CHAP. instantly apparent, in the comparison of a few

The language of the Lapps, in its different dialects, seems to be very extensively dispersed. There seems good reason for believing that it exists, under different modifications, over the north-western parts of Russia, Finland, Lapland, Greenland, and the coasts of Hudson's Bay, and Labrador, inhabited by the people called Esquimaux. The territory of Russian Lapland alone is nearly 700 British miles in diameter', but it does not contain more than 1200 Lappish families; so

(1) See Müller's “Description de toutes les Nations de l'Empire de Russie," p. 3. Petersbourg, 1776. Not that it is intended to point out this work to the reader as containing accurate information with regard to the Laplanders. It is of the same stamp with many other publications that were "a wool-gathering" for the Empress Catherine II.; mere hasty compilations, made up according to order, but fitted, in the opinion of the Russian Cabinet, to impress Foreign Nations with high ideas of Russian literature. Thus, in his short chapter of sixteen pages upon the Lapps, we find Müller ascribing to this people the Runic Staves of the SWEDES. "Ils n'ont ni lettres ni écriture, mais bien des hieroglyphes, dont ils se servent dans leurs Rounes, espèce de batons qu'ils appellent Piistawe." Ibid. p. 5.

exists

I.

Universa

lity of Su

respecting

widely dispersed are this nomade people, in CHAP. whatsoever land they dwell. A curious custom all these northern nations, as among among the French and Italians, and many of the inha- perstitions bitants of Asia and Africa, for which it would Sneezing. be difficult to assign an origin; namely, that of making a low bow, accompanied by some expression of benediction or of salutation, when a person happens to sneeze. The effect produced in a whole army of the Antient Greeks, by the mere circumstance of a person sneezing, is related by Xenophon. The approaching return of Ulysses was hailed by Penelope in the sneezing of her son Telemachus'; and a religious reverence for sneezing, so antient, so universal, so utterly absurd, and so unaccountable, is not only alluded to by the Greek and Roman Historians, but has excited the curiosity of antient and modern philosophers*.

Botanical travellers will not visit Kiemi with indifference it is the only spot in all Europe which may be referred to as the habitat of that rare and beautiful plant, the Cypripedium bosum.

(2) Xenoph. Anab. III. p. 198. ed. Cantab. 1785. Touro di λiyorros αὐτοῦ, πτάρνυταί τις· ἀκούσαντες δὲ οἱ στρατιῶται πάντες μιᾷ ὁρμῇ προσεκύνησαν r Oín. See Aristoph. Av. 717-721. ed. Brunck.

(3) Homer. Odyss. lib. 17.

(4) See Aristotle, Plutarch, Pliny, &c. &c.

Cypripe

dium bul

CHAP. bulbosum. The students and professors of Upsal send to Kiemi for specimens of this plant. Linnæus, who published an accurate representation of it in his Flora Lapponica', and gathered his account of it from Rudbeck himself, failed of finding it, when he visited the place. It is, in fact, one of the indigenous plants of North America; and, therefore, it appears here only as an emigrant, who has settled upon the borders of Lapland. The clergyman of Kiemi annually collects some specimens of it, as he receives applications for them from so many persons: he very kindly presented us with four of these. Among the Swedish botanists, it is always considered as the greatest rarity their country affords. It was in procuring specimens of this plant that we heard, to our great surprise, that Signor Acerbi, and his friend Colonel Skiöldebrand, had recently passed through Kiemi, in their return to Uleå, from the North Cape. They arrived at Enontekis the day after we left it; and finding Mr. Grape absent from home, they made no stay there, but descended the Muonio and Torneå with all

(1) See Tab. xii. fig. 5. Flor. Lapp. Amstel. 1737.

(2) Sir Joseph Banks has specimens of the same species of CYPRIPE DIUM, from the banks of the River St. Lawrence in North America; which he shewed the Author, soon after his return to England. The American specimens differ, as varieties, only in being of larger size.

possible expedition; and we, coming by other rivers towards the same spot, had nearly met them.

We hired carts to convey us to Torneå. The country between Torneå and Kiemi is covered with dwarf-fir and birch trees. We passed several poor farms, and crossed three ferries. The bridges had been destroyed by ice, during the preceding winter. Those bridges had not been long finished: they had cost the peasants 3000 rix-dollars. The road is excellent: it was full of well-dressed people, going to and returning from the fair. We soon came in view of the churches of Torneå, which make a conspicuous and imposing appearance, in the otherwise unbroken line of the horizon. As we crossed the river to the island upon which the town stands, Torneå, once so strange to us, seemed as it were a home, to which we were returning. At the time of our arrival, the inhabitants were making hay in the midst of the streets of the town, according to their annual custom. We drank tea with the father of our Lapland interpreter, Mr. Pipping, one of the principal merchants. A party of gentlemen belonging to the place, his guests, were playing at backgammon, throwing the dice, from their fingers, against the sides of the tables, instead of using dice-boxes in the

I.

Haymak

ing in the

Streets of

Torneå.

CHAP.

I.

Visit to a

Swedish
Family.

common way. The whole company, as usual, were smoking tobacco. The tobacco commonly used for smoking in Sweden is, all of it, the produce of the country; and it is execrable. There is a manufacture for preparing it at Mälmö. The genuine Dutch knaster is not to be bought, even at Stockholm: the Swedes sell a spurious composition of their own, under the name of knaster.

We prolonged our stay a little, during this our second visit to Torneå. Our good friend Mr. Lunneberg, Director of the School, was with us every day. He accompanied us upon an excursion to the new Finnish church, which was built by Adelcrantz, the peasant architect before mentioned. Near this building was found (August 12) the Dianthus superbus, still in flower. We paid a visit to a family residing in the country, at some distance from Torneå; and here we were introduced to a party of young ladies, who were embroidering flowers and landscapes very elegantly in tambour. They spoke the French language with fluency. One of them was reading a volume of Swedish poetry. We examined this work: it contained several long odes, and other miscellaneous poems, some of which were humorous. Of the odes, one was "To Sleep," another "To Morning,” and so on for the rest. The favourite measure of the