ike the Finns where nature and nature-worship
form the centre of all their life, every word connected with the powers
and elements of nature must be given its fall value, great care has
been taken in rendering these finely shaded verbs. A glance at the
mythology of this interesting people will place the import of this
remark in better view.

In the earliest age of Suomi, it appears that the people worshiped the
conspicuous objects in nature under their respective, sensible forms.
All beings were persons. The Sun, Moon, Stars, the Earth, the Air, and
the Sea, were to the ancient Finns, living, self-conscious beings.
Gradually the existence of invisible agencies and energies was
recognized, and these were attributed to superior persons who lived
independent of these visible entities, but at the same time were
connected with them. The basic idea in Finnish mythology seems to lie
in this: that all objects in nature are governed by invisible deities,
termed haltiat, regents or genii. These haltiat, like members of the
human family, have distinctive bodies and spirits; but the minor ones
are somewhat immaterial and formless, and their existences are entirely
independent of the objects in which they are particularly interested.
They are all immortal, but they rank according to the relative
importance of their respective charges. The lower grades of the
Finnish gods are sometimes subservient to the deities of greater
powers, especially to those who rule respectively the air, the water,
the field, and the forest. Thus, Pilajatar, the daughter of the aspen,
although as divine as Tapio, the god of the woodlands, is necessarily
his servant.
One of the most notable characteristics of the Finnish mythology is
the interdependence among the gods. "Every deity", says Castren,
"however petty he may be, rules in his own sphere as a substantial,
independent power, or, to speak in the spirit of The Kalevala, as a
self-ruling householder. The god of the Polar-star only governs an
insignificant spot in the vault of the sky, but on this spot he knows
no master."

The Finnish deities, like the ancient gods of Italy and Greece, are
generally represented in pairs, and all the gods are probably wedded.
They have their individual abodes and are surrounded by their
respective families. The Primary object of worship among the early
Finns was most probably the visible sky with its sun, moon, and stars,
its aurora-lights, its thunders and