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built so as to pollute the stream, was burnt down by the zealous guardians of its honor. We are even told that not only animals, but children, were offered to it. The Esthonians also revered the lake Eim, concerning which Fr. Thiersch relates the following legend:

Savage, evil men dwelt by its borders. They neither mowed the meadow which it watered, nor sowed the fields that it made fruitful, but robbed and murdered, insomuch that its clear waves grew dark with the blood of the slaughtered men. Then did the lake mourn, and one evening it called together all its fishes, and rose aloft with them into the air. When the robbers heard the sound, they exclaimed: 'Eim hath arisen: let us gather its fishes and treasures.' But the fishes had departed with the lake, and nothing was found on the bottom but snakes and lizards and toads. And Eim rose higher and higher, and hastened through the air like a white cloud. And the hunters in the forest

said, 'What bad weather is coming on!'-the herdsmen: What a white swan is flying above there!' For the whole night the lake hovered among the stars, and in the morning the reapers beheld it sinking. And from the swan grew a white ship, and from the ship a dark train of clouds; and a voice came from the waters: Get thee hence with thy harvest, for I will dwell beside thee.' Then they bade the lake welcome, if it would only bedew their fields and meadows; and it sank down and spread itself out in its home to the full limits. And they set the bed in order, and built dams, and planted young trees on the bank to cool the waters. Then the lake made all the neighborhood fruitful, and the fields became green, and the people danced around it, so that the old man grew joyous as a youth."

In Finnland the water-god was Ahti, or Ahto, on the etymology of which name the Finnish language throws no light Castrén, however, compares it with the Sanskrit ahis, lake, and the Old-Norse ahi, the world-surrounding serpent, that is, the sea, (agir, Lat. æquor.) Like other Finnish deities, he is represented as an aged venerable man; but he wears a robe of foam, and is bearded with grass like a Roman river-god. This Water-host, or Wave-king, as he is called, dwells with his stern and aged spouse, Vellámo, at the bottom of the sea, in a chasm called Salmon-rock or Fish-court, where his palace Ahtola is built. He possesses (besides the fishes, his peculium) an untold treasure, which he has acquired in consequence of fragments of the mystical, luck-bringing Sampo having been sunk in the sea by the Hostess of Pohjola. Although greedy for

the goods of others, and seldom returning. any portion of what falls into his hands, he is by no means incapable of generosity. He receives the drowned with hearty kindness, and once, when a herd-boy was chipping wood on a river-bank, and his knife fell into the water, Ahti (like the god in the Æsopean fable of Mercury and the Woodman)—

had befallen him, came swimming to shore, "Moved by his weeping over the mischance that dived down to the bed of the river, and brought up from thence a golden knife. Full of honest innocence, the boy assured the god that that knife did not belong to him. Then Ahti dived down a second time, and brought up a silver knife, and when the boy refused to take this also, Ahti betook himself a third time to the knife, which the boy gladly recognized as his river-bed and brought from thence the right own. To reward the child for his upright dealing, Ahti gave him the three knives.”

The other water-gods appear in the rivers under the general names of Ahtolaiset, (inhabitants of Ahtola,) "Waterpeople," "Vellamo's eternal people," etc. They are sometimes mentioned as the children, sometimes as the subjects, of Ahti and Vellamo. They did not confine themselves to the sea, but were met with in lakes, rivers, fountains, and streams. Some had special names: as Aallotar, (wavegoddess,) Koskenneti, (waterfall-maiden,) Melatar, (rudder-goddess,) etc. We find nothing noteworthy concerning any of them except Pikku Mies (the little man,) who once when the human race was deprived of sunshine by the branches of a colossal tree brought forth by the earth in her primal rankness, yielded to the prayers of the hero Væinæmöinen, and came forth from the sea with a copper axe in his girdle, gradually gained Titanic bulk and height, and felled the tree at his third stroke. They were in general kindly and helpful; some, however, such as Turso and Vetehinen, used their power for annoyance and destruction. These names are remarkable as indicating that the Finnish system of belief was to some extent influenced by the mythologies of the neighboring populations-Turso being clearly cognate with the Scandinavian thurs, (as in Hirmthursar, the evil rimegiants,) while Vetehinen (from vesi water) is the water-demon, called by the slaves Vodennoi. The Scandinavian Neck, concerning whom Mr. Matthew Arnold has

