Among the Balto-Finnic peoples, a guardian spirit of the household.
In Finland it was the spirit of the first person to claim a site as property. Identical in appearance to this original owner, the haltia presided over the household and served as a moral force to discourage misbehavior. A haltia could only be transported to a new home by carrying fire or ashes from the old one. On farms there were barn-spirits to watch over the animals, a mill-spirit to keep the miller awake, and a threshing-house spirit to supervise the drying of the grain.