[555.] Virsta, a Russian word naturalized in Finnish.
[617.] This description recalls the serpents of Indian mythology, such as those described in the first book of the Mahabharata.
[619.] Such a passage might have suggested to Longfellow the following:
"Bigger than the Big-Sea-Water,
Broader than the Gitche Gumee."
Hiawatha, xxi.
RUNO XXVII
[208.] Here commences a magical contest somewhat resembling the transformation scenes in the stories of the Second Calendar, and of Nooreddin and Bedreddin, in the 1001 Nights.
[326.] "I don't want to have a mess made upon my floor here, or any noise or shooting." (Tanta Coetzee, in Rider Haggard's Jess.)
RUNO XXVIII.
[15, 16.] His horse and sledge seem to have been transformed, like those of Joukahainen in Runo III.
[195.] In Finnish and Esthonian tales we often find persons transformed into trees and flowers; sometimes for purposes of concealment.