sung so exquisite a ballad, also appears in | ornaments, wearing garlands, hair-bands, Finnland, under the name of Nækki, and ear-rings, all of gold, with pearls on her with the peculiarity of having iron teeth-eyebrows, and blue stockings and red a mythological expression of a current's shoe-strings on her feet. But if the bag edacious and enduring powers. were empty, it was asserted that the goddess was a hateful and hideous being, clothed in rags and shod with grass.

The earth was doubtless originally regarded by the Finns as a god-like being, and then endowed with a personal She keeps the keys of the treasury in deity represented as a gracious mother Tapiola, her husband's habitation, and her bestowing existence and nurture on man chest of liquid honey (the food of all the and other living creatures. We find ac- forest deities) stands on a golden hillock cordingly the two appellations: Maa-emæ in a glade. The tired hunter often prays (mother-earth) applied to the maternal for a drink from this chest. With her earth, and Maan-emo, (mother of the husband, children, and servants, she earth,) given to the Finnish Demeter. watches over the wild beasts and herds of She is a powerful goddess, and when duly cattle. These wood deities are invariainvoked, ever willing to aid the weak and bly represented as mild and gentle-hearted, helpless. According to some mytholo- doubtless because they were all females gists, she is espoused to Ukko, the sky- with the exceptions of Tapio, and his son god, who blesses her children with rain Nyyrikki, a stately youth, who employs and warmth; and she cares for the fer- himself in building bridges over the tility of females as well as for that of morasses, through which the cattle would fields. It is unnecessary to particularize otherwise have to struggle on the road to the minor terrene deities who respective- the summer pastures, and in cutting ly govern trees, hemp, flax, rye, etc. One guide-marks on the forest trees, lest alone is mentioned in the Kalevala, Viro- hunters should lose their way among the kannas, the aged, who leaves for a time woods and mountains. This latter occuhis presidency over oats in order to bap-pation is also carried on by the little Simatize the Virgin's infant. Little attention seems to have been paid to these agricultural deities, the Finns, with their cold climate and barren soil, naturally neglecting cultivation for hunting, fishing, and cattle-breeding. But the gods of the forests were held in high veneration. Their chief was Tapio, the watchful, "the forest-friend"-benignus ac facetus like the Roman Faunus. He is described as a tall slender old man, wearing a dark brown beard, a high-crowned hat of fir leaves, and a coat of tree-moss. His spouse was Mielikki, (gracious,) "the forest hostess," "the honey-rich mother of the forest." Success in hunting was considered in Finnland, as well as in Greece, to depend on the favor of the wood-gods. Our readers may remember the allusion in Theocritus to the pelting and tearing and nettle-stings inflicted on Pan by the unsuccessful Arcadian sportsman. The Finnish system was more refined and perhaps equally effectual. If the hunters had been fortunate, Mielikki was described in their songs as gentle and beautiful,

"Fine her shift, and soft her kirtle,

With her lovely locks all golden;"

having her hands glittering with golden

Suu (Honeymouth,) one of Tapio's maidens, who plays besides on Sima-pilli, (Honeyflute;) and in one of the runes is implored by a hunter to waken Mielikki with her music, that the goddess might listen to his prayers for success.

The forest-demons are few in number, but strong in wickedness. Their chief, Hiisi, is the Finnish Devil. He closely resembles the Samoyedan Parné,

He

"An evil being, who dwells [like the Italian Orco] deep in the forest and pursues men. has only three fingers on each hand; but his fingers are furnished with sharp nails, wherewith he rends those who fall into his power. tent, reindeer, nor clothes. He devours all his offerings, and has neither He always travels on foot, and is a swift runner. He has no wife, but some true comrades, who always associate with him."

