Now the _Laplanders_ having such advantages from these beasts, take great care in driving them to their Meadows, and defending them from wild Beasts. They are so concerned for them, that they bring their Wives, Children, and Servants, to watch them in the pastures, and drive those that wander back to the Herd. When milking time comes, they drive them into folds, which are spots of ground, hedged in with hurdles stuck on forks, each fold having two doors, one by which they enter, the other which carries them out into their Medows. Their meat in Summer is the best grass the Mountains afford, with leaves of young Trees. They avoid all hard rough grass, especially where Bullrushes grow. The other Seasons of the year they feed on a kind of white Moss, which abounds in _Lapland_: when the Mountains are covered with Snow, they scrape out this Moss with their feet. And _S. Rheen_ observes that tho they get least food in the Winter quarter, they grow whiter and fatter then at other times, for in Summer the excessive heat makes them worse. These Cattel too are subject to disseases, which if once begun, spread and kill the whole Herd, but this very rarely. They are infected with that more frequently, which _Olaus_ describes. About _March_ worms or wornels do begin to breed in their backs, which when alive, creep out and make the Beasts skin, if then killed, full of holes, like a Seive, and almost useless. The Wolves trouble them, tho they have their horns to defend themselves; but they are not alwaies so armed, for they cast their horns once a year, which grow again very slowly. The Does never cast theirs till they have calved. The Rain-deers use not their horns when they encounter the Wolves so much as their forefeet, with these they receive them coming on, otherwise their feet defend them by flight, which they can easily do, if not hindred by Snow. The third inconveniency is that if they be not very carefully lookt to, they will wander and be lost, therefore the owners put certain marks on them to distinguish them from others; their marks they put sometimes on their ears, and not their horns, because they cast them. But if they escape all accidents whatever, they never live above 10 years. And thus much for the Rain-deers, which alone supply the want of Horses, Sheep, and other Cattel. Therefore the Inhabitants apply themselves only to the care of these, neglecting all the rest; besides Dogs, which faithfully watch their Houses and Cattel, and are very serviceable for hunting, as I have mentioned in that Chapter. CHAP. XXIX. _Of the wild Beasts of the_ Laplanders.