A SEA LAPP HAMLET.--STRANGE HOUSES.--THEIR INTERIORS.--SUMMER DRESS OF THE SEA LAPPS.--PRIMITIVE WOODEN CART.--ANIMALS EAT RAW FISH.--I SLEEP IN A SEA LAPP'S HOUSE.--THEY TELL ME TO HURRY SOUTHWARD. When I had landed, and ascended the hill towards the settlement, I found myself in a Sea Lapp hamlet. I looked at their dwellings with great curiosity. Some of the buildings were conical and resembled the tent of the nomadic Lapps; but they were built of sod or turf. There were others resembling in shape log houses, with only a ground floor, built entirely of the same material. Others were partly of stone and turf. Some were entirely of stone slabs. Two houses were built of logs. In the mean time the people had changed their clothes, and wore their summer every-day dress called _vuolpo_ (though it was still cold), ready to receive me. Some of these summer dresses were made of coarse vadmal of a gray or blackish color; others were blue. Most were in a ragged state, or patched--having when new been used as Sunday clothes. The men wore square caps of red or blue flannel, and the women had extraordinary looking head-gear resembling casques of dragoons, on account of the wooden frame under the cloth. These were also red or blue. "Come in," said one of the Sea Lapps, "come into my _gamme_ (house) and see how I live." His house was of conical shape and built of sod, supported inside by a rough frame formed of branches of trees. A fire was burning in the centre of the hut, the smoke escaping by an aperture above; and upon cross poles hung shoes, boots, and clothing. This sod hut was about twelve feet high and eight feet in diameter. A large kettle hung over the fire. It was filled with seaweed, which was cooking for the cows. I tasted it and found it very palatable and not at all salt. I was hardly in this _gamme_ when I wished myself out, but kept this to myself, for I did not want to hurt the feelings of the poor Lapp. The interior of the place was horribly filthy--dirty reindeer skins lay on the ground upon old dirty dried grass. A tent of a nomadic Lapp was a model of cleanliness compared with this! The outside was just as bad; on the ground lay the entrails and heads of fish, and a couple of barrels filled with half-putrid liver which in time would make a barrel of brown oil; there were a great many codfish heads drying on the rocks. "Will you stay and have a cup of coffee with us?" my host asked. "Yes," added his wife, "it will not take long to make a cup of coffee." "Not to-day," I replied, "but some other time." "All right," the host said; "don't forget." I was glad when I got out. This abode was the _gamme_ of a poor Sea Lapp, and the poorest kind of dwelling seen among them.