Hiisi was brought into the world along with Syæjætær, from whose spittle he formed the snake, and is described as immeasurably strong and horrible. He sends the sorest pains and diseases that afflict mortals, and generally assists in all the evil that is done throughout the world. He is frequently identified, with Juutas (Judas?), Piru, (perhaps the old Slavonic Perun, the thunder-god,) and Lempo, a

purely Finnish word, originally allotted to the representative of evil in its most comprehensive meaning. His name has in modern times been employed to express the Christian hell, just as Hades ultimately became a synonym for Erebus.

Turning from the external world to man himself, we meet with some gods whose energies find a field only within the sphere of human existence.

"These deities, however, (says Castrén,) have no dealing with the higher, spiritual, supersensual nature of man. All that they do concerns man solely as an object in nature. Wisdom and law, virtue and justice, find in the Finnish mythology no protector among the gods, who

trouble themselves only about the temporal

wants of humanity."

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This conception is, however, as modern as it is puerile; the ancient Finns' lovedeity was Lempo, whom we have already mentioned as identical with the spirit of evil; and their selection of him was doubtless due to their way of looking on love as a wild suffering, which bordered on madness, and was excited some how by an evil enchanter. Sleep Uni, was, as might be expected, personified as a friendly and gentle deity. The lazy Untamo was the god of dreams. Munnu cured diseases of the eye; Lemmas, a female deity, healed wounds and assuaged their pain. The most singular of this group was Suonetar, who occupied herself in spinning veins and sinews wherewith she supplied such of her worshipers as stood in need of her surgical aid. Other deities connected with human requirements were the Sinettäret and Kankahattaret, the goddesses, respectively, of dyeing and weaving. Matka-Teppo (journey-Stephen) was the road-god, and Aarni the guardian of hidden treasure. This employment was also pursued by a being called Mammelainen, whom Renwall, the Finnish lexicoprapher, describes as "femina maligna, matrix serpentis, divitiarum subterranearum custos." Hence it ap

pears that the idea of a connection between hoards and serpents, so frequent in the myths of the Slaves and Germans, is by no means alien to the popular mind in Finnland.

In nowise are the inconsistencies of man's practice with his theories more curiously shown than in the customs existing among those Finnish tribes who disbelieve in a future state, and nevertheless perform various ceremonies-such as placing in or upon the graves of the deceased food and clothing, axes, knives, kettles, flint and steel, sledges, and spears, which evidence their practical recognition of some form of life beyond the

Lapps, incapable, like all savages, of complete abstraction from the material-believe that the spirits of the dead are furwhich they have animated upon earth; nished with new bodies strong as those while others consider ghosts as invisible to all but the Shamans, as immaterial to a certain extent, (not so much so as to enable them to dispense with nourishment,) and either as abiding in the grave or the kingdom of the dead, or else as wandering through the darkness and storms of night, and giving signs of their presence in the howling of the wind, the rustling of leaves, the crackling of fire, etc. All the tribes, however, agree in considering the dead hostile to the living, in regarding them with terror, and in adopting measures to prevent their return to earthsuch as casting red-hot stones behind their coffins, surrounding their graves with palings, making them bribe-offerings, or, finally, invoking the aid of Shamanism.

tomb. Some Finnish tribes-such as the

The ancient Finns, however, like the Greeks and Norsemen, were used occasionally to crave help and counsel from the dead. Thus, when Väinämöinen needed three magic words in order to complete the boat in which he was to sail to the Virgin of Pohjola's, he betook himself to the grave of the songful giant, Vipúnen, roused him from his death-sleep, and received the necessary information. And still the Shaman, when he falls into his trance, is believed to wander through the subterranean regions, gaining wisdom and strength from his converse with the departed.

