listening to beautiful Kantele music evokes hearing Betty Smith's psaltery in the mountains last spring...

"The kantele (or kannel) and rune-singing both symbolise ancient Finnish culture. In the Kalevala, Elias Lonnrot had constructed an image of a mythic kantele, made of the jawbone of a pike, as the typically Finnish musical instrument of the epic hero Voinomoinen. In the final stages of the work, the kantele is an essential part of the power of Voinomoinen's song. It was thus, through the Kalevala, that the kantele became, in the 19th century, the Finns' national instrument."