Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/47

Rh :Three of Nature's daughters (Luonnotar) were walking On the shore of the raging sea, at the edge of the ocean's swell, They saw the [spittle] on the shore and spoke with these words: "What would become of that If the Creator gave it life—put eyes in its head by spells?" Hiisi happened to overhear, the bad man to observe [it all]. He himself began to create, Hiisi gave life to it, To Syöjätär's spittle—the hideous 'toad's' slaver. Then it turned into a snake—changed into a black 'worm'.

She combs her head, brushes her hair, A hair disappeared from the brush, a hair fell into the water.

Pain's daughter, girl of Death, fell asleep upon a field, Threw herself down upon a slope—against the side of a speckled stone. A great blast of wind came—a bitter tempest from the east, And made the girl parturient, quickened her into pregnancy. Then the offspring was born, the evil progeny was yeaned, A snake began to hiss, a 'red ant' to move about, A 'worm of the earth' to crawl—to stick a little 'needle' Into a human being's skin or into a creature's [kave] 'hair'.

A tree was growing on holy ground —a reed on undefiled land, The reed grew up against the tree—the sedge under shelter of [its] moss. Piru blew into the reed, made the 'ring' clatter. From it a 'worm' appeared, rather round and rather long, Then it turned into a 'distaff', twisted into a snake, Into a crawler on the ground—a wriggler on the path.

Black 'worm'! O hissing viper, 'grub' of the hue of Death (Tuoni),