TAPIO

also called Metshine, or Hiisi, the Finnish god of the forest and ruler of the game therein. He was a personified form of the various forest spirits important to hunters dependent on the forest for their livelihood. Tapio, the personified forest, was sometimes depicted as being the size of a fir tree, fierce-looking, like a human being in the front, but like a gnarled old tree from behind. Often the forest deity was also female, occasionally an especially beautiful woman, who enticed hunters or woodcutters staying in the woods overnight; but she, too, turned out to be a rotten old stump upon closer scrutiny. The various forest deities and spirits were generally capricious in nature and had to be constantly placated by those who were dependent on their favours. Thus hunters made offerings to the deity and made sure they did not break any taboos in the forest, such as making excessive noise or shooting unusual birds that might be the forest spirit in disguise.