The maidens of the air,
Of springs,
Dells,
Swamps,
Etc.
Are beneficent beings and were often invoked for extinguishing fire and cooling burns.
The four anonymous maidens first mentioned are perhaps the Luonotars.
Four maidens,
Three celebrated daughters,
Were formerly mowing grass on a misty cape in a foggy Iceland and making it into hay.
After spreading it out,
A fiery Tursas from Turjaland came and burned it to ashes.
It happened opportunely that they were short of ash and in need of light to wash the head of the sun's sun.
But before they could collect the ash,
An oak whisked it away to the banks of a holy stream and from it a splendid oak sprang up.
In another version,
The four maidens,
A triplet of brides,
Are making hay with the boy from Pohjola or an eagle from Turja,
Came and burned the hay,
Put the ash into his wallet and carried it to Lapland,
Where it was sown in black mud and from it sprang a huge oak.
Again,
Four maidens find a sapling oak and plant it in an Iceland formed where three rivers had flowed from a tear shed by Kyytäläinen in a charm against injuries from fire.
Ismo,
One of the daughters of the heir,
Is asked to come with speed of thought and pour herself out like a foam upon her son's evil work and throw water from her apron on the burns.
Nunnus or Munnus of the daughters of the heir is requested to bring frost and ice.
Was there is frost enough in the air to freeze the fingers of an exorcist and allow him to handle fire and hurt?
After Ukko had struck fire in the sky and put it into a golden bag,
He gave it to an air maiden to rock,
Who carelessly let it fall to the earth.
A holy maiden on a cloud,
A woman,
Kappo,
On the rim of a rainbow,
With a golden box under her arm and a golden wing in her hand,
Wiped away the pain caused by burns and solved the injuries of fire.
A maiden standing by a little pond in a drop of water in a cloud carries Schloss,
Solved the injuries of fire.
A maiden standing by a little pond in a drop of water in a cloud carries Schloss,
An ice in her arms with which she extinguished fire and cooled the burns it had caused.
In order to extinguish fire,
An exorcist says he will raise up Sumutar,
Daughter of Mist,
The poorly woman from the swamp,
And she will repair the injury done.
In the next example the character of the air maiden changes,
Though she still belongs to Cloudland.
A little girl,
A woman,
Kappo,
Appeared on the edge of a rainbow,
And while smoothing her hair,
The milk in her breast overflowed,
Fell on a honey-dropping meadow,
And from it salts and ointments are obtained.
In the next two examples her function is entirely different,
A maiden lives in the air,
On the edge of a little cloud,
With a skein of veins on her lap and roll of skin under her arm,
She let them fall onto the earth,
And from the bits of skin are taken the place on wounds from the tooth of a wolf or the claws of a bear.
A maiden above the air,
From the middle of the sky,
Is made of veins,
Through the bones and joints,
To lengthen short veins,
Shortened toes that are too long and ardent,
And arrange them in their proper places.
Then with a needle and silk thread she is to stitch up each of the veins.
These last two air maidens cannot be very different from Suunetar,
Where the beauteous woman of veins,
Suuni,
The beautiful Suunetar,
Who spins veins,
From a golden tuft on a copper spinning rock,
And weaves a cloth of veins,
Is invoked to approach and tie up the ends of broken veins.
An exorcist requests a maiden to rise from a dell,
From inside a frosty spring,
With her clothes all over frost and rime,
In order to gap fire's mouth and weigh down the head of Panu.
A fear,
Clean-faced girl is desired to rise from a dell,
From the corner of a swamp,
And bring some cooling stuff to lay upon a burn.
A frosty maiden,
An icy girl crouching at the mouth of a frosty spring with a golden ladle in her hand,
Is invoked to throw water upon burns.
