Many persons have the pleurisy, and others rheumatic complaints in the back, which descend down the hips and legs, leaving the part first attacked. These complaints happen in summer as well as in winter.
We continued our course up the river of Umoea. At length, quitting the main stream, we proceeded along a branch to the right, which bears the name of Juita, and left Lycksele church at about four miles distance, as near as I could guess, for the Laplanders know nothing about the matter.
The inhabitants of this country no longer use bows and arrows, but rifle-guns loaded with bullets, not with small shot.
They wear no stockings. Their breeches, made of the coarse and slight woollen cloth of the country called _walmal_, reach down to their feet, tapering gradually to the bottom, and are tied with a bandage over their half boots.
I observed the Red Whortle-berries (_Vaccinium Vitis Idæa_) were here of a larger size than in the country lower down; but Juniper on the contrary was very diminutive, and grew mostly in fens or watery places. The Crake berries (_Empetrum nigrum_) were as large as the Black Bilberry. Close to a waterfall in Juita Rotogviek or Rootforsen, in a marsh on the right hand, I found Herb Paris (_Paris quadrifolia_), _Aconitum lycoctonum_ and _Thalictrum_ (_flavum_). But what most surprised and pleased me was the little round-leaved Yellow Violet, with a branched stem, and narrow, smooth, not bearded, petals, described by Morison, which had not before been observed in Sweden (_Viola biflora_).
Several kinds of Willows grew every where near the water, but had not yet displayed their leaves.
I came to a hut, consisting of eighteen posts, covered with _walmal_, or coarse cloth, ten feet long and eight broad. Also some winter huts, the poles of which the Laplanders remove with them from place to place. Each hut is formed with three poles, forked at the top. Under the shelter of these huts or tents were suspended dried fish, cheese, clothes, pots and various utensils. There were neither walls nor doors, consequently no locks to protect them.
At length meeting with a very long shelvy contraction in the river, we were obliged to quit our boat, and go by land in search of a Laplander to serve as my guide further on, whom we expected to find at a place a mile distant. But it appeared to me full a mile and half, over hills and valleys, rivulets and stones. The hills were clad with Ling and with _Empetrum_, which entangled our feet at every step; not to mention the trees lying in all directions in our way, and over which we were obliged to climb. The marshy spots were not less difficult to pass over. The Bog-moss (_Sphagnum_) afforded but a treacherous support for our feet, and the Dwarf Birch (_Betula nana_) entangled our legs.