In the hut where I was a guest, an infant lay in its leather cradle. Its head was protected by a screen of leather, and at the sides two longitudinal pieces of cloth, folding one over the other, were drawn together by a cord, over the child's body, which was besides covered with reindeer skins underneath. The head, breast, and shoulders were bare. It lay in this state all night long in the cold tent, and was exposed to the open air at other times, though the weather was very cold; yet the child did not suffer any inconvenience.
I slept every night between two reindeer skins.
I was treated with östamus, or milk turned to curd by rennet, which, together with a great proportion of cheese that I had eaten of late, disagreed violently with me, and almost brought on a tenesmus.
The women here, as well as the men, smoke tobacco, and indeed do almost every thing but actually wear breeches. The men dress the meat, while the women employ themselves only in making cheese, and other various preparations of milk. Every kind of fish or meat is cooked by the men; and if the women happen not to be at hand, even the cheese and milk fall under their management.
The alps are destitute of human inhabitants in the winter season, because the Laplanders are then obliged to seek more woody parts of the country, where alone they are able to find a sufficient quantity of moss (Lichen rangiferinus) to feed their reindeer. On the alps there is not only a want of wood, but the snow is covered with too hard a frozen crust to be penetrated so as to come at any thing beneath it.
The poorest people only remain here as long as possible, for the sake of catching Ptarmigans (Tetrao Lagopus); which is done in the following manner.