From the Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot, Volume I Part 3 (1908)

In the villages of White Sea Karelia, the most common form of magical attack was the evil eye: kate, the harm that flows through envious gazing. The word is kin to katsoa, to look. A neighbor's jealousy, a stranger's admiration, even a mother's anxious glance at her own child could carry kate — not through intention alone, but through the force of uncontained feeling. Against this pervasive threat, the tietäjä maintained an arsenal of counter-spells: from brief protective formulas spoken on the threshold to elaborate cosmic counter-attacks summoning eagles, iron-furred dogs, and the demons of the underworld.

The eight incantations presented here form the Kateita vastaan (Against the Envious) section of the Loitsuja in the Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (SKVR), Volume I Part 3, published by the Finnish Literature Society in 1908. They are the direct continuation of the Tietäjän valmistus (Seer's Preparation), Luonnon nostatus (Nature-Raising), and Haltiat (Spirits) sections translated previously. Together, these four sections complete the first major division of the incantation corpus: I. Tietäjä. Haltiat. Kateet. The tietäjä prepares, raises their power, invokes the spirits, and then turns that power against the evil eye.

The counter-spells range from the surgical to the apocalyptic. Poem 44 is a ten-line formula that redirects every curse back into the sender's own body — mouth, head, liver, lungs, belly, left heel. Poem 47, by contrast, summons a cosmic eagle whose beak is a hundred fathoms long, invokes Hiisi and the devil's brood to devour the village's curses, then banishes the evil through three escalating ultimatums: to the highest mountain, into the bears' hard marrow, and finally onto the devil's own skis to fetch the moon from the copper mountain. Between these extremes lie declarations of innocence (poem 43), theological claims of divine protection (poem 45), and the black dog with iron fur and copper guts that devours the devourers (poem 42).

The singers include Outi Huotarini of Miinoa, Olli Mäkeläinen of Vuokkiniemi (the village at the heart of the Kalevala tradition), Alini Lehtoni of Tuonninen, Huotarini Jouhko and Tuomas Ketoni of Uhut. The collectors include Samuli Paulaharju, F. M. Toppelius, D. E. D. Europaeus, A. A. Borenius, and A. Jalkainen. Not a single incantation from this section has been translated into English until now.

Counter-Curses

Poems 41–42. The most elaborate counter-spells in the evil eye arsenal. The tietäjä does not merely deflect the curse — they reverse it, building magical fortifications and summoning spirit-animals to pursue the attacker.

The Iron Fence

Outi Huotarini — Miinoa. Collected by Paulaharju, 1910. SKVR I:3, no. 41.

There the sorcerers cursed us
As a bridge to filthy places,
As steps to the place of evil.
But I shall spring from the step,
From the bridge to the filthy place,
From the steps to the evil place.
Let the sorcerers themselves fall
As a bridge to filthy places,
As steps to the place of evil.
With a shout I fling
My father up to heaven,
My mother down to earth.
I build a fence of iron
Around my own home,
On both sides of my people.
With lizards I bind it,
With serpents I weave it,
I set the tails swaying,
The heads rearing and hissing,
So that the sorcerer's arrows cannot stick
Nor the seer's blades.
The sorcerers onto their own arrows,
The seers onto their own blades,
The wizard onto his own knife-irons.
I put fire-furs upon me,
Spark-cloaked garments,
Treading forth I bewitch them
With the sorcerer's arrow-fires,
On the children's creation-ground.

The Black Dog and the Red Stallion

Olli Mäkeläinen — Vuokkiniemi. Recorded by F. M. Toppelius. SKVR I:3, no. 42.

Against a Lappish sorcerer. In Finnish tradition, the Sami were regarded as the most powerful practitioners of magic. This counter-spell is the supreme response: the tietäjä sings the attacker apart, conjures an iron-furred dog and an iron-hooved stallion, and banishes the sorcerer to the rapids of Turja (the Kola Peninsula) to become a burning stone.

I sing the Lappish one,
Secretly I tell of my devourer.
I sing through his shoulders,
I speak through his jaws,
His shirt-collar into two,
Through his breastplate,
I speak through his jaws.
Then I sing a cap upon his head,
A shackle beneath the cap,
A bundle of Viipuri serpents,
A tangle of horsehair-snakes,
That already devour my devourers,
That gnaw upon my gnawers.

I have a black dog,
A cur with iron fur,
Copper guts in its belly,
Forged from copper,
That already chews through bones,
Gnaws through gristle.
Then I sing the Lappish one,
Secretly I tell of my devourer,
Into Turja's hard rapids,
Beneath the highest cavern,
Into the midst of the rapids as a stone,
To burn as fire,
To flash as sparks.
I have a red stallion,
A bob-tailed horse,
With iron hooves,
With steel shoes,
With a pond upon its withers,
Clear water on its spine-bones,
Springs within its collar-harness,
From which the sorcerers drink water,
The envious of the village lap,
And their throats wither with fire.
I have a black dog,
A cur with iron fur,
With which I feed upon my feeder,
Gnaw upon my gnawer,
That already chews through bones,
Gnaws through gristle.
Then the sorcerer's path dries up,
The tongue falls from the Lapp.

