universal medicine of the Laplanders, and may be called their little physician.
Kattie is a kind of drawing or ripening plaister made in the following manner. The fine loose scaly bark of birch is set on fire, and immediately quenched in water. It is then chewed, in the same manner as when wanted for cementing earthen-ware together, and afterwards mixed with fresh turpentine from the spruce fir, both being kneaded together by the hands, till the mass becomes a black uniform plaister. This has a very emollient quality, and is successfully applied to hard imposthumes, &c., which it brings to maturity without pain in a short time, and promotes their discharge.
The common method of the Laplanders for joining broken earthen-ware, is to tie the fragments together with a thread, and boil the whole in fresh milk, by which they are cemented to each other.
The grass used for lining shoes is a Carex pseudo-cyperus, with many slender pendulous
spikes. (Carex sylvatica, Fl. Brit.)
An ointment for burns is made of fresh cream boiled to a thick consistence, with which the sore is anointed. It removes the pain, and admirably promotes the healing of the ulcer.
For chilblains, the oil or fat which exudes from toasted reindeer cheese, rubbed upon the part affected, is a sovereign cure. Some persons use dog's fat for the same purpose. The latter is also used for pains in the back, being rubbed in before a fire.
The Laplanders make use of no razor, but cut their beards with scissars. They never cut the hair of the head, and only occasionally employ a comb or any similar instrument. They have no laundress or washerwoman.
The drug called castor is one of their great remedies for every disease, and the gall of the bear is another.
When a wedding is to be celebrated, the