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76. The word used here for father is taatto, which curiously recalls the Welsh tad. (English, dad.)

194. In the Scandinavian Mythology the giantess Skadi was required to choose a husband from among the gods by looking at their feet only.

330. The usual word to express a long time is viikko, a week.

469, 470. These infernal damsels play various parts in the Kalevala, as boat-women, death-bringers, etc., and here we find them in the character of Furies.

487. The term “snowy month” is used for the period between Feb. 20 and March 20. I have rendered it March.

787-792. Perhaps this is only figurative, as in the case of the unpropitious forest-deities.

119. The roots of the marsh arum (Calla palustris), not a British plant, though naturalized in a pond at Ripley. The most usual substitute for more wholesome food in times of famine is bread composed of a mixture of fir-bark and rye.

240. Slav peasant women are said sometimes to regard beating as a sign of affection on the part of their husbands, but this does not seem to be the case with the Finns. In the Kalevala we read a good deal about wife-beating in theory, but find very little of it in practice; and even the licentious and violent Lemminkainen never thinks of beating his wife when he quarrels with her.

279-296. A similar story is told to the Princess by her confidante Olga, in the Russian opera Rusalka (water-nymph), Act III. scene i.

“And now I’d better sing a little song:

As they passed in our street,

A man besought his wife,

‘Why don’t you look pleasant?

You are my delight,

Darling Mashenka.’

“But the woman was obstinate,

And averted her little head;

‘Oh, I don’t want your caresses,

Nor your pretty speeches;

I’m not very well,

And I’ve got a headache.’