinction. This supposed antipathy of the cow to the reindeer is, however, probably only a fond conceit of the Norwegian peasant, who thus attributes, even to the brute creation, the same inveterate prejudice against the Lapps that he nourishes in his own heart; for in Swedish Lapland, where the Lapps during their migrations often halt with their herds in the vicinity of a Nybygge, as the Swedish settlements are called, no such notion seems to prevail, nor does the passing by of a Lappic tribe seem to cause any apprehensions for the safety of crops and enclosures. On the contrary, the nomadic Lapps and the Nybyggare entertain very friendly relations; and the presence of the nomadic pastoral hordes in the country, is looked upon as greatly facilitating its colonisation by Swedes. When the Swedish colonist first settles on new lands in Lappmark, he generally possesses no more than one cow, that feeds upon the coarse grass which is the natural produce of the

marshy grounds that abound in all directions: his future fields he has to win from the forest; and though in summer he may support himself and his family on the milk of the cow, with the addition of fish from some neighbouring lake or elv, and game from the forest, in winter he would be reduced to a state of great distress, could he not purchase reindeer for slaughtering from the Lapps as they pass by his settlement. To the Lapp, this trade in reindeer is also very profitable; for when the number of his herd exceeds the amount necessary for the support of his own family, this number would otherwise only contribute to swell his sense of self-importance-a circumstance which has indeed such great weight with him, that he sometimes refuses to sell in spite of the advantages offered. It is, however, only the very rich who can indulge in this pride; and in general, as the settler's stock increases, a lively bartering trade is established between him and the Lapps on whose migratory track he has settled. Sometimes, also, when the settler has already a prospering farm, other arrangements are entered into, the Lapps agreeing to deliver a certain number of reindeer fit for slaughtering in autumn, on condition of the settler receiving as boarders, during the summer months (when he has more milk and fish than he can consume in his family, and which he could not otherwise dispose of), either some old and infirm member, or some helpless infant belonging to the Lappic family, whose presence would be burdensome during the summer migrations.

The good understanding existing between the nomades and the settlers, is further evinced by the custom which prevails among the former of erecting small store-rooms in the immediate vicinity of the cabins of the settlers who live on their route, in which they stow away such valuables as they fear to leave in their cabins in the church-places, where they might easily be robbed, or at their harvest stations, which are deserted during the greater part of the year. In these latter places, they never leave anything more precious than their spring provisions, whereas, in the store-rooms around the Nybygge, where their treasures are under the watchful eye of the settler, they even deposit money; and thus it has become less common than it used to be among the Lapps, to bury their hoards in some secret spot, in which, at their death, it was lost to their heirs.

But notwithstanding these amicable relations, there exists, nevertheless, among the Swedes also a social prejudice against the Lapps. The races are by nature so distinct, that a kind of instinctive antipathy seems to keep them from entering into any intimate connection as long as the Lapps retain all the characteristic features of their nationality. Thus, although the Swedes may associate with this people, apparently on a footing of equality, when there is a question of marriage, matters assume a very different aspect. Marriage between a Lapp who continues his Lappic mode of life, or even his Lappic costume, and a Swedish maiden, is

unheard of; and even when he becomes a settler, and adopts Swedish dress and manners, he runs a great risk of being disdainfully rejected by the maiden, who considers it vastly below her dignity to become a Lappfru (Lappwife). In a certain measure, the same state of things obtains as regards the Swedish men and the Lappic women: so long as the latter retain their original costume, the Swedes never condescend to ask them in marriage; but if a Lappic maiden has served from her early years among the Swedes, and has assumed their dress and manners, which is frequently the case, such marriages are not very uncommon. But when the Lapps become settlers, and conform to Swedish manners, their Lappic origin, and the consequent prejudice against them, seems to be forgotten already in the second generation. In the third generation, even the physical characteristics of the race are said to be partially obliterated; and intermarriages between them and the Swedes are then so frequent, that a great number of the present Swedish inhabitants of the Lappmarks are in reality of Lappic origin—on the mother's side at least.

The relations between the Lapps and the Swedes are, however, different in the different Lappmarks. In Jæmteland's Lappmark, for instance, which originally belonged to Norway, great hostility is said to exist between the nomades and the Swedish settlers. Upon the whole, Swedish Lapland, which constitutes one-third of the Swedish realm, must not be supposed to form one province between the various parts of which constant and lively intercourse is kept up, for the case is quite the contrary. Between Jæmteland's and the other Lappmarks there is no intercourse whatever; and the mountain-ridges and wild forest tracts which separate several of the other Lappmarks, also form boundaries across which little or no communication is kept up.

A sudden transition from the nomade life to that of a settler is, we believe, unheard of; but when a nomadic Lapp becomes impoverished by the decrease of his herd, either through some of the contagious diseases to which these animals are subject, or in consequence of unpropitious seasons, he generally settles down on the borders of some lake, and becomes a Fisher Lapp. If circumstances favour him, he acquires, in course of time, a few goats, then a cow, and he is then already half-way a settler, for he must now build a stall,* and make hay; and gradually, as his herd increases, he abandons his Lappic habits, and contracts those of a Swedish peasant. In many cases, also, as we have seen, the young Lapps who take service in Swedish households, renounce their Lappic costume, and after this they never return to their former habits and mode of life. Whether the nomadic Lapps are likely to be ultimately absorbed in this way, we have not sufficient data for calculating; but that such absorption, though leading to extinction

*The Swedish Fisher Lapps live in tents, not in mud-huts like the Norwegians.

of nationality, would also in time lead to a higher degree of civilisation than can ever be attained by a nomadic people, there can be no doubt: however, at first the Lapps who from nomades become settlers, can hardly be looked upon as gainers by the change, for although the soil and climate of the Lappmarks are, by those best acquainted with the subject, declared to be far less inimicable to cultivation than is generally supposed, the agriculture of the country is still in so low a stage, that the soil cannot be said to feed even the scattered population which at present inhabits it. It is to be hoped, however, that at a period of the world's history when the production of the useful metals can hardly keep pace with the consumption, and when ship-building is acquiring such an extraordinary development, the resources of a country so rich in ores and in timber as Lapland, and with so many lakes and rivers, which even, when not navigable, might easily be rendered so, will not long be left undeveloped; and that the energies of the Swedish people and government will be brought to bear upon a part of the realm which, though at present not much more than a barren wilderness, may eventually become of vast importance.