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LAAB, a town of Lower Austria, on the river
Teya, 39 m. N. by W. of Vienna. Long. 16. 20.
E., lat. 48. 43. N.
Laos, a town of Austrian Illyria, in Carniola,
with a trade in salt, leather, and horses. 12 m.
S. of Laubach.
Laasphe, or Lasphe, a town of Germany, in the
Prussian states, seated on the Lahn, 75 m. E. of
Cologne.
Looadia, a town of Austrian Italy, seated on
the Adirge, 20 m. N. N. W. of Ferrara.
Laber, a river of Bavaria, in Franconia, which
rises near Neumark, and falls into the Danube at
Sinzing, above Ratisbon.
Labes, a town of Prussia, in Pomerania, with
manufactures of cloth ; seated on the Reca, 35 m.
N. E. of Stargard.
Labia, a town of European Turkey, in Servia,
70 m. S. W. of Nissa.
Labiau, a town of East Prussia, with a strong
castle, seated at the mouth of the Deine, near the
Curische Haff, 25 m. N. E. of Konigsberg. |
Labrador, a country of North America, on the
E. side of Hudson Bay.. The general aspect of
the country is most dreary : the surface is moun-
tainous and rugged, and covered with large stones,
and the soil is poor. Coarse plants, adapted to
the nourishment of deer and goats and other
wild animals, are its chief productions. The cli-
mate, in only lat. 47. N., is excessively cold dur-
ing winter. The ice begins to disappear in May,
and about the middle of July commences hot
weather, which at times is such as to scorch the
face of the hunters. Moqk suns and halos are
not unfrequent; and the night is enlivened by
the aurora borealis, which spreads over the whole
sky. No country is better furnished with large,
safe, and convenient harbours, or supplied with
better water. The numerous islands along the
E. coast abound with eider ducks and other wa
terfowl, and also with hares, foxes, and deer.
The animals are not numerous ; the most com-
mon are reindeer, bears, wolves, tigers, foxes,
beavers, otters, lynxes, martens, ermines, wild
cats. The Labrador jumping mouse is common
to this country and to all the interior as far as
Slave lake. Eagles, hawks, owls, geese, bustards,
ducks, partridges, and all kinds of wild fowl are
numerous. The fishes are whales, morses, seals,
cod, and a white fish preferable to herrings ; and
in the rivers and fresh waters are pike, perch,
carp, trout, &c. During the 3 months of summer
there is a variety in the color of the several ani-
mals, but in winter everything, animate and in-
animate, is white. The trees of Labrador are
mere shrubs,, with the exception of the black,
white, and red spruce, silver fir, birch, and aspen.
A few vegetables are produced, and various kinds
of fruit. A beautiful-spar, called Labrador stone,
was discovered by the Moravian Missionaries,
who have successfully exerted themselves in im-
proving the condition of the natives. They have
now 3 settlements on these inhospitable shores,
the total pop. of which is about 600. The natives
are called Esquimaux. They have no fixed aboc’"',
but rove from place to place, and sometimes come
as far as Newfoundland. They are of a differen.
race from the other native Americans; for the
other tribes have no beards, but these have them
so thick and large that it is difficult to discover
any feature of their faces; they are likewise the
only savages that eat their food in a raw state.
They are of a middling stature, generally robust,
lazy, and of a brown color. Their head is large,
and their face round and flat; they have thick
lips, a flat nose, long hlack hair, large shoulders,
and uncommonly small feet. They are always
well clothed; for there is nothing to be seen but part
of their faces and their hands. They have a sort of
shirt made of the guts of fish, with a coat of bear
or bird skins, and a cap on their head. They have
likewise breeches made of skins, with the hair in-
wards, and covered with furs without; also two
pair of boots, one over another, of the same
sort of skins. In summer, they have nothing
to cover them in the night; and in the winter,
they lodge in tents made of hides, or in caves.
The dress ofthe women is nearly the same as that
of the men. They are very superstitious, and
have some sort of sacrifices They acknowledge
two invisible essences, the one has the origin of
good ; the other, to whom they pay the most hom-
age, as the origin of every species of evil. Their
chief employment is hunting and fishing. They
are very covetous; and pay so little regard to
private property as to take every advantage of
bodily strength to rob their neighbours, not only
of their goods but their wives. In other respects
they are the mildest tribe, or nation, that is to be
found on the borders of Hudson Bay. Murder,
which is so common among all the tribes of south-
ern Indians, is seldom heard of among them. A
murderer is shunned and detested by all the tribe
and is forsaken even by his relations and former
friends. The women perform the most laborious
offices ; they pitch the tents, carry or haul bur-
dens, make or mend clothes, and prepare the vict-
uals. When any thing is prepared for eating, the
wives and daughters are never served till all the
males have taken what they think proper.
Laby, a considerable town of Western Africa,
in the kingdom of Foota Jalloo. It is upwards of
2 m. in circumference and contains 5,000 inhabi-
tants, who are employed in the manufacture of
narrow cloths, and various articles in iron, silver,
wood, leather, &c., and carry on a good trade
with Tombuctoo, which is four months’ journey
beyond.
Laccadives, a group of small islands in the In-
dian Sea, lying W. of the coast of Malabar, dis-
covered by Vasco de Gama, in 1449. They are
32 in number : and are inhabited ty a race of
Mahomedans called Moplays, whose chief traffic
is in the produce of the cocoa palm, such as oil,
cables, and cordage; and in dried fish. These
are sent to the continent of India, whence they |
