Turning Round The Corner Of One Of The Ill-Built Houses, We Suddenly Ran Over A Diminutive Little Personage In A White Woollen Tunic, Bordered With Red And Yellow Stripes, Green Trousers, Fastened Round The Ankles, And Reindeer Boots, Curving Up At The Toes Like Turkish Slippers.

On her head - for notwithstanding the trousers, she turned out to be a lady - was perched a gay parti-coloured cap, fitting close round the face, and running up at the back into an overarching peak of red cloth.

Within this peak was crammed - as I afterwards learnt - a piece of hollow wood, weighing about a quarter of a pound, into which is fitted the wearer's back hair; so that perhaps, after all, there does exist a more in, convenient coiffure than a Paris bonnet.

Hardly had we taken off our hats, and bowed a thousand apologies for our unintentional rudeness to the fair inhabitant of the green trousers, before a couple of Lapp gentlemen hove in sight. They were dressed pretty much like their companion, except that an ordinary red night-cap replaced the queer helmet worn by the lady; and the knife and sporran fastened to their belts, instead of being suspended in front as hers were, hung down against their hips. Their tunics, too, may have been a trifle shorter. None of the three were beautiful. High cheek-bones, short noses, oblique Mongol eyes, no eyelashes, and enormous mouths, composed a cast of features which their burnt-sienna complexion, and hair like ill-got-in hay did not much enhance.

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