Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/148

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Said the lively Lemminkainen,

“Surely I have not come hither,

Void of art and void of knowledge,

Void of strength and void of cunning,

Taught not magic by my father,

And without my parents’ counsel,

That the dogs should now devour me,

And the barkers should attack me.

“But it was my mother washed me,

When a boy both small and slender,

Three times in the nights of summer,

Nine times in the nights of autumn,

And she taught me all the pathways,

And the knowledge of all countries,

And at home sang songs of magic,

Likewise too in foreign countries.”

Then the lively Lemminkainen,

He the handsome Kaukomieli,

Soon began his songs of magic,

All at once began his singing,

Fire flashed from his fur-cloak’s borders,

And his eyes with flame were shining,

With the songs of Lemminkainen,

As he sang his spells of magic.

Sang the very best of singers

To the worst of all the singers,

And he fed their mouths with pebbles,

And he piled up rocks above them,

On the best of all the singers,

And most skilful of magicians.

Then he sang the men thereafter

Both to one side and the other,

To the plains, all bare and treeless,

To the lands, unploughed for ever,

To the ponds, devoid of fishes,

Where no perch has ever wandered,

To the dreadful falls of Rutja,

And amid the roaring whirlpools,

Underneath the foaming river,

To the rocks beneath the cataract,