l I fairly glowed, and then I was left alone. When I looked at
my body my skin was as red as a tomato. The blood was in full
circulation and I felt fine, for it was such a long time since I had
taken a real bath that I had almost forgotten that there was such a
thing.

How nice it was to put clean underwear on. How comfortable it felt. I
put on a new pair of reindeer trousers, that were lent to me and that
had never been worn before, and a new "kapta." Here was a good occasion
to have my underwear washed, and my fur garments cleansed of everything,
for it was over 40 degrees below zero. This wearing of the same clothes
for a long time is the greatest hardship of travelling in winter in the
Arctic regions; for in the course of time obnoxious things swarm in the
fur and also in the woollen underwear. When these become unendurable the
following way of washing has to be performed without soap or water.

After a person has changed his fur garments and underwear, he hangs them
outside when the temperature is from 20 to 50 degrees below zero. The
colder it is, the better for the clothes that are to be cleansed. These
are left hanging for several days, during which time all the noxious
things are killed by the intense cold. After this the underwear and the
fur garments are well shaken and beaten, and then they return from this
kind of laundry clean, according to the views of the Arctic regions, and
are ready to be worn again. I often had my clothing washed in that
manner, and also my sleeping-bags.

On Sunday many Lapps attended the Lutheran church from different parts
of the country, coming either on skees or with their sleighs; those who
lived far away starting the day before. Some had come even so far as one
hundred and fifty miles. I was present at the religious services; the
church was crowded. The clergyman was not in his clerical robes, but
dressed in furs--like the rest of the congregation, for the churches are
not heated.

On my return from church, the Lapps asked me where I was going. I
replied I wanted to go as far as the land went north of me, as far as
Nordkyn. They all wondered why I wanted to go there. They asked me if I
was a merchant and bought fish. I told them I was not, but that I
travelled to see the country and its people. They thought I was a very
strange man, and they wondered at my ways.

This hamlet was composed of about twelve homesteads. The dwelling-houses
were built of logs, those for beasts o