Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/246

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And he spoke the words which follow:

“Wait thou, wait, thou ox unhappy,

While I go and fetch my mallet.

If I strike you with my mallet

On the skull, unhappy creature,

Never in another summer,

Would you turn about your muzzle,

Or your tail would jerk around you,

Here among the fields of Pohja,

By the Sound of Sariola stray.”

Then the old man went to strike him,

Virokannas moved against him,

Went to slay the ox unhappy;

But his head the ox was turning,

And his black eyes he was blinking.

To a pine-tree sprang the old man,

Virokannas in the bushes,

In the scrubby willow-thicket.

After this they sought a butcher,

Who the mighty ox could slaughter,

From Carelia’s lovely country,

From the vast expanse of Suomi,

From the peaceful land of Russia,

From the hardy land of Sweden,

From the regions wide of Lapland,

From the mighty land of Turja,

And they sought through Tuoni’s regions,

In the depths of Mana’s kingdom,

And they sought, but no one found they,

Long they searched, but vainly searched they.

Yet again they sought a butcher,

Sought again to find a slaughterer,

On the ocean’s shining surface,

On the wide-extending billows.

From the dark sea rose a hero,

Rose a hero from the sea-swell,

From the shining surface rising,

From the wide expanse of water.

He was not among the greatest,

But in nowise of the smallest.