The Hero of Esthonia | Page 5

persons.
"He now possesses, as the result of three and a half years' work of this
nature, epics, lyrics, wedding-songs, &c., upwards of 20,000 items;
tales, about 3000; proverbs, about 18,000; riddles, about 20,000.
Besides these he has a large collection of magical formulæ,
superstitions, &c.
"He has only been able to accomplish these extraordinary results by his
having been able to awaken popular interest in the subject."[2]

I am glad to hear from my friend Dr. Kaarle Krohn, to whom I have
been indebted for much useful information and assistance in my own
studies, that part of the results of these great collections are likely to be
published very shortly. Of course a great number of tales and songs are
merely variants. Many relate to legends belonging rather to the
Kalevala than to the Kalevipoeg.
In Dr. Krohn's important paper, Die geographische Verbreitung
Estnischer Lieder, published in 1892, he divides Esthonia and Northern
Livonia into several districts, and marks the number of variants
obtained in each. It may be interesting to summarise the latter, to show
the extent to which the collection of variants has been carried on in
Esthonia.
1. Legend of the creation of the earth and of the origin of the heavenly
bodies, 62 variants.
2. Salme and her suitors, 160 variants; and 33 relative to the celestial
suitors.
3. The Great Ox, 24 variants.
4. The Great Oak, 130 variants, and 61 relative to its fragments.
5. The Weeping Oak, 61 variants.
6. The origin of the harp and of boating, three variations, with 19, 39,
and 17 variants respectively.
7. The bride of gold and silver, 52 variants.
8. Songs of the Seluks or Orthodox Esths, 91 variants.
[Footnote 2: Kirby in "Papers and Transactions of International
Folk-lore Congress of 1891," p. 429.]

MYTHOLOGY

We can, I think, trace Finnish and Esthonian religion through four
well-marked stages.
1. Fetishism, as seen in the story of the Treasure-Bringer, and in the
account given of the origin of various animals, &c.
2. Nature-worship.
3. Transitional stage, well marked in the Kalevala, where the heroes
sometimes pray to the gods in conventional Christian phraseology, and
at other times try to compel their assistance by invocations and spells.
This stage is also seen in the strange travesty of the Nativity in the last
Runo of the Kalevala; and indeed, one of the older writers says that the
favourite deities of the Finns in his time were Väinämöinen and the
Virgin Mary. But this stage is much less visible in the Kalevipoeg,
which is, on the whole, a more archaic and more heathenish poem than
the Kalevala.
4. Mediæval Christianity.
The gods belong to the stage of Nature-worship. The supreme god is
Taara, to whom the oak is sacred. The most celebrated of his sacred
oak-forests was in the neighbourhood of Dorpat. Thursday is his day;
whence it is more often mentioned in popular tales than any other day
in the week. He is also called Uko or Ukko (the Old God), by which
name he is usually known in the Kalevala; and also Vana Isa, or Old
Father. The Christian God is called Jumal or Jumala, and is probably to
be identified with Taara. Ukko or Taara is the ancestor and protector of
the heroes; he attended with Rõugutaja at the birth of the Kalevipoeg,
watched over and protected him during his life, sometimes appeared to
counsel him in visions, received him in his heavenly halls after death,
and assigned to him his future employment.
Ukko's daughters are Lindu and Jutta, the queens of the birds; and
Siuru, who is described as a blue bird herself. Possibly these may be all
the same; and the first at least may be identical with Kalev's bride,
Linda, who was born from an egg, and whose name is evidently
derived from lind or lindu, a bird.

Äike, Kõu, Paristaja, Pikne, Piker, or Pikker, is the god of thunder, and
some of his names connect him with the Lithuanian Perkunas. He
thunders across the iron bridges of the skies in his chariot; and hurls his
thunderbolts at the demons, like Thor. He also possesses a musical
instrument, of which the demons stand in great terror. He has a
ne'er-do-weel son, who has dealings with the Devil, and a mischievous
little daughter, called the Air-Maiden.
Ahti, the god of the waters, is mentioned occasionally, but much less
frequently than Ahto in the Kalevala. He must not be confounded with
Ahti, one of the names of the hero Lemminkainen in the latter poem.
Rõugutaja is the god of the winds and waves, and attends specially on
births. In one story, however, he appears rather in the character of a
morose wood-demon with very undesirable family connections than as
a god. This is very probably due to