[29.] The Mountain Ash, or Rowan Tree, is a sacred tree in Finland, as in Scotland.
[83.] The Great Oak-tree is a favourite subject in Finnish and Esthonian ballads.
[117.] Finnish, and Esthonian water-heroes are sometimes described as entirely composed of copper.
[211.] Compare the account of the breaking up of the Sampo, and the dispersal of its fragments, in Runo XLIII.
[245.] The summer ermine is the stoat, which turns white in winter in the North, when it becomes the ermine. The squirrel also turns grey in the North in winter.
[376.] The cuckoo is regarded as a bird of good omen.
RUNO III
[15.] We here find Väinämöinen, the primeval minstrel and culture-hero, the first-born of mortals, living in an already populated world. There seems to be a similar discrepancy in Gen. IV. 14-17
[35.] Women were held in great respect in heroic times in most Northern countries.