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THE QUAINS.
115
cover up our bodies, our bands, our feet, and even our
noses, with furs and wool; but the eyes must be exposed,
or their necessary work cannot be done. They are the
only organs that must not be covered, and they alone
may bear with impunity continuous exposure to the
most intense cold to which our earth is subject. I said
may bear with impunity such exposure, but it is not
all eyes that can. There is one part that is somewhat
sensitive to cold: the little red prominence in the inner
corner. The natives of the icy regions of the globe
have this small corner covered by a special growth of
the eyelid, and thus the adaptation is complete.
Suppose the case reversed—the teeth to be covered
with a membrane perfectly sensitive to the slightest
mechanical violence, and the eyes to be of all parts
of the body the most sensitive to variations of heat
and cold; the sense of pain would then be a
malignant infliction: but as it is, we see in it a beneficent
ordinance, an ever-watchful guardian warning us to
protect and to abstain from injuring that exquisite
mechanism, that life-evolving laboratory entrusted to
our charge, but which in our ignorance, wilfulness, and
sensuality we abuse so frequently, and therefore pay
the penalty.
The Quains are natives of Finland; although many of
them have settled in Norway, especially in the vicinity
of the Kaafiord and the Alten valley. Both Quains
and Laplanders are called Finns by the Norwegians:
they are sometimes distinguished as Lapp-Finns and
Quain-Finns. These Quains, or Estlionians, are usually
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