The legend of laumės and Biržuvėnai

Hills, marshes, and stones – such were the habitats of laumės, Baltic spellcasters and fairies. Laumės used bodies of water for laundering, stones for beetling, and hills for airing linen dry. They sang lullabies, looked after, and sometimes kidnapped, the new-born children of women who spent their days busy working in the fields.

A legend from Biržuvėnai tells that once as laumė walked across the wood a glade appeared where her foot fell. There was a spring in the glade, its water cold and clear. There was a pine tree by the spring, into which was carved a shrine. The shrine had a little statue of the Holy Virgin Mary. Those who suffered from eye ailments had to circle the pine tree on their knees, and drink the spring water, and were healed.