are to be found the Snake older than all snakes, and the prophetic Raven, elder brother of all ravens, and the Bird, the largest and oldest of all birds, with iron beak and copper claws, and the Mother of Bees, eldest among bees.[1] Morgan's comparatively modern account of the Iroquois mentions their belief in a spirit of each species of trees and plants, as of oak, hemlock, maple, whortleberry, raspberry, spearmint, tobacco; most objects of nature being thus under the care of protecting spirits.[2] The doctrine of such species-deities is perhaps nowhere more definitely stated than by Castrén in his 'Finnish Mythology.' In his description of the Siberian nature-worship, the lowest level is exemplified by the Samoyeds, whose direct worship of natural objects for themselves may perhaps indicate the original religious condition of the whole Turanian race. But the doctrine of the comparatively cultured heathen Finns was at a different stage. Here every object in nature has a 'haltia,' a guardian deity or genius, a being which was its creator and thenceforth became attached to it. These deities or genii are, however, not bound to each single transitory object, but are free personal beings which have movement, form, body, and soul. Their existence in no wise depends on the existence of the individual objects, for although no object in nature is without its guardian deity, this deity extends to the whole race or species. This ash-tree, this stone, this house, has indeed its particular 'haltia,' yet these same 'haltiat' concern themselves with other ash-trees, stones, and houses, of which the individuals may perish, but their presiding genii live on in the species.[3] It seems as though some similar view ran through the doctrine of more civilized races, as in the well-known
- ↑ Ralston, 'Songs of the Russian People,' p. 375. The Slavonic myth of Buyán with its dripping oak and the snake Garafena lying beneath, is obviously connected with the Scandinavian myth of the dripping ash, Yggdrasill, the snake Nidhögg below, and the two Swans of the Urdhar-fount, parents of all swans.
- ↑ Morgan, 'Iroquois,' p. 162.
- ↑ Castrén, 'Finn. Myth.' pp. 106, 160, 189, &c.