The earliest notion of the Finnlanders with regard to the dead was that they spent their shadowy existence in their graves, over which the god Kalma

(corpse-smell) presided, with his evil daughter, who gave the serpent its poisonous gums. Not till long after were the dead conceived to inhabit Tuonéla, or Manála, a subterranean kingdom, ruled by Tuóni. So in the ancient Latin cosmology there was, according to Mr. Keightley, no place answering to the Hellenic Erebus. Travelers to Manála must voyage over nine seas and a half, as well as one river, of great vehemence, which contains seething whirlpools and a perilous waterfall.

spirits of all diseases are imprisoned. The goddess sits on the rock, whirls it round like a millstone, and grinds her subjects until they escape and go forth to torture mortals-a singular myth, the creator of which was, perhaps, actuated by a certain analogy between the fineness of flour-dust and the subtle nature of morbific influences.

The idea of a system of future rewards and punishments seems never to have occurred to the purely Pagan Finns; and the tone of the exhortation delivered by Væinæmöinen, on returning from the expedition above referred to, is doubtless due to the introduction of Christianity :

"In the course of your existence
Deal not ill, O sons of mortals,
With the men whose souls are sinless;
Leave the innocent unharmed.
Evil are the wages paid one
In the household of Tuóni.
There is set the couch of sinners;
There the bed of evil-doers;
Under stones that burn forever,
Under blocks of glowing granite,
With a coverlet of serpents,
Of Tuóni's swarthy reptiles."

Like the Scandinavian Helheim, Tuonela was deemed analogous to the upper world. The sun shone there: land and water, forest and field, gave shelter to bears, pikes, wolves, and snakes. But the forests were gloomy, the waters black: from the grains produced by the corn-fields, the serpent, or the so-called Tuoni-worm, had taken its teeth. The ruler of this region is an unyielding and merciless old man, with three fingers, and a hat hanging down on his shoulders. Like Hades, as originally conceived, Tuóni is described as being himself the leader of the dead to the under-world, as well as their guardian and governor. In the latter capacities he is aided by his wife, a hag with hooked, Besides the gods and goddesses, there iron-pointed fingers and a distorted chin, were various spiritual beings in whom the and called in the runes, ironically, hyvæ Finns believed. The Haltiat we have alemæntæ, (the good hostess,) the customary ready mentioned as the powers presiding food of her guests being frogs and ser- over all objects in nature. The Tonttu pents. Tuonen poika, "the red-cheeked," was a good-natured, one-eyed brownie, or as he is called from his blood-thirstiness, house-spirit. He was held in high honor, is the son and assistant of this hateful and offerings of broth were made to him pair. They had also three daughters, the every morning. Putting a mare's collar first of whom, though wicked, black, and on your neck, and walking nine times small, is memorable as having once exhi- round the church, was a sure mode of atbited kindly feeling, when she vainly ad- tracting one to your house. They evivised Væinämöinen to give up his expedi- dently came originally from Sweden, tion to the under-world, and not to brave where the tomte i gården is still believed her father's wrath. Charon-like, she fer- in. The Para also originated in the Sweried the hero across the river of Tuonela. dish Bjæran, or Bare, a magical threeThe black and eyeless Loviatar, the sec-legged being, manufactured in various ond daughter, is described as still more hateful. Impregnated by the wind, she brought forth the spirits of our nine most fatal ailments, plague, consumption, etc. The third daughter is the goddess of diseases.* Where three arms of the hellriver meet, a rock uprises, called Kipukivi, or Kipu-vuori, beneath which the

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ways, and which, says Castrén, attained life and motion when its possessor, cutting the little finger of his left hand, let three drops of blood fall on it, at the same time pronouncing the proper spell. The owner of this being, by fair means or foul, had had always abundance of milk and cheese. The Maahiset (maa, earth) are the dwarfs of Finnland. They dwell in the earth, under trees, stones, and thresholds. Though infinitely small, and invisible to ordinary mortals, they possess human forms. Their tempers are irritable, and

they punish with pimples, ringworm, and other skin diseases, those who neglect them at bakings, brewings, and entertainments; who enter new houses without bowing to the four corners, and paying other attentions to the subterranean inhabitants; or who in any wise happen to pollute their habitations. The Kirkonwæki (church-folk) are little misshapen beings, who dwell in churches under the altars. When their wives are in labor, they richly reward any female Christian who comes and relieves the sufferers by laying her hand upon them.

