Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/241

Runo XIX]

Pushed aside the castle’s shutter,

Sat him at the castle window,

Near the wall, all green his feathers,

In the room, his plumes a hundred.

“Then he scanned the braidless maidens,

Gazing on the long-haired maiden,

On the best of all the maidens,

Fairest maid with hair unbraided,

And her head with beads was shining,

And her head with beauteous blossoms.

“In his claws the eagle seized her,

And the hawk with talons grasped her,

Seized the best of all the party,

Of the flock of ducks the fairest,

She the sweetest-voiced and tenderest,

She the rosiest and the whitest,

She the bird of air selected,

In his talons far he bore her,

She who held her head the highest,

And her form of all the shapeliest,

And her feathers of the finest,

And her plumage of the softest.”

Then did Pohjola’s old Mistress

Answer in the words that follow:

“Wherefore dost thou know, my darling,

Or hast heard, my golden apple,

How the maiden grew amongst us,

And her flaxen hair waved round her?

Perhaps the maiden shone with silver,

Or the maiden’s gold was famous.

Has our sun been shining on you,

Or the moon afar been shining?”

From the floor the child made answer,

And the growing child responded:

“Therefore did your darling know it,

And your fostling learned to know it.

In the far-famed maidens’ dwelling,

In the home where dwells the fair one;

Good report rejoiced the father,

When he launched his largest vessel: