Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 4, 1893.djvu/43

Rh formed in the clouds [v. 1. Panu's origin is from a lump of cloud, v. 2. from the beard of the holy God], is the son of the sun, the beloved offspring of the sun, produced at the sky's midpoint, at the shoulder of the Great Bear.

There fire was kept in check, was restrained near the sun, in a rift in the moon, in the centre of a golden [v. blue] box, under the mouth of gracious God, the beard of the Blessed God. Fire has come from there through red clouds from the heavens above to the earth beneath. The heavens rent into shreds, the whole atmosphere into holes, while fire was being brought, conducted by force to the earth.

XLIII. —.

(a.) Louhiatar [vv. Loviatar, Lokahatar, Laveatar, Launavatar] the powerful woman, the ragged-tailed old wife of the North, that has a swarthy countenance, a skin of hideous colour, was walking, creeping along a path. She made her bed her sleeping-place upon the path, lay with her back to the wind, towards the chilly blast, her groin towards a fearful storm, with her side directed due north. A mighty gust of wind, a tremendous blast came from the east, the wind raised the skirts of her fur coat, the blast the skirts of her petticoat. The wind quickened her on the abandoned naked field, on land without a knoll. She carried a bellyful of suffering for one month, for two, for a third, a fourth, five, six, seven, eight, over nine months, by woman's ancient reckoning she carried it for nine months and a half At the close of the ninth month, at the beginning of the tenth the time of travail was already at hand, She sought out a place for lying-in, a spot for lightening n the space between two rocks, in a recess between five hills. She obtained no assistance there, no lightening.