Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/194

174

Though by Tuoni never summoned,

To the land of Mana called not?”

Said the aged Väinämöinen,

“At my boat as I was working,

While my new boat I was shaping,

Then I found three words were wanting,

Ere the stern could be completed,

And the prow could be constructed,

But as I could find them nowhere,

In the world where’er I sought them,

Then to Tuonela I travelled,

Journeyed to the land of Mana,

There to find the words I needed,

There the magic words to study.”

Then said Tuonela’s great mistress,

And she spoke the words which follow:

“Ne’er the words will Tuoni give you,

Nor his spells will Mana teach you.

Never shall you leave these regions,

Never while your life remaineth,

Shall you ever journey homeward,

To your country home returning.”

Sank the weary man in slumber,

And the traveller lay and slumbered,

On the bed prepared by Tuoni,

There outstretched himself in slumber,

And the hero thus was captured,

Lay outstretched, but quickly wakened.

There’s in Tuonela a witch-wife,

Aged crone with chin projecting,

And she spins her thread of iron,

And she draws out wire of copper,

And she spun of nets a hundred,

And she wove herself a thousand,

In a single night of summer,

On the rock amid the waters.

There’s in Tuonela a wizard,

And three fingers has the old man,

And he weaves his nets of iron,

And he makes his nets of copper,