Three daughters of Tuoni are mentioned in the runes, the first of whom, a tiny, black maiden, but great in wickedness, once at least showed a touch of human kindness when she vainly urged Wainamoinen not to cross the river of Tuoui, assuring the hero that while many visit Manala, few return, because of their inability to brave her father’s wrath.  Finally, after much entreaty, she ferried him over the Finnish Styx, like Charon, the son of Erebus and Nox, in the mythology of Greece.  The second daughter of Tuoni is Lowyatar, black and blind, and is described as still more malignant and loathsome than the first.  Through the East-wind’s impregnation she brought forth the spirits of the nine diseases most dreaded by mankind, as described in the 45th Rune of the Kalevala: 

“Colic, Pleurisy, and Fever. 
Ulcer, Plague, and dread Consumption,
Gout, Sterility, and Cancer.”

The third daughter of Tuoni combines the malevolent and repugnant attributes of her two sisters, and is represented as the mother and hostess of the impersonal diseases of mankind.  The Finns regarded all human ailments as evil spirits or indwelling devils, some formless, others taking the shapes of the most odious forms of animal life, as worms and mites; the nine, however, described above, were conceived to have human forms.

Where the three arms of the Tuoni river meet a frightful rock arises, called Kipu-Kivi, or Kipuvuori, in a dungeon beneath which the spirits of all diseases are imprisoned.  On this rock the third daughter of Tuoui sits, constantly whirling it round like a millstone, grinding her subjects until they escape and go forth to torture and slay the children of men; as in Hindu mythology, Kali (black) sits in judgment on the dead.

Various other spiritual powers than gods and goddesses are held in high reverence by the Finns.  Tontu is represented as a kind-hearted house-spirit, a sort of diminutive Cyclops, and offerings of bread and broth are made to him every morning.  Putting a mare’s collar on one’s neck and walking nine times around a church is thought to be a certain means of attracting one to the place desired.  Para is a mystical, three-legged being, constructed in many ways, and which, according to Castren, attains life and action when its possessor, cutting the little finger of his left hand, lets three drops of blood fall upon it, and at the same time pronouncing the proper magic word.  The possessor, by whatever means, of this mystic being, is always supplied with abundance of milk and cheese.  The Maahiset are the dwarfs of Finnish mythology.  Their abode is under stumps, trees, blocks, thresholds and hearth-stones.  Though exceedingly minute and invisible to man they have human forms.  They are irritable and resentful, and they punish with ulcers, tetter, ringworms, pimples, and other cutaneous affections, all those who neglect them at brewings, bakings, and feastings.  They punish in a similar manner those who enter new houses without making obeisance to the four corners, and paying them other kindly attentions; those who live in untidy houses are also likewise punished.  The Kirkonwaeki (church-folk) are little deformed beings living under the altars of churches.  These misshapen things are supposed to be able to aid their sorrowing and suffering worshipers.