Protective Declarations

Poems 43–46. Shorter formulas — some spoken in response to accusation, some as standing protections. The mechanism is consistent: redirect the curse through the attacker's own body while declaring innocence before God.

The Damp Whiskers

Alini Lehtoni — Tuonninen. Collected in Oulu. Collected by Paulaharju, 1911. SKVR I:3, no. 43.

"If someone says to another, 'That one over there cursed you, hexed you,' then the other responds:"

The sorcerer's arrows do not stick to us,
Nor the seer's blades,
So long as there are these damp
Whiskers beneath my lip.
This hat is upon my shoulders,
This cap upon my head.
From my mouth it flows,
From my tongue it is spun,
Into that one's eyes from within,
On both sides of his throat,
Into his own cross-threads,
Into his own breath-steam,
Along the gut, along the arrow-path,
Along the left armpit,
Toward home,
Against those who show their spite.
Let God look upon me,
For I have done no evil,
I have stirred no wrath,
I have caused no empty harm!

Your Own Words Into Your Mouth

Uhut. Collected by Europaeus, 1846. SKVR I:3, no. 44.

If you have looked with envy,
Watched with malice:
Your own words into your mouth,
Your own hands onto your head,
Your thoughts beneath your belt,
Your curses into your liver,
Your attempts into your lungs,
Your exchanges into your belly,
Into your left heel!

As much as harm is seen,
That much let the word be placed!

One Cannot Eat Me Without Cause

Uhut. Collected by Europaeus, 1846. SKVR I:3, no. 45.

One cannot eat me without cause,
Nor kill me without disease,
Not without the Creator's death,
Nor without God's destruction.
If anyone should eat me without cause:
Their own words into their mouth,
Their evil hands onto their head,
Their thoughts upon themselves!
Whatever they speak from their mouth,
From their mouth into their innards,
From their innards into their heart,
Into their belly to be swallowed,
Into their bowels to be pressed,
Into their lungs to be gathered!
Let that one swallow pains,
Fitting for one who has shown their spite.
Livers from the dead,
Bellies from those gone to earth,
Teeth from those who have rotted,
As quills the serpents,
As serpents your own pains,
Against those curses returned.

Over the Envious Mind

Uhut. Collected by Europaeus, 1846. SKVR I:3, no. 46.

Over the envious mind,
Beyond the wishing of evil.

The Great Banishment

Poem 47. The most dramatic counter-spell in the collection. A cosmic eagle is summoned, Hiisi and the devil's brood are raised to devour the curses, and then the evil is banished through three escalating ultimatums — each more extreme than the last.

The Eagle and the Banishment

Huotarini Jouhko — Uhut. Collected by A. A. Borenius. SKVR I:3, no. 47.

Against sorcerers.

An eagle flew from the heights of the sky,
From the heights of the sky, from beneath heaven,
On the edge of the mindless air;
One wing swept the sea,
The other reached the heavens;
Its beak was a hundred fathoms,
Its maw six axe-handles wide.
To devour the village's curses,
To consume the Lappish spells.
Therefore we name it, we speak the words,
We give the evil its burning.
Rise, Hiisi, with your kin,
Dead-pool, with your children,
Devil, with your brood,
To devour the village's curses,
To consume the Lappish spells!
Therefore we name it, we speak the words,
We give the evil its burning.
Go, wretch, away from here,
To your home in Hiisi's hollow,
Under the treacherous sorcerer's roof,
Before the sun rises,
Before God's moon dawns;
Go where I command:
Toward the highest mountain,
Against the brush-covered hills!
If you do not obey,
Go where I command:
Into the bears' hard marrow,
Into the lean elk's flesh!
If you do not obey,
Take Hiisi's skiing gear,
Lemmo's alder-wood skis,
Go, ski through Hiisi's lands,
Swing through Lemmo's lands;
Go to fetch the moon,
To reach the tallow
From atop the fierce fell,
From the slopes of the copper mountain;
There the moon is being sliced,
The tallow is being pounded —
Food for you, hungry man,
A bite for one in need.

Words for Removing Envy

Poem 48. The shortest, fiercest formula in the set. No story, no summoning, no cosmic machinery — just a direct curse on the envious eye itself.

Scale in the Envious Eye

Tuomas Ketoni — Uhut. Collected by A. Jalkainen, 1887. SKVR I:3, no. 48.

Words for removing envy.

