Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/242

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But rejoices more the mother,

When the largest loaf is baking,

And the wheaten bread is baking,

That the guests may feast profusely.

“Thus it was your darling knew it,

Far around the strangers knew it,

How the young maid grew in stature,

And how tall grew up the maiden.

Once I went into the courtyard,

And I wandered to the storehouse,

Very early in the morning

In the earliest morning hours,

And the soot in streaks ascended,

And the smoke in clouds rose upward,

From the far-famed maiden’s dwelling,

From the blooming maiden’s homestead,

And the maid herself was grinding,

Busy working at the handmill;

Rung the mill like call of cuckoo,

And the pestle quacked like wild geese,

And the sieve like bird was singing,

And the stones like beads were rattling.

“Forth a second time I wandered,

And into the field I wandered,

In the meadow was the maiden,

Stooping o’er the yellow heather;

Working at the red-stained dye-pots,

Boiling up the yellow kettles.

“When I wandered forth a third time

Sat the maid beneath the window,

There I heard the maiden weaving,

In her hands the comb was sounding,

And I heard the shuttle flying,

As in cleft of rock the ermine,

And the comb-teeth heard I sounding,

As the wooden shaft was moving,

And the weaver’s beam was turning,

Like a squirrel in the tree-tops.”

Then did Pohjola’s old Mistress

Answer in the words which follow: