Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/255

Runo XX]

“Thus was ale at first created,

Beer of Kaleva concocted,

Therefore is it praised so highly,

Therefore held in greatest honour,

For the ale is of the finest,

Best of drinks for prudent people;

Women soon it brings to laughter,

Men it warms into good humour,

And it makes the prudent merry,

But it brings the fools to raving.”

Then did Pohjola’s old Mistress,

When she heard how ale was fashioned,

Water pour in tubs the largest,

Half she filled the new-made barrels,

Adding barley as ’twas needed,

Shoots of hop enough she added,

And the ale began she brewing,

And the beer began its working,

In the new tubs that contained it,

And within the tubs of birchwood.

’Twas for months the stones were glowing,

And for summers water boiling,

Trees were burning on the islands,

Water from the wells was carried.

Bare of trees they left the islands,

And the lakes were greatly shrunken,

For the ale was in the barrels,

And the beer was stored securely

For the mighty feast of Pohja,

For carousing at the mansion.

From the island smoke was rising,

On the headland fire was glowing;

Thick the clouds of smoke were rising,

In the air there rose the vapour.

For the fire was burning fiercely,

And the fire was brightly glowing,

Half it filled the land of Pohja,

Over all Carelia spreading.

All the people gazed upon it,

Gazed, and then they asked each other,