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<P align="justify"> <i>Bieggao … <P align="justify"> <i>Bieggaolmmái</i> (the Wind God). <i>Bieggagállis</i> or <i>Bieggaolmmái</i> (<i>biegga</i> wind, <i>gállis</i> old man, <i>olmmái</i> man) is the god of the wind and the weather. The Wind God was an extremely important divinity with regard to the main sources of livelihood of the Saami: hunting and later reindeer herding. The direction of the wind affected the movements of the herds of reindeer (both wild and domesticated), because these animals tend to travel into the wind, especially in the season when the midges are swarming. Thus a wind that blew in the same direction for a long time might take the reindeer far away, and then it was necessary to sacrifice a reindeer, preferably white, to the Wind God ([[Sacrificials|Sacrifice]]). There is information about sacrifices to the god of the winds in sources describing the South Saami area. The Wind God was also thought to cause high winds and to be the divinity that governed the weather. Even today the signs of changes in the weather used by the reindeer-herding Saami usually explain them as being a result of alterations in the direction of the wind. The figure of the Wind God on the skin of the shaman's drum is very similar to that of the God of Thunder, but instead of hammers he holds objects that look like shovels with which he moves the air to create wind, or a shovel and a club with which he forces the wind on its way. The Wind God was known throughout Saamiland. In the Skolt Saami tradition, he is called <i>Piõgg-oumaž</i> and in Kildin Saami <i>Piiŋk-olma</i>. The Tornio Saamis called him <i>Ilmaris</i>, which may be a late borrowing from Finnish (cf. Finnish <i>Ilmarinen</i>), but it could also be a relic of the sky god of the ancient Finno-Ugric peoples (cf. the Udmurts god Inmar). The Inari Saami are known to have sacrificed to the Wind God on some fells to the west of the village of Inari called Piegg-oaivadz the Heads of the Winds .</P><BR><BR>
[[Table of contents: Saami Pre-Christian world view, mythology and folklore|Table of contents: Saami Pre-Christian world view, mythology and folklore]]<BR><BR>thology and folklore]]<BR><BR> +
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