floor until I got accustomed to
breathing the hot air. The perspiration was fairly running down my body.
More water was poured and more steam was raised.

Then one of the fellows said, "Paulus, let me give you a switching with
the birch twigs. It is fine; it brings the blood into circulation." One
of the boys began to switch my back, and soon I cried, "Enough, enough,
enough!" Soon all were switching one another, and the one who had
switched me said, "Paulus, give me a good switching--harder than the one
I gave you." I thought mine had been strong enough; my back must have
been as red as a boiled lobster. I followed his injunctions until he
said it was enough.

Then more steam was raised after a while, and after this was done all
shouted, "Let us have another switching before we go." At last I went
out with a few of the men, when, lo! they rolled over two or three times
in the snow, calling out to me to do likewise; that it felt so good. I
did what they bade me to do. How nice it was! It was a delightful
sensation. Then we got up and ran as fast as we could for our houses.

As we ran, they called to me, "Paulus, do not dress at once, and not
before you have stopped perspiring." So I walked up and down in my room
for more than an hour before I dressed. After this I felt like a new
man.

The Finlanders do not dress like the Laplanders when they are at home;
it is only when they travel that they wear the kapta or pesh. The men
wear long overcoats, lined with woolly sheepskin. The women's dress is
composed of a body of black cloth, with skirt of thick homespun wool.
Their long and heavy jackets are also lined with sheepskin inside, and
they wear hoods.

CHAPTER IX

HOW THE LAPPS AND FINNS TRAVEL.--STRANGE-LOOKING SLEIGHS.--DIFFERENT
VARIETIES.--LASSOING REINDEER.--DESCRIPTION OF THE REINDEER.

After leaving this hamlet where I had such an odd bath, I came to a farm
where I saw sleighs the like of which I had never seen before. To many
of these were harnessed reindeer with superb horns, while others were
without animals.

These sleighs looked exactly like little tiny boats, just big enough to
carry one person and a very small amount of luggage, but not big enough
for trunks. They were all made of narrow fir-tree planks, strongly
ribbed inside just like boats, about seven feet long and two and
one-half feet in width at the end, which was the broadest part. The
forward part of some was decked. They all