where they kept their Markets and Fairs, which were determined in each particular County, as will appear by and by. Now we come to the Tribute they paid, which at first was only skins of beasts, paid not by the _Laplanders_, but the _Birkarli_, yet only as an acknowledgement of their subjection to the Crown of _Sweden_. _Buræus_ calls it _naogra timber graoskin_, _graoskin_ signifies gray Squirrils skins, of which color the Squirrils were constantly in the Winter; _timber_ denotes the number of the skins, which were fourty, tied together in a bundle. It is uncertain how many of these bundles the _Birkarli_ gave, but in the Contract with _Gustavus_ the first, those of _Luhla_ and _Pitha_ were engaged to pay 8, which makes in all 360 skins, besides two Martins skins. Those also of _Torne_ were taxed with the same number; and shortly after this number was doubled, by an agreement made in 1528. But after the _Birkarli_ had lost their priviledges, for the forementioned reasons, and the King received the tax by Commissioners for himself, it is very probable some more alteration were made. In the year 1602 they paid instead of skins every tenth Rain-deer, and one tenth of all their dried fish; which is clear from the commands given by _Charles_ to his Deputies _Olaus Burman_ and _Henry Benegtson_, at _Stockholm_ on the 22^d of _July_ in the same year, to require the tribute in this manner, that so the _Laplanders_ might know what and how much they were to pay: for it seems that from _Gustavus_ the first’s time, till then, the Governors used no constant method in raising it, but sometimes demanded skins, at other times other sorts of goods that seemed most necessary for present use; so that by this uncertainty the tribute grew very heavy upon the Inhabitants, and their Governors took occasion from it to exact what they pleased under pretence of the public account, for their own proper uses. Yet this custom continued not long, being thought perhaps too burthensome to the _Laplanders_, and very prejudiciable to their herds; wherefore it was ordered in 1606, that every one which was then 17 years of age, should pay either two Bucks, or three Does out of their herds of Rain-deers, and eight pound of dried fish; as also every tenth Fawn out of their stock, and every tenth tun from their fishery. This tax was also imposed on the _Birkarli_ that had any trafic with them. This order was kept a long while, and renewed again by the same King in 1610. The tribute they pay at this time is either mony, Rain-deers, or skins, either plain or fitted up for use. These they pay according to the largeness of the Provinces in which they dwell, the largest of which, they say, are _een heel skatt_, that is, they pay the full tribute; the lesser _een half skatt_, that is, half tribute; and so likewise for the rest. He that possesseth a Province of the whole tribute, pays two _Patacoons_, which they call _Skattadaler_,