Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/26

6

But the place she sought she found not,

Not a spot, however barren,

Where her nest she could establish,

Or a resting-place could light on.

Then she hovered, slowly moving,

And she pondered and reflected,

“If my nest in wind I ’stablish

Or should rest it on the billows,

Then the winds will overturn it,

Or the waves will drift it from me.”

Then the Mother of the Waters,

Water-Mother, maid aërial,

From the waves her knee uplifted,

Raised her shoulder from the billows,

That the teal her nest might ’stablish,

And might find a peaceful dwelling.

Then the teal, the bird so beauteous,

Hovered slow, and gazed around her,

And she saw the knee uplifted

From the blue waves of the ocean,

And she thought she saw a hillock,

Freshly green with springing verdure.

There she flew, and hovered slowly,

Gently on the knee alighting,

And her nest she there established,

And she laid her eggs all golden,

Six gold eggs she laid within it,

And a seventh she laid of iron.

O’er her eggs the teal sat brooding,

And the knee grew warm beneath her;

And she sat one day, a second,

Brooded also on the third day;

Then the Mother of the Waters,

Water-Mother, maid aërial,

Felt it hot, and felt it hotter,

And she felt her skin was heated,

Till she thought her knee was burning,

And that all her veins were melting.

Then she jerked her knee with quickness,

And her limbs convulsive shaking,