Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/142

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Once again her son dissuaded,

And the dame held back the hero.

“Do not go, O do not venture

To that cold and dreary village,

To the gloomy land of Pohja.

There destruction sure awaits you,

Evil waits for thee, unhappy,

Ruin, lively Lemminkainen!

Hadst thou hundred mouths to speak with,

Even so, one could not think it,

Nor that by thy songs of magic

Lapland’s sons would be confounded,

For you know not Turja’s language,

Not the tongue they speak in Lapland.”

Then the lively Lemminkainen,

He the handsome Kaukomieli,

As it chanced, his hair was brushing,

And with greatest neatness brushed it.

To the wall his brush then cast he,

To the stove the comb flung after,

And again he spoke and answered,

In the very words which follow:

“Ruin falls on Lemminkainen,

Evil waits for him unhappy,

When the brush with blood is running,

And the comb with blood is streaming.”

Then went lively Lemminkainen,

To the gloomy land of Pohja,

’Spite the warnings of his mother,

’Gainst the aged woman’s counsel.

First he armed him, and he girt him,

In his coat of mail he clad him,

With a belt of steel encompassed,

And he spoke the words which follow:

“Stronger feels a man in armour,

In the best of iron mail-coats,

And of steel a magic girdle,

As a wizard ’gainst magicians.

Then no trouble need alarm him,

Nor the greatest evil fright him.”