informed, are steadily decreasing. The average Laplander is less than
five feet in height, and the women rarely exceed four feet. The
latter are particularly fond of coffee, sugar, and rye flour, which
the men care nothing for so long as they can get corn brandy,--a
local distillation quite colorless but very potent. The Norwegians
have a saying of reproach concerning one who is inclined to drink too
much: "Don't make a Lapp of yourself." Both men and women are
inveterate smokers, and next to money you can give them nothing more
acceptable than tobacco.

Nature is sometimes anomalous. Among the group of Lapp men and women
whom we met in the streets of Tromsoee, there stood one, a tall
stately girl twenty-two years of age, more or less, who presented in
her really fine person a singular contrast to her rude companions.
Unmistakable as to her race, she was yet a head and shoulders taller
than the rest, but possessing the high cheek-bones, square face, and
Mongolian cast of eyes which characterizes them. There was an air of
dignified modesty and almost of beauty about this young woman, spite
of her leather leggins, queer moccasons, and rough reindeer clothes.
Her fingers were busily occupied, as she stood there gracefully
leaning against a rough stone-wall in the soft sunshine, twisting the
sinews of the deer into fine thread, while she carelessly glanced up
now and again at the curious eyes of the author who was intently
regarding her. One could not but imagine what remarkable
possibilities lay hidden in this individual; what a change education,
culture, and refined associations might create in her; what a social
world there was extant of which she had never dreamed! It was
observed that her companions of both sexes seemed to defer to her,
and we fancied that she must be a sort of queen bee in the Lapps'
hive.

There is one thing observable and worthy of mention as regards the
domestic habits of these rude Laplanders, and that is their apparent
consideration for their women. The hard work is invariably assumed
by the men. The women carry the babies, but the men carry all heavy
burdens, and perform the rougher labor contingent upon their simple
domestic lives. The women milk, but the men must drive the herds from
the distant pasturage, lasso the doe, and hold the animals by the
horns during the process. It is not possible to tame or domesticate
them so as to submit to this operation with patience like a cow. Up
to a cer