Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/146

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And the chest-bands can unloosen,

And can sink the shaft-poles for you.

Perhaps ten men may be sufficient,

Or a hundred if you need them,

Who would raise their sticks against you,

Give you, too, a beast of burden,

And would drive you homeward, rascal,

To your country, wretched creature,

To the household of your father,

To the dwelling of your mother,

To the gateway of your brother,

To the threshold of your sister,

Ere this very day is ended,

Ere the sun has reached its setting.”

Little heeded Lemminkainen,

And he spoke the words which follow:

“May they shoot the crone, and club her,

On her pointed chin, and kill her.”

Then again he hurried onward,

Thundering on upon his journey,

On the highest of the pathways,

To the highest of the houses.

Then the lively Lemminkainen

Reached the house to which he journeyed,

And he spoke the words which follow,

And expressed himself in thiswise:

“Stop the barker’s mouth, O Hiisi,

And the dog’s jaws close, O Lempo,

And his mouth securely muzzle,

That his gagged teeth may be harmless,

That he may not bark a warning

When a man is passing by him.”

As he came into the courtyard,

On the ground he slashed his whiplash,

From the spot a cloud rose upward,

In the cloud a dwarf was standing,

And he quickly loosed the chest-bands,

And the shafts he then let downward.

Then the lively Lemminkainen

Listened with his ears attentive,