Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/251

Runo XX]

That the ale shall be fermented,

And the beer be brought to foaming?’

“Kalevatar, beauteous maiden,

She, the maid with slender fingers,

Which she ever moves so deftly,

She whose feet are shod so lightly,

Felt about the seams of staving,

Groping all about the bottom,

Trying one, and then the other,

In the midst of both the kettles,

Found a chip upon the bottom,

Took the chip from off the bottom.

“Then she turned it and reflected,

‘What might perhaps be fashioned from it,

In the hands of lovely maiden,

In the noble damsel’s fingers,

Brought into the hands of maiden,

To the noble damsel’s fingers?’

“In her hands the maiden took it

In the noble damsel’s fingers,

And she clapped her hands together,

Both her hands she rubbed together,

Rubbed them on her thighs together,

And she made a gold-breast marten.

“Thus the marten she instructed,

Thus the orphan child directed:

‘O my marten, O my birdling,

O my fair one, beauteous-hided!

Thither go, where I shall bid thee,

Where I bid thee, and direct thee,

To the Bear’s own rocky cavern,

Where the forest bears are prowling,

Where the bears are always fighting,

Where they lurk in all their fierceness.

With thy hands scrape foam together,

In thy paws the foam then carry,

To the maiden’s hands convey it,

And to Osmo’s daughter’s shoulders.’

“Understood the way the marten,

Forth the golden-breasted hastened,