After the herd has lain down in the manner above described, each of the people takes a small rope, and, making a noose, throws it over the head of one of the females intended to be milked. The cord is afterwards twisted round the horns, and the other end tied to a small pole fixed in the ground. One pole is sufficient to secure four of the animals, which all hands are afterwards employed in milking, both master and mistress, men and maids. If the milk does not come with facility, they beat the udder very hard with their hands; which causes a greater flow. The dugs are four, very rarely six, all yielding milk, and none of them dry. The young are not separated from their mothers. After the herd was milked and gone to pasture, I observed the maid-servant taking up some of the soft black dung, which, after kneading it with her hands, she put into a vessel. On my inquiring what could be the use of this, she answered that the dugs were besmeared with it, to prevent the fawn's sucking too much. She added that it would dry upon the nipple by the morning after it was applied, and might then be easily rubbed off. The female reindeer bring forth their young early in May, and their owners begin milking them on Midsummer day, and continue to do so till the beginning of November in the forests, but in this neighbourhood they leave off milking about Michaelmas. The fawns acquire horns the first year, which are perfectly simple, like fingers. I could not help wondering how the Laplanders knew such of the herd as they had already milked, from the rest, as they turned each loose as soon as they had done with it. I was answered that every one of them had an appropriate name, which the owners knew perfectly. This seemed to me truly astonishing, as the form and colour are so much alike in all, and the latter varies in each individual every month. The size also varies according to the age of the animal. To be able to distinguish one from another among such multitudes, for they are like ants on an anthill, was beyond my comprehension.
I witnessed with pleasure the supreme tranquillity enjoyed by the inhabitants of this sequestered country. After they have milked their reindeer, and the women have made their cheese, boiled their whey to the requisite consistence, and taken their simple repast, they lie down to enjoy that sound sleep which is the reward and the proof of their innocent lives. There is rarely any contention among them. The inhabitants of the neighbouring moveable village had pitched their tents close together in lines, either from east to west, or otherwise. When my servant came in, he put his nose close to that of any person whom he wished to salute, as if he had intended to kiss him, saluting him with the old expression "_purist_." I inquired whether they actually kissed each other; but my man answered in the negative, that they only put their noses together. This custom is in use among relations only.