Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/252

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And his journey soon accomplished,

Quickly through the open spaces,

Past one wood, and then a second,

And a third he crossed obliquely,

To the Bear’s own rocky cavern,

To the caverns bear-frequented,

Where the bears are always fighting,

Where they lurk in all their fierceness,

In the rocks as hard as iron,

And among the steel-hard mountains.

“From the bears’ mouths foam was dropping,

From their furious jaws exuding;

In his hands the foam he gathered,

With his paws the foam collected,

To the maiden’s hands he brought it,

To the noble damsel’s fingers.

“In the ale the maiden poured it,

In the beer she poured it likewise,

But the ale was not fermented,

Nor the drink of men foamed over.

“Osmotar, the ale-preparer.

She the maid who beer concocted,

Pondered yet again the matter,

‘What must now be added to it,

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,

Then the space between the kettles,

And a mustard-pod she saw there;

From the ground the pod she lifted.

“Then she turned it, and surveyed it,

‘What might perhaps be fashioned from it,

In the hands of lovely maiden,

In the noble damsel’s fingers,