which is cast off, be swallowed by the animal, in licking his own coat, or that of any other of the herd labouring under this malady, it proves fatal by corroding the viscera.

The dugs of the female often become chapped or sore, so as to bleed whenever they are milked.

The male reindeer in his natural state is fatter than such as are castrated, except the latter be kept without work, in which case they become the fattest. Such as are castrated and allowed to run wild, become considerably larger, as well as tamer, in consequence.

The rutting season lasts but a fortnight, that is, from about a week preceding the feast of St. Matthew (Sept. 21.) to Michaelmas day, during which period the male is savage and dangerous. Immediately afterwards he casts his coat and horns,

and not unfrequently becomes so emaciated, that, in many instances, death is the consequence.

Towards the feast of St. Eric (May 18.) in the following year, or within a fortnight of that period, very rarely later, the females bring forth their young. They do not copulate the first year, and seldom before the third, their progeny being found the better for this delay. Indeed neither the males nor females arrive at their full growth and perfection before they are towards three years old.

The fawn, whether male or female, is called the first year mesk; the second season the male is called orryck, and the female whenial. In the third year the latter, if she has been covered, is known by the appellation of watja or waja, which means a wife; if otherwise, she goes by the name of whenial-rotha, the three-year old male being called wubbers. In his fourth year the male is termed koddutis; in the following one kosittis; in the sixth machanis, and in

the seventh namma lappotachis. After that period no male is kept, they all perishing in consequence of the exhaustion above mentioned, but the castrated ones live to a more advanced age. None of these animals however survive beyond their twelfth or fourteenth year. When the castrated males become very fat towards autumn, and show signs of old age; or the females, having become barren, appear otherwise to be on the decline, they are killed, by the knife, in the close of the year; from an apprehension that they might otherwise perish of themselves from infirmity, in the course of another season.

Such of the male reindeer as are destined to serve for a stock of provision, are killed before the rutting-time, and their carcases hung up to be exposed to the air and frost before flaying. The flesh is smoked and a little salted, and then laid upon sledges to dry in the sun, that it may keep through the winter till spring. About the feast of St. Matthias (Feb. 24.) the reindeer begin

to be so incommoded with the gad-fly, that they are not in a fit condition to be slain for eating. From that period therefore, till the milking season, the Laplanders are obliged to live on this stock of preserved meat. At other times of the year the females are killed for immediate use, according as they are wanted. The blood is kept fresh in kegs, or other vessels, and serves for food in the spring, being added to the välling (see vol. 1. p. 129), with a small proportion of milk and water. The blood of these animals is thick in consistence, like that of a hog. The Laplanders carry a portion of it along with them from place to place, in bladders or some kind of vessels. A stock of this and all other necessaries is collected as late as possible, before the melting of the snow, while there still remains a track for the sledges.

A kind of blood pudding or sausage is made, in general without flour, and with a large proportion of fat. This the Laplanders call marfi.

The liver of the reindeer, which is of a considerable bulk, is boiled and eaten fresh. The lungs, being salted and moderately dried, are eaten occasionally, or else given to the dogs. The intestines, which abound with fat, are cut open, washed, and boiled fresh; nor are they unpalatable. The brain and testicles are never eaten. The foot is flayed down to the fetlock joint, beyond which the hair cannot, by scalding or any other contrivance, be separated, without the cuticle and skin coming along with it. Even when the feet are boiled, the hair never comes off without the skin. Thus the animal when living is the more firmly protected against the snow. The hoofs are thrown away as useless.

The dung of the reindeer in summer is almost as large as cow-dung, but in winter it more resembles that of the goat.

Each individual reindeer does not bear horns of precisely the same shape every year. The points are very liable to be deformed, in consequence of the animal's

scratching them, while in a growing state, with its feet; they being in that state much inclined to itch, and as tender as the flesh of a fresh fish.

These animals are afflicted with maggots called kornmatskar in their noses and gums, from which they relieve themselves in the spring by snorting and blowing. When the insects lodge on their backs and form pustules there, the people make a practice of squeezing them out, to prevent the reindeer from being too much irritated by them. (This species is the Oestrus nasalis, though the account here given is not very clear; but in the first edition only of the Fauna Suecica Linnæus says, on the authority of a gentleman named Friedenreich, that "this Oestrus lodges its eggs in the frontal sinus of the reindeer in Lapland, and is frequently cast out by them as they travel along in the spring.")

When the skin is stripped from the carcase of the reindeer, it is immediately spread out, and stretched as much as pos

sible, by means of a longitudinal pole, and a transverse stick at each end of the skin, these sticks being pulled asunder with a strong cord. Several more transverse twigs are placed between these two sticks, so as to extend every part of the edges of the hide, which in this position is allowed to dry.

The Laplanders' gloves are made of skin taken from the legs of the animal; their hairy shoes, of that from its forehead between the horns, such being worth two dollars, copper money; while those made from the skin of the legs, being much thinner, are of very little or no value.

A Laplander never goes barefoot, though he has nothing to serve him for stockings but hay (Carex sylvatica, Fl. Brit.). Sometimes he buys leather for shoes or boots from his neighbours.

The people of this country boil their meat in water only, without any addition or seasoning, and drink the broth. Jumomjölk (see vol. 1. 278.) kept for a whole

year is delicate eating. Berries of all kinds are boiled in it. Some persons make a practice of boiling those berries by themselves, preserving them afterwards in small tubs, or other wooden vessels. They boil their fish more thoroughly than their meat, over a slow fire, drinking likewise the water in which it has been drest. The meat is never so much boiled as to separate from the bone. Fresh fish is sometimes roasted over the fire. Few people dry and salt it, though that method is sometimes practised. Meat is dried by the air, sun and smoke all together, being hung up in the chimney, or rather hole by which the smoke escapes through the roof.

The Laplanders never eat of more than one dish at a meal.

By way of dainty, the women occasionally mix the berries of the Dwarf Cornel (Cornus