Saami People of Norway, Finland and Sweden and Joiking

[sentient]

eezi-ulgen, really – thanks again for your pointing.

Different to mine, but somewhat similar …

“Saiva leddie” …
From Anna-Leena Siikala’s book, a bit loosely translated:
Besides the family line inherited human-form spirit helpers, Saami Shamans also had animal-spirit-helpers “saiva leddie” or “passevare loddi”, a spirit in the form of a bird, “saiva sarva”, a reindeer, “saiva guole“, a fish or “saiva gärmäi”, a snake, but apart from these mentioned, Saami drums also depicted other animal spirits. Uno Harva called these animal-spirit-helpers as “soul-animals”, because the shaman would enter into their form when ‘OBE-journeying’.

From Pentikainen Juha's book:
In a form of a bird, “Saiva leddie” acted as a guide when soul-journeying up to the heavens, or acted as a messenger when asking help from the holy mountain (fjell) spirits “passevare olmah”. These “passevare olmah” spirits not only advised and strengthened the shaman, but also called the shaman to his/her duties. A shaman who passed away joined the “saiva” spirits and perhaps also initiated the next shaman to be.