Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/104

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“With his tongue he tried the liquid,

Tasted it if it would please him,

And he spoke the words which follow:

‘Even yet it does not please me

For the blue steel’s smelting mixture,

And perfecting of the Iron.’

From without a bee came flying,

Blue-winged from the grassy hillocks,

Hovering forwards, hovering backwards,

Hovering all around the smithy.

“Then the smith spoke up as follows:

‘O thou bee, my nimble comrade,

Honey on thy wings convey me,

On thy tongue from out the forest,

From the summits of six flowerets,

And from seven tall grass-stems bring it,

For the blue steel’s smelting mixture,

And the tempering of the Iron.’

“But the hornet, Bird of Hiisi,

Looked around him, and he listened,

Gazing from beside the roof-tree,

Looking from below the birch-bark,

At the tempering of the Iron,

And the blue steel’s smelting mixture.

“Thence he flew on whirring pinions,

Scattering all of Hiisi’s terrors,

Brought the hissing of the serpents,

And of snakes the dusky venom,

And of ants he brought the acid,

And of toads the hidden poison,

That the steel might thus be poisoned,

In the tempering of the Iron.

“Then the smith, e’en Ilmarinen,

He, the greatest of the craftsmen,

Was deluded, and imagined

That the bee returned already,

And had brought the honey needed,

Brought the honey that he wanted,

And he spoke the words which follow:

‘Here at last is what will please me,