The Lapps may almost be regarded as a nation of Lilliputians. Their men seldom exceed five feet in height, while the majority are some inches below that very moderate stature; and the women are even shorter. They are, however, a robust race, with muscular limbs, and unusual girth of body, the circumference of their chest being nearly equal to their height. Their complexion is dark, tawny, or copper-coloured; their dark, piercing, deep-sunken eyes are set very wide apart, so as to communicate a peculiar character to the physiognomy. The wild, strange effect is further increased by the unkempt masses of dark, lank, straight hair which droop on either side of the whiskerless, beardless face. The cheek-bones are prominent, like those of a Celtic Highlander; the nose is flat; the mouth wide, with thin compressed lips. It may be supposed that the Lapps, from these indications, are not models of masculine or feminine beauty; and Dr. Clarke asserts that, when aged, many of them, if exposed in a menagerie, might be mistaken for the long-lost transitional form intermediate between man and ape. And, certainly, there is something repulsive in the constant blinking of eyes rendered sore by the pungent smoke of their huts, or the white glare of the snow, as well as in the expression of obstinacy and low cunning which one reads in every feature. An aristocrat might be proud of their small and finely-shaped hands; but their arms, like their legs, are disproportionately short, clumsy, and thick. Clumsy, we mean, in shape; certainly not in movement, for the extraordinary flexibility of their limbs is one of the traits by which a Lapp is easily distinguished. Of the dress of the Lapps it is needless to say much. In winter it consists of bears’ skins, in which both male and female wrap themselves up, with the fur outward. In summer the men wear a sort of tunic, the _poesk_, made of coarse light-coloured woollen cloth, depending to the knee, but bound about the waist with a belt or girdle. Their head-gear consists of a kind of fez, made of wool, and adorned with a red worsted band round the rim, and a bright red tassel. Their boots or shoes are cut from the raw skin of the reindeer, with the hair outwards, and they are peaked in shape. They are thin, and they have no lining; but the Lapp defends his feet and ankles from the cold by stuffing the vacant space of the boot with the broad leaves of the _Carex vesicaria_, or Cyperus grass, which he cuts in summer, rubs in his hands, and dries before using. The female costume resembles that of the males, but their girdles are gayer with rings and chains. The Lapps are a superstitious race. Like all the Norse tribes, they believe in witchcraft; and of old the Lapland witches had a reputation which extended to England, for being able to ward off rain or disperse storms. The English seamen trading to Archangel frequently visited their coast in order to buy a favourable wind.