Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/245

Runo XX]

For the feasting of the people,

For the multitude of feasters?

In Carelia grew a bullock,

Fat the ox they reared in Suomi,

Not a large one, not a small one,

But a calf of middle stature.

While he switched his tail in Hame

Stooped his head to Kemi’s river,

Long his horns one hundred fathoms,

Muzzle broad as half a hundred,

For a week there ran an ermine

All along the yoke he carried,

All day long there flew a swallow

’Twixt the mighty ox’s horn-tips,

Striving through the space to hasten,

Nor found resting-place between them;

Month-long ran a summer-squirrel

From his neck unto his tail-end,

Nor did he attain the tail-tip,

Till a month had quite passed over.

’Twas this calf of size stupendous,

’Twas this mighty bull of Suomi,

Whom they led forth from Carelia

Till they reached the fields of Pohja.

By his horns, a hundred led him,

And a thousand dragged his muzzle,

And they led the ox still further,

Till to Pohjola they brought him.

On his road the ox proceeded

By the Sound of Sariola strayed;

Browsed the grass in marshy places,

While his back the clouds were touching;

But they could not find a butcher,

Who could fell the country’s marvel

On the list of Suomi’s children,

’Mid the mighty host of people,

Not among the youthful people,

Nor among the very aged.

From afar an old man journeyed

Virokannas from Carelia;

vol. i.