magicians profess to understand the language of birds;
but the passage in the text is probably intended only in jest.

152. In the Icelandic saga of Grettir, the hero mortally wounds
himself in the leg while trying to chop up a piece of driftwood on which
a witch had laid her curse.

179. The Finns supposed that if the origin of any hostile agent was
known, and could be recited to it, its power for evil was at an end. In
Denmark, the naming of any person or thing was an evil omen, and
liable to bring about its destruction.

217, 218. Finnish hamlets are sometimes built on a hillside in the
manner described.

RUNO IX

35, 36. Here we seem to have an allusion to the first chapter of
Genesis.

44. The same epithet, Luonnotar, is sometimes applied to Ilmatar,
and thus Vainamoinen might literally be called the brother of Iron.

111, 112. Pallas Athene sprang armed from the brain of Zeus;
Karna, in India, the son of the Sun, was born with armour and earrings;
and Mexitli in Mexico was born with a spear in his hand.

231. Hornets often build their nests under the eaves of houses.

242. Both frogs and toads exude a more or less poisonous secretion
from the skin.

433. Honeydew seems to be meant here.

525, 526. An imaginary mountain to which the sorcerers professed
to be able to banish pain and sickness.

RUNO X

306. Compare the account of the forging of the Gold and Silver
Bride in Runo XXXVII.

311. "Ilmarinen first employs ordinary servants, and then calls the
winds to his assistance." (K. K.)

331. In the Icelandic sagas, we read of the sword Tyrfing, forged by
dwarfs, which, if ever drawn, could not again be sheathed till it had
slain at least one victim.

332. Literally, "on best days."

414. In the story of Ala Ed-Deen Abush-Shamat, in the _1001 Nights_,
we read of a magic bead with five facets, on which were engraved a
camel, an armed horseman, a pavilion; a couch, etc., according to the
use intended to be made of each facet.

RUNO XI

31-42. Salme and Linda are similarly wooed by the Sun, the
Moon, and a Star in the Esthonian poem, Kalevipoeg (see Kirby's _Hero
of Esthonia_ I., pp. 10-15).

264-266. These names mean respectively Blackies, Strawberries,
Cranberries. "I think Lemminkainen means that he has no cows,
and only calls these different berries his cows." (A. M.)

306. Lemminkainen appears to have been afraid that some one else
might carry off his wife, if she showed herself