Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/343

Rh Therefrom grew a lovely birch, a verdant sapling raised itself, A sprout drawn upwards by the soil, rocked by Tuuletar. Its top strove towards the sky, its boughs spread outwards into space.

Much land was burnt up formerly, much land, much swamp, In a summer bad for fires, a luckless conflagration year. A spot remained unburnt upon the greatest reach of swamp, On a wild mountain top, in the space between two stumps, Under a triple-rooted birch. They dug up the stump's root, a seed of flax was found there, In the storage place of 'Tuoni's grub' in the 'earthworm's' place of custody. An old boat was burnt Near 'fiery' rapids, at a 'fiery' rapids' turning-point. A pile of ash arose, a heap of dry ashes From the burning of the wooden craft, from the ignition of the boat. Into it the flax was sown, was sown, was ploughed, On a single summer night. Then from it sprang a sprout, endlessly high the flax grew On a single summer night.

The sisters Sotkotar, sisters-in-law, nimble women, v.eternal sisters-in-law, Discovered 'Tuoni's grub', the earth 'worm', Between a pair of stumps, beneath a triple-rooted birch. 'Tuoni's grub' was burnt, the earth 'worm' was roasted, The loathsome was scorched, was baked to ashes Before the gate of Pohjola, on Lapland's chip-strewn plain; v. At the root of an unrotted stump;