Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/190

 i8o Some Mythical Tales of the Lapps

sometimes called, Ija-pele, " regio nocturna," Night-side,^ or Mano-pele, Moon-side. By the Sun-side the Laplanders indicated the coast lands lying south of the Arctic circle, where dwelt the children of the Sun, the Sons of Day.

The side of the Moon and Night lay north of the Arctic circle, where lived the children of the Moon, the Sons of Night.

The mythical ancestress of the children of Day is the -Sun's daughter, and the children of Night are descended from the Moon's daughter. These two beings play a great part in the legends of Lapland, and around them are grouped a series of allegorical or mythical songs — upwards of 100 in number, according to Fjellner. They still appear in modern tales as good and bad fairies.

From the Sun's daughter were descended Kalla-parnek,- famous men of old, who discovered ski-shoes, and who hunted and tamed deer. They now live in the sky. One is Orion ; Sirius is called Kalla-parne, and other stars and constellations bear their name, children of the Sun. The Great Bear is their bow, and the Pleiades their store-house. The stars of Cassiopea are the deer which they hunt ; Jupiter is the shining elk, Venus the variegated doe. The Song of the Sun's Children opens with an account of the birth of a son of Peive, a child of Kalla-lineage. When the population of the country is very scanty, this child is born, of immense physical strength, who begins life, like Kullervo in the Kalevala, by kicking his cradle to pieces. When he grows up, he sails with some noble companions to the country of the Giants, which lies beyond the North Star. On arriving there, after a year's voyage, they are seen by a blind giant's daughter, who is washing clothes on the sea-shore. She asks them why they are come, and

' As in the song of Pissa Passa, v. 220, Donner, p. 89.

- The meaning of Kalla seems to be an elderly married man, and, secondarily, famous, vir praestans^ landattis \_Lex. Lapp. p. II9], but it may have some connection, as Donner suggests, with the Finnish Kaleva. The Finns call Orion " Kaleva's sword."