Scale in the envious eye,
Soot in the sorcerer's nostrils,
A pine-torch splinter in your eye
With blood and bile!
If you should look with envy,
If you should spy with crooked eyes,
May your eyes bleed,
May they ooze with fat!

Colophon

Translated from Finnish by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Source text: Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot (SKVR), Volume I Part 3: Vienan läänin runot — Loitsuja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1908). Poems 41–48, the Kateita vastaan (Against the Envious) section. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive (identifier: p3suomenkansanva01niem).

These eight incantations form the third subsection of the first division of the SKVR I:3 incantation corpus, following the Seer's Preparation (poems 1–9), Nature-Raising (poems 10–17), and Spirits (poems 18–40). Together the four subsections constitute the complete Tietäjä. Haltiat. Kateet division — the tietäjä's full ritual sequence from preparation through protection. No English translation of any SKVR volume has previously been published.

The OCR source text contains double-spacing artifacts, letter confusion, and apparatus interpolation typical of the Harvard/Google Books digitisation of the 1908 edition. All translations were derived from the Finnish dialectal text with reference to standard Finnish cognates and phonological reconstruction. The colophon for each poem preserves the singer, location, collector, and SKVR poem number as recorded in the original edition. Collector abbreviations: Paulah. = Samuli Paulaharju; Europaeus K = D. E. D. Europaeus, collection K; Boren. H = A. A. Borenius, collection H; Jalkanen = A. Jalkainen.

Compiled and formatted for the Good Work Library by the New Tianmu Anglican Church, 2026. Scribed by Karhu (カルフ), Tulku Life 32.

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Source Text: Kateita vastaan (SKVR I:3, nos. 41–48)

Finnish source text from the Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot, Volume I Part 3: Vienan läänin runot — Loitsuja (Helsinki: SKS, 1908). Digitised from the Internet Archive. OCR artifacts cleaned; dialectal forms preserved. Presented here for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above.

41. Miinoa. Paulaharju n. 3953.

Outi Huotarini.

Tuonne meijät noijat noitu
Sillaksi likasijoille,
Pahan paikan portahaksi.
Miepä porras ponnistauvun
Sillasta likasijasta,
Pahan paikan portahasta.
Itse noijat koatukoot
Sillaksi likasijoille,
Pahan paikan portahaksi.
Huuvella heilahutan
Toatolleni taivosehen,
Moamolleni moaemähän.
Aijan rautasen rakennan
Ympäri oman kotini,
Kahen puolen kansastani.
Sisiliskuilla sitelen,
Käärmehillä käännättelen,
Hännät panen häilyjämähän,
Päänkeuhkot kehajamahan,
Jottei tartu noijan nuolet
Eikä tietäjän teräkset.
Itse noijat nuolihisi,
Tietäjät teräksihisi,
Velho veitsirautoihisi.
Panen tulituet turkit päälläni,
Säkähäiset säilikkaannat,
Astuen ututtelen
Noijan nuolien tulilla,
Lasten loantotanterilla.

42. Vuokkiniemi. Topelius 1122 a).

Olli Mäkeläinen; F. M. Toppeliuksen muistoonpanema.

Minä laulaa Lappalaisen,
Sala syöjäni sanelen.
Laulan halki hartiensa,
Puhki leukansa puhelen,
Paijan kauluksen kaheksi,
Rikki rintalastosesta,
Puhki leukansa puhelen.
Siihen laulan lakin päähän,
Siiton eli alla lakin,
Vihkon Vipurin matoja,
Toukon jouhikäärmehiä,
Jo on syätän syöjiäni,
Puretan purijatani.

Ompa mulla musta koira,
Rakki rauan karvallinen,
Suolet vaskeset vatassa,
Kuparista kuuraeltu,
Jokon luinehen puroovi,
Ruotinehen roohoavi.
Siit’ on laulan Lappalaisen,
Sala syöjäni sanelen,
Turjan koskehen kovahan,
Alla kopron korkeimman,
Keskellä kosen kiveksi,
Tulena palelomahan,
Säkähinä säihkymähän.
On minulla orit punanen,
Hevonen hynnäkönen,
Joll’ on rautaset kaviat,
Teräksiset tennottimet,
Joll’ on lampi lautasilla,
Vesi selvä selkäluilla,
Lähet länkien sisällä,
Jost’ on noiat vettä juovat,
Lappavat kylän katehet,
Tuli kurkut kuihuavat.
On mulla musta koira,
Rakki rauan karvallinen,
Jolla syötän syöjätäni,
Puretan purijatani,
Jokon luinehen puroovi,
Rootinehen roohoavi.
Siihen kuivu noian kulku,
Lahahtu Lapilta kieli.

43. Tuonninen. Paulaharju n. 4329.

Alini Lehtoni. — Mp. Oulussa.

