Some haltijas are divided into races or folks, which are called väki. This word means either "strength/power" or "group/corps (of people)" (e.g. väkiviina "strong liquor", sotaväki "the military"), of which the meaning of "power" is etymologically older; the meaning of väki meaning "folk" is the result of the anthropomorphication of abstract concepts like "kalman väki", the power of dead spirits. There are different kind of väkis of haltijas, like veden väki (water folk) or metsän väki (forest folk). However, väki should not be simply translated to mean folk or race, because it also has another meaning at the same time: it means folk, and it means (magical) powers. Sometimes väki is more like folk, in which case it refers to a group of individual haltijas. Sometimes väki is more like magical power, and then it means the qualities of certain environments and elements, or powers that can cause or cure diseases. Usually both meanings are true at the same time. Magical powers are caused by groups of haltijas. For example, if someone gets sick while swimming, this could be caused by väki of water that become attached to a person. In this sense väki is more like a magical power of water that can make people ill, but it can also mean that very small or invisible haltija-spirits are attached to a person. However, if someone goes fishing, (s)he can ask for väki of water to bring fish by calling individual haltijas belonging to that väki by their names. In the latter case väki is understood more as a folk, but it can be seen also as a (luck bringing) magical force.