inhabit a mountain; and in one couplet, given below, Hiisi stands as a parallel word to mountain, just as we have seen above that Tapio can be used as a synonym of forest. Indeed, in the middle of the sixteenth century, Bishop Agricola uses the plural of hiisi in the sense of "heights, wood-grown heights, grove",[1] though in his metrical epitome of Finnish mythology occurs the line, "Hiisi procured profit from the forest", that is, he aided a hunter in obtaining game. In course of time we shall find "Hiisi's dog" or cat used as an epithet for disease in general and for toothache in particular; "his seal" (phoca) is rickets, atrophy; "his fungus" is a tumour or a boil; "his bird" is the wagtail—Lempo's is the raven; he is the ancestor of the wolf; from his l00-horned ox with 1,000 nipples on its breast magic salves and ointments are obtained. This wonderful animal must surely be a pine or fir-tree, with its innumerable projecting points like nipples.
vii.—The Origin of the Horse.
The horse's origin is from Hiisi—the choice foal's from a mountain,
In a room with a door of fire—a smithy with an iron ridge.
Its head is made of stone, its hoofs of rock,
Its legs are constructed of iron, its back is made of steel.
In several riddles Hiisi's horse, or simply a horse, means thunder and lightning, or fire and flame, fire and smoke. For instance:
A horse neighed from Hiisi's land; the knocking of its collar, the shaking of the harness was heard here?
Answer.—Thunder in the clouds, and lightning.
A horse neighed in Hiisi's land, the collar shoke, the harness gleamed in this direction? Thunder and lightning.
A horse is in its stall, its tail is above the door? The fire in a stove and the flame at its mouth; fire and smoke.
- ↑ Virittäjä, ii, p. 171.
