Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/25

Rh

May Ukko smash thy head,

O may he crush it into pulp

With his copper waggon—his iron cart.

A sleigh, with posting horses, is all that a spirit requires in order to take his departure, a Finn is quite ready to furnish him with that. One formula begins:

In the year 1880 Dr. Lönnrot edited and published a very large collection of magic songs, Loitsu-runoja, abounding in curious ideas, quaint expressions, and, to us moderns, strange ways of regarding nature, which demand the attention of folk-lorists. He has classified their contents under a number of headings to denote their purpose. After a long introduction the collection begins with eighteen general formulas, which he terms: Preliminary, Defensive, Envy, Vengeance, Origination, Reparation, Inflammation, Expulsion, Posting, Pain, Reproaching, Ecstasy, Distress, Boasting, Stilling, Menacing, Exorcising, and Fastening formulas. Then follow forty liberating or healing charms for as many ailments or other evils; fifty-one classes of magic spells and charms to be recited on such occasions as when divining, going out hunting, fishing, at a marriage, etc.; seventy-three classes of prayers which hardly differ from many of the preceding; and, finally, fifty-one births or origins of animals and things. Altogether there are 893 magic songs under 233 separate heads.

They are, without exception, in the same metre as the Kalevala, the readers of which must be already acquainted