Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/60

52 pleurisy in men, sudden sickness in horses, 'sharp spikes in cattle.

The devil makes arrows, sharpens spikes inside a steely mountain, a rock of iron. He made a little pile of shafts, a heap of heavy arrows inside a doorless, windowless smithy. He makes the heads of steel, turns the shafts out of wood from a bough of the 'fiery' oak, from a sharp spike of the red tree. He smoothed his arrows and feathered them with the small plumes of a swallow, with the tailfeathers of a brindled bird. Whence did he get the binding thread? He obtained the binding thread from the locks of Hiisi's damsel, from the hair of a melancholy creature. After feathering the arrows, with what were they encrusted? With the poison of a viper, with the venom of a black snake. Then he selected his best bow and attached a string to it made from a wanton stallion's tail, from the hair of a full-grown animal.

He seized the 'fiery' bow, stretched the 'fiery' crossbow against his left knee, under his right foot. He took the swiftest arrow, selected the best shaft, straightened the 'fiery' crossbow against his right shoulder, and shot the first arrow aloft above his head into the azure sky, into a long bank of cloud. The sky was like to split, the aerial vault to break, portions of the air to rend, the aerial canopy to bend at the anguish caused by the 'fiery' arrow, by the sharp spike of Aijo's son. The arrow receded where naught was ever heard of it again.

Then he shot a second arrow into the earth below his feet. The earth was like to go to Mana [v.. to ignite], the hills to powder into mould, the sandy ridges to split, the sandy heaths to break in two from the anguish caused by the 'fiery' arrow, from the burning pain caused by the red wood. That arrow constantly receded where naught was ever heard of it again.