Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/342

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Liipo [v. Liito] sowed flax by night, Kauko made it grow by day, From it sprang a tender shoot, a shoot sprang up, the flax grew. From three directions came a wind to thresh the flax's head. The wind threshed out the head of flax, scattered the hemp seed. Thither the wind carries the flax, to the eddy of a holy stream. There the wind rocked it—the water stretched it out in length. From it there grew a lovely pike—a "water monster" arose.

O globular, corpulent, black worm, looking like earth, Thy stock is known: thy father is a Blue Butterfly, Thy mother a Blue Butterfly, thy sisters Blue Butterflies, Thy other relative a Blue Butterfly, thou art thyself a Blue Butterfly. When first thou wast born of thy mother, I listened, I turned here and there, I heard a rustling in the turf—a buzz from the bottom of a dell, Rattling thou wast going into withered grass, with jingling sound into tufts of grass.

A maiden sat on a stone, a woman (kapo) set herself on a rock, Combs out her hair, arranges her head. One of the maiden's hairs fell, a hair of the woman broke off. Thither a wind bore it, to a nameless meadow. From that a wasp was made, an "evil bird" was dashed, With a copper quiver on its back—its quiver full of poison.

A maiden stood in a dell, a "fine spun shirt" upon the grass, Shedding a flood of tears, a tear came polling trickling down From her ruddy cheek to the ground, to her feet, Rounder than egg of hazel grouse, more heavy than a thrush's egg.