yours will never do in the
country you are going to. These long boots you wear will not be
serviceable."

"Yes," they all said together. "This costume of yours will be
unmanageable on account of the wind. You cannot travel in 'The Land of
the Long Night' dressed as you are. You must dress like a Laplander.
Theirs is the only costume that can stand the weather you are to
encounter, the only one in which you will be able to get into their
small sleighs, and face the fierce wind and the intense cold."

"Remember," said another of my new friends, "that you are going to
travel over a roadless country covered with snow, the reindeer will be
your horse, and you will not be able to go about without going on skees,
for at every step one sinks deep into the snow."

Then another added, to reassure me: "Our country is a country of laws;
we have order, and hate lawlessness. You will feel safe among the
people. You will find where the country is uninhabited, or where the
farms are very wide apart, houses or farms of refuge where you can get
food and reindeer to take you further on. These are post stations where
you can remain until the weather is good. There you are as safe as among
us."

I thanked them for all the advice and information they gave me and said
that I would follow their admonition in regard to my dress. They then
bade me good-night. The next day I remembered what my friends had said
to me the day before, and with one of them I went to get the garments
worn by the Lapps.

I bought two "kaptor."[1] These are also called "pesh." They are long
blouses reaching down to the knee or below, made of reindeer skins, with
fur attached; with a narrow aperture for the head to pass through, and
fitting closely round the neck.

[1] Plural form. Singular, "kapta."

One of the kaptor was much larger than the other, for in case of intense
cold one is worn beneath the other with the fur inside, and the outside
one with the fur outside.

I got a pair of trousers made of skin from the legs of the reindeer, of
which the fur though short is considered the warmest part of the animal,
as it protects his legs, which are always in the snow. The provisions of
nature are wonderful!

There are no openings to the Lapp trousers, so that no cold air can
reach the body. They are fastened round the waist by a string and are
tied above the ankle. There the fur is removed and the leather is made
very soft so that it may go round the shoe.