Certain beasts, and birds, and trees, are held sacred in Finland.  In the Kalevala are evident traces of arctolatry, bear-worship, once very common among the tribes of the north, Otso, the bear, according to Finnish mythology, was born on the shoulders of Otava, in the regions of the sun and moon, and “nursed by a goddess of the woodlands in a cradle swung by bands of gold between the bending branches of budding fir-trees.”  His nurse would not give him teeth and claws until he had promised never to engage in bloody strife, or deeds of violence.  Otso, however, does not always keep his pledge, and accordingly the hunters of Finland find it comparatively easy to reconcile their consciences to his destruction.  Otso is called in the runes by many endearing titles as “The Honey-Eater,” “Golden Light-Foot,” “The Forest-Apple,” “Honey-Paw of the Mountains,” “ThePride of the Thicket,” “The Fur-robed Forest-Friend.”  Ahava, the West-wind, and Penitar, a blind old witch of Sariola, are the parents of the swift dogs of Finland, just as the horses of Achilles, Xanthos and Belios, sprang from Zephyros and the harpy Podarge.

As to birds, the duck, according to the Kalevala, the eagle, according to other traditions, lays the mundane egg, thus taking part in the creation of the world.  Puhuri, the north-wind, the father of Pakkanen (frost) is sometimes personified as a gigantic eagle.  The didapper is reverenced because it foretells the approach of rain.  Linnunrata (bird-path) is the name given to the Milky-way, due probably to a myth like those of the Swedes and Slavs, in which liberated songs take the form of snow-white dovelets.  The cuckoo to this day is sacred, and is believed to have fertilized the earth with his songs.  As to insects, honey-bees, called by the Finns, Mehilainen, are especially sacred, as in the mythologies of many other nations.  Ukkon-koiva (Ukko’s dog) is the Finnish name for the butterfly, and is looked upon as a messenger of the Supreme Deity.  It may be interesting to observe here that the Bretons in reverence called butterflies, “feathers from the wings of God.”

As to inanimate nature, certain lakes, rivers, springs, and fountains, are held in high reverence.  In the Kalevala the oak is called Pun Jumalan (God’s tree).  The mountain-ash even to this day, and the birch-tree, are held sacred, and peasants plant them by their cottages with reverence.

Respecting the giants of Finnish mythology, Castren is silent, and the following notes are gleaned from the Kalevala, and from Grimm’s Teutonic Mythology.  “The giants,” says Grimm, “are distinguished by their cunning and ferocity from the stupid, good-natured monsters of Germany and Scandinavia.”  Soini, for example a synonym of Kullervo, the here of the saddest episode of the Kalevala when only three days old, tore his swaddling clothes to tatters.  When sold to a forgeman of Karelia, he was ordered