»Se siimä siellä noitu, kirosi», kun sanoo toiselle, niin toinen manaa:

Ei meihi pissy noijan nuolet
Eikä tietäjän teräkset.
Kuni ollen nie näihe märkü
hivüksieni alla.
Tämä olloo hattu hartioilla,
Tämä lakki päälaella.
Miu suustah suvenoo,
Kieleltäh kerittäuöö,
Sen silmästäh sisällä,
Kahen puolen kaklahas’,
Omih ristirihmahas’,
Omih henkehöyryys’,
Kantti suolen, kantti nuolen,
Kantti kainalon vasemman,
Kohti kotie
Vasse vaivannäköjä.
Milma Jumala katsokkah,
Kun mie olen pahan loatimaton,
Olen vihan vikomaton,
Olen tyhjän tuutematon!

44. Uhut. Europaeus K, n. 236.

Kuin lienet katehin katsont,
Valehin valvattanut:
Suuhusi omat sanasi,
Päähäsi omat kätesi,
Ajatukses’ alle vyösi,
Moatukkahat maxohisi,
Koitukkahat koahkohisi,
Vaihtukkahat vatsahasi,
Vasemehen kantapäähäsi!

Min verta vaivas’ näkyy,
Sen verta sanan sioa!

45. Uhut. Europaeus K, n. 238.

Eipä milma syyttä syöä
Eikä tauditta tapeta,
Ei Luojan kuolematta,
Eikä surmatta Jumalan.
Jos vaan kuka syyttä syönee,
Suuhunsa omat sanansa,
Päähänsä pahat kätensä,
Ajatukset itsehensä!
Mitä suustansa sanoa,
Suustansa sisällehensä,
Sisältä syämmehensä,
Vatsahansa vaitukkahan,
Peruohinsa piettykkähän,
Keuhkohinsa kertykkähän!
Anna sen kipuja niellä,
Valt’ on vaivan nähnehellä.
Kuzun koprat kuollehilta,
Maxat maahan mennehiltä,
Hampahat hapannehilta,
Kyynänä käärmehtiä,
Käärmeinä omat kipusi,
Vasten noita vastuksia.

46. Uhut. Europaeus K, n. 263.

Ylitse katellen mielen,
Pahan suovan mielen paitsi.

47. Uhut. Borenius H, n. 47.

Huotarini Jouhko. Noijie vaitah.

Lent’ on kokko koilda ilman,
Koilda ilman, alda taivan,
Aita ilman aivettoman;
Siipi yksi merta siipoi,
Toinen taivoista tapasi;
Nokka oli sata syltä,
Kita kuutta kirves-vartta,
Syömähän kylän kiroja,
Lausuhita lappamaahan.
Siitätänimä sanumutamma,
Annanima pahan paloavi.
Nouse Hiisi heimonensi,
Umpi-lampi lapsinesi,
Peikeles poreihinesi
Syömähän kylän kiroja,
Lausuhita lappamaahan!
Siitätänimä, sanumutamma,
Annanima pahan paloavi.
Mäne portto tästä poikes,
Kotihisi Hiijen kouna,
Kattohosi noian kavala,
Ennem päivän nousemista,
Kuun Jumalan koittamista;
Mene sinne, kunne käsken:
Kohti vuorta korkeinta,
Vasten varvikko-mäkiä!
Jos et tuotana totelle,
Mene sinne, jonne käsken:
Kontien kovihin ytimiin,
Hirven harvoisen lihoihen!
Jos et tuotana totelle,
Ota Hiijen hiihto-neuvot,
Lemmon leppiset sivakat,
Mäne, hiiha Hiijen maita,
Lemmon maita liekuttele;
Mäne kuuta noutamahan,
Talie tavottamahan
Tuiman tunturia lakalta,
Vaski-voaran liepiltä;
Siel’ on kuuta leikatahan,
Talie taputetahan,
Sinuv’ on miehen nälkähisen,
Haukata halun alasen.

48. Uhut. Jalkainen 2. 1. n. 111.

Tuomas Ketoni. Kateen poistosanat.

Karsta katehen silmäh,
Noki noiran sieramih,
Tervastikku silmähäs’
Veren ja märän keralla!
Jos katsoisit katehin,
Kieroin silmin keksisit,
Silmäs’ verta vuotakohon,
Rasvaa rapattakohon!

Source Colophon

Finnish source text from the Suomen Kansan Vanhat Runot, Volume I Part 3: Vienan läänin runot — Loitsuja (Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura, 1908), pp. 17–19. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive (identifier: p3suomenkansanva01niem). OCR artifacts from the Harvard/Google Books digitisation have been cleaned; dialectal White Sea Karelian forms are preserved as printed in the 1908 edition.

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