Various beasts and birds were held sacred by the Finns. We find traces of the arctolatry, or bear-worship, once so widely diffused through the north. Ohto, the bear, was born near the sun and moon, on the shoulders of Otáva, and nursed by the goddess of the forest in a cradle slung by a band of gold to the branch of a budding fir-tree. His nurse refused to give him teeth until she received his promise to abstain from acts of violence. Ohto, as is well known, frequently breaks this promise, and the Finnish hunters have accordingly been able to reconcile their consciences to his destruction. He is called the Apple of the Forest, the beautiful Honey-claw, the Pride of the Thicket, etc. Swift dogs were the offspring of the West wind (Ahava) by Penitar, (she-whelp,) a blind woman in Pohjola, just as Achilles' horses, Xanthos and Balios, sprung from Zephyros and the harpy Podarge. As to birds, the eagle according to some traditions, the wild duck according to others, took part in the creation of the world. The North-wind, Puhuri, the father of Pakkanen, (frost,) sometimes, like the Eddaic giant, Hræsvelgr, was imaged as an eagle. The cuckoo, also, is held to have fertilized the earth by his song. The didapper is deemed sacred, because it foresees and proclaims the approach of rain. The milky way is called linnunrata, bird-way, probably from some legend, like those of the Swedes and Slaves, in which liberated souls assume the forms of gray or snowy dovelets. Among insects, the bees-the loyal Musarum volucres, gathering honey, the dɛìa ¿dwdź of the gods, from flowers and trees, as poets gain thought from all things fair and highwere of course regarded as sacred.* The

*We find traces of this reverence for bees in the popular creeds of various nations. The Welsh tradi

butterfly (Ukon koira, Ukko's dog) seems appropriated to the ruler of heaven. We may observe that the Bretons, not irreverently, call butterflies feathers from the wings of God.

In the department of inanimate nature, certain mountains, rocks, lakes, rivers, and springs were held especially holy. Among trees, too, we find the oak the δρυς vikouos Aiós-called in the Kalevala puu jumalan, God's tree. The mountain-ash, or rowan tree, (esculus Jovi sacra,) is also, even at the present day, regarded with reverence, and peasants plant it gladly by their dwellings.* The sacred trees of Finnland, like many excellent persons among ourselves, were by no means insensible to the pleasure of witnessing the misfortunes of those who become skeptical as to their divine qualities; and it was with full appreciation of this truth that the Pagan Tavastlanders, (as we find from a bull of Gregory IX.,) martyrized certain of their countrymen who had become converts to Christianity, by hunting them to death round the trees aforesaid.

Having now touched on all that the Finns held spiritual or sacred, we come to consider their giants. Respecting these we find nothing in Castrén's work, and the following notices are gleaned from Grimm's Teutonic Mythology. The giants of Finnland, he observes, are distinguished by their cunning and ferocity from the stupid, good-natured monsters of Germany and Scandinavia. Soini, for example, (who seems to be the same as Kullervo, the hero of the mournfullest episode of the Kalevala,)

"when three days old, tore his swaddling-cloth asunder. Sold to a Karelian smith, he was told to wait on a child; but he tore its eyes out, killed it, and burnt the cradle. His master then ordered him to fence the fields in; but he took entire firs and pine trees, and interwove them with serpents. He had then to tend the herds:

tion is perhaps the most remarkable: "The origin of bees is from Paradise, and on account of the sin of man they came from thence, and God conferred his blessing upon them; and therefore the mass can not be sung without the wax."-The Gwentian Code, xxvii., Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales,

1841.

* Virgil has:

"Esculus in primis, quæ quantum vertice ad auras Etherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit."

In the west of Ireland branches of the mountain-ash are sometimes tied round churns, to keep the butter from being witched away

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