About the miserable huts, which are shapeless masses of mingled earth, stones, and branches of trees, and scarcely equal to the dwellings of the wretched Fuegians, heaps of stinking fish and other offal taint the air with their pestilential odors. When a stranger approaches, the inmates come pouring out of their narrow doorway so covered with dirt and vermin as to make him recoil with disgust. Not in the least ashamed, however, of their appearance, they approach the stranger and shake his hand according to the code of Lapp politeness. After this preliminary, he may expect the following questions: “Is peace in the land? How is the emperor, the bishop, and the captain of the district?” The more inquisitive of the filthy troop then ask after the home of the stranger, and being told that it is beyond the mountains, they further inquire if he comes from the land where tobacco grows. For as our imagination loves to wander to the sunny regions, Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit, And the voice of the nightingale never is mute; so the fancy of the Lapp conceives no greater paradise than that which produces the weed that, along with the brandy-bottle, affords him his highest luxury. CHAPTER XIII. MATTHIAS ALEXANDER CASTRÉN. His Birthplace and first Studies.--Journey in Lapland, 1838.-- The Iwalojoki.--The Lake of Enara.--The Pastor of Utzjoki.-- From Rowaniémi to Kemi.--Second Voyage, 1841–44.--Storm on the White Sea.--Return to Archangel.--The Tundras of the European Samojedes.--Mesen.--Universal Drunkenness.--Sledge Journey to Pustosersk.--A Samojede Teacher.--Tundra Storms.--Abandoned and alone in the Wilderness.--Pustosersk.--Our Traveller’s Persecutions at Ustsylmsk and Ishemsk.--The Uusa.--Crossing the Ural.--Obdorsk.--Second Siberian Journey, 1845–48.-- Overflowing of the Obi.--Surgut.--Krasnojarsk.--Agreeable Surprise.--Turuchansk.--Voyage down the Jenissei.--Castrén’s Study at Plachina.--From Dudinka to Tolstoi Noss.--Frozen Feet.-- Return Voyage to the South.--Frozen fast on the Jenissei.-- Wonderful Preservation.--Journey across the Chinese Frontiers, and to Transbaikalia.--Return to Finland.--Professorship at Helsingfors.--Death of Castrén, 1855.