Goahti

                      A Gietkka is a wooden cradle for a baby.

Gietkka

The Saami cradle resembles a small boat. One end of the wooden frame is high and curved to protect the baby's head. Children were kept in the cradle until they were about a year or a year and a half old. Wrapped in warm clothes and reindeer hides and strapped into the cradle, they were protected from the freezing cold and the wind. The cradle was also used as a means of transporting the baby over longer distances.
Children were kept in the cradle until they were about a year or a year and a half old.
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The word gietkka, which is found in diverse forms in all the Saami languages, is derived from the verb gietkat to swaddle and put in a cradle, hide (a child) in a cradle . There is a corresponding verb form in Baltic-Finnic (cf. Finnish kätkeä to hide, cover, store ), and in the Baltic-Finnic languages there are noun derivatives meaning cradle (cf. Finnish kätkyt, Estonian kätki, and so on).

It has also been suggested that this Early Proto-Finnic verb has a related form in the Erzyä dialect of Mordvin: kek ems. With regard to its meaning to hide, this would be a suitable candidate. Pronetically, however, the Mordvin verb differs from the Finnic-Saami form and its relationship it therefore very uncertain.

The north Finnish dialect word kietka cradle is a borrowing from Saami.

Source courtesy of: The Saami. A Cultural Encyclopaedia. Ed. Kulonen, Seurujärvi & Pulkkinen (2005)