Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/109

Runo IX]

Thus to close the path of bleeding,

And to stem the rushing torrent,

That upon my beard it spirts not,

Nor upon my rags may trickle."

Thus he closed the bleeding opening,

Stemming thus the bloody torrent,

Sent his son into the smithy,

To prepare a healing ointment

From the blades of magic grasses,

From the thousand-headed yarrow,

And from dripping mountain-honey,

Falling down in drops of sweetness.

Then the boy went to the smithy,

To prepare the healing ointment,

On the way he passed an oak-tree,

And he stopped and asked the oak-tree,

“Have you honey on your branches?

And beneath your bark sweet honey?”

And the oak-tree gave him answer,

“Yesterday, throughout the evening,

Dripped the honey on my branches,

On my summit splashed the honey,

From the clouds dropped down the honey,

From the scattered clouds distilling.”

Then he took the slender oak-twigs,

From the tree the broken fragments,

Took the best among the grasses,

Gathered many kinds of herbage,

Herbs one sees not in this country;

Such were mostly what he gathered.

Then he placed them o’er the furnace,

And the mixture brought to boiling;

Both the bark from off the oak-tree,

And the finest of the grasses.

Thus the pot was boiling fiercely,

Three long nights he kept it boiling,

And for three days of the springtime,

While he watched the ointment closely,

If the salve was fit for using,

And the magic ointment ready.