Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/195

Runo XVI]

And a hundred nets he wove him,

And a thousand nets he plaited,

In the selfsame night of summer,

On the same stone in the water.

Tuoni’s son with crooked fingers,

Crooked fingers hard as iron,

Took the hundred nets, and spread them

Right across the stream of Tuoni,

Both across and also lengthwise,

And in an oblique direction,

So that Väinö should not ’scape him,

Nor should flee Uvantolainen,

In the course of all his lifetime,

While the golden moon is shining,

From the dread abode of Tuoni,

From the eternal home of Mana.

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Uttered then the words which follow:

“May not ruin overtake me,

And an evil fate await me,

Here in Tuonela’s dark dwellings,

In the foul abode of Mana?”

Quickly then his shape transforming,

And another shape assuming,

To the gloomy lake he hastened,

Like an otter in the reed-beds,

Like an iron snake he wriggled,

Like a little adder hastened

Straight across the stream of Tuoni,

Safely through the nets of Tuoni.

Tuoni’s son with crooked fingers,

Crooked fingers, hard as iron,

Wandered early in the morning

To survey the nets extended,

Found of salmon-trout a hundred,

Smaller fry he found by thousands,

But he found not Väinämöinen,

Not the old Uvantolainen.

Thus the aged Väinämöinen

Made his way from Tuoni’s kingdom,