. Half snowed
over and blended with the natural inequalities of the earth, one would
never imagine, but for the smoke here and there issuing from holes, that
human beings existed below. On both sides of the stream are rows of
storehouses, wherein the Lapps deposit their supplies and household
articles during their summer wanderings. These structures are raised
upon birch posts, each capped with a smooth, horizontal board, in order
to prevent the rats and mice from effecting an entrance. The church is
built upon a slight eminence to the south, with its low red belfry
standing apart, as in Sweden, in a small grove of birches, which have
been spared for a summer ornament to the sanctuary.

We awoke at eight o'clock to find a clear twilight and a cold of 10 deg.
below zero. Our stay at Muoniovara had given the sun time to increase
his altitude somewhat, and I had some doubts whether we should succeed
in beholding a day of the Polar winter. The Lansman, however, encouraged
us by the assurance that the sun had not yet risen upon his residence,
though nearly six weeks had elapsed since his disappearance, but that
his return was now looked for every day, since he had already begun to
shine upon the northern hills. By ten o'clock it was light enough to
read; the southern sky was a broad sea of golden orange, dotted with a
few crimson cloud-islands, and we set ourselves to watch with some
anxiety the gradual approach of the exiled god. But for this
circumstance, and two other drawbacks, I should have gone to church to
witness the Lapps at their religious exercises. Pastor Hvoslef was ill,
and the service consisted only of the reading of some prayers by the
Lapp schoolmaster; added to which, the church is never warmed, even in
the coldest days of winter. One cause of this may, perhaps, be the dread
of an accidental conflagration; but the main reason is, the
inconvenience which would arise from the thawing out of so many
antiquated reindeer garments, and the effluvia given out by the warmed
bodies within them. Consequently, the temperature inside the church is
about the same as outside, and the frozen moisture of the worshippers'
breath forms a frosty cloud so dense as sometimes to hide the clergyman
from the view of his congregation. Pastor Hvoslef informed me that he
had frequently preached in a temperature of 35 deg. below zero. "At such
times," said he, "the very words seem to freeze as they issue from my
lips, and fall upon th