[19] By the description and sketch in the manuscript, this seems a variety of _L. rangiferinus_.
The marshy places abounded with _Muscus tectorius_[20] and _Polytrichum_, intermixed with abundance of Black Whortle-berries.
[20] I am ignorant what Linnæus means by this denomination.
Wherever I came I could get nothing to drink but water.
Against the walls of the houses the Agaric shaped like a horse's hoof (_Boletus igniarius_) was hung up to serve as a pin-cushion.
As a protection against rain, the people wear a broad horizontal collar made of birch bark, fastened round the neck with pins.
The women wash their houses with a kind of brush, made of twigs of spruce fir, which they tie to the right foot, and go backwards and forwards over the floor[21].
[21] This closely resembles the French method of cleaning, or at least scrubbing, their rooms, except that the Laplanders have the advantage in using water as well as a brush.
I observed they had gathered some of the Water Trefoil (_Menyanthes trifoliata_), which is the plant here called Missne. It is ground and mixed with their corn to make bread. They also boil it with some kinds of berries into an electuary, but it is in every state very bitter. The root only is used.
Part of this day's journey was performed in a Lapland boat, which will be described hereafter.
The peasants of this country, instead of tobacco, smoke the buds of hops, or sometimes juniper berries, and when nothing else can be had, the bark of the juniper tree; but to supply the want of snuff they use ashes mixed with a small portion of real snuff. They strain their milk through platted tufts of hair from a cow's tail.
In the evening I reached Teksnas, situated in the parish of Umoea. Seven miles distant from this place is the church, the road to which is execrable, insomuch that the people are obliged to set out on Friday morning to get to church on Sunday. On this account they can very seldom attend divine service, except on fast days, Whitsunday, Easter Sunday, and Christmas day.
How trifling would be the expense of building a small church, and how much have those in authority to answer for before God for neglecting to provide one! Timber for the purpose was brought here so long ago as the time of the late Abraham Lindelius; but it has lain till it is rotten, as the clergy find some difficulty in the undertaking: nor is this the only obstacle!