Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/179

Runo XV]

But as yet the man was speechless,

Nor the child to speak was able.

Then she spoke the words which follow,

And expressed herself in thiswise:

“Whence shall we obtain an ointment,

Whence obtain the drops of honey

That I may anoint the patient

And that I may cure his weakness,

That the man his speech recovers,

And again his songs is singing?

“O thou bee, thou bird of honey,

King of all the woodland flowerets,

Go thou forth to fetch me honey,

Go thou forth to seek for honey,

Back from Metsola’s fair meadows,

Tapiola, for ever cheerful,

From the cup of many a flower,

And the plumes of grasses many,

As an ointment for the patient,

And to quite restore the sick one.”

Then the bee, the bird so active,

Flew away upon his journey,

Forth to Metsola’s fair meadows,

Tapiola, for ever cheerful,

Probed the flowers upon the meadows,

With his tongue he sucked the honey

From the tips of six bright flowers,

From the plumes of hundred grasses,

Then came buzzing loud and louder,

Rushing on his homeward journey,

With his wings all steeped in honey,

And his plumage soaked with nectar.

Then did Lemminkainen’s mother,

Take from him the magic ointment,

That she might anoint the patient,

And she thus might cure his weakness,

But from this there came no healing,

And as yet the man was speechless.

Then she spoke the words which follow:

“O thou bee, my own dear birdling,