RUNO XXII
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.
RUNO XXIII
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.
RUNO XXIV
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.’
