Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/90

 68 them, there were several "karsikkos," especially in the place where they had found precious pearl-mussels. "When somebody for the first time visited a farm, it was thought proper to make him a "karsikko." For this purpose they chose a fir tree which was lopped so that only the top, and in some cases also the lower branches were left. In the middle part of the tree, however, two branches were left, if the "karsikko" was made for a married person, and only one branch if it was for an unmarried one. The branch of the tree dedicated to the guest pointed sometimes in the direction from whence the visitor had come. In the same way they acted when, on a long journey, a person came to the border of regions unknown to him. When they reached the last stretch of wood close to a town, the whole party stopped, and he who travelled here for the first time made himself a "karsikko." He lopped a tree all the way up to the top; an unmarried person left the top; a married one cut it so that there arose two tops; a widower spared not even the top. The lopped branches were put into a heap in a row on each side of the path leading to the tree. These trees were also called "brandy-trees," because he who had made the "karsikko" was obliged to offer a dram, which was taken on the heap of the lopped branches. Such "karsikkos" were also made for school-boys near the school town. Probably the servant did the cutting, but the boy was obliged to stand the treat.

Two miles up the country from the town of Fredrikshamn on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, there were by the road some lopped fir trees. The middle branches were cut out for middle-aged persons and the lowest for aged ones. When a tree was in a suitable place it was lopped for persons of different ages. Quite close to the town, there was such a fir in the village of Husula, behind the new cemetery of the town. It was mostly the Savolax people who made these " karsikkos," but it is not at all impossible that some of them were made by the part of the people from Tavastia, who lived in