Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/30



did Väinämöinen, rising,

Set his feet upon the surface

Of a sea-encircled island,

In a region bare of forest.

There he dwelt, while years passed over,

And his dwelling he established

On the silent, voiceless island,

In a barren, treeless country.

Then he pondered and reflected,

In his mind he turned it over,

“Who shall sow this barren country,

Thickly scattering seeds around him?”

Pellervoinen, earth-begotten,

Sampsa, youth of smallest stature,

Came to sow the barren country,

Thickly scattering seeds around him.

Down he stooped the seeds to scatter,

On the land and in the marshes,

Both in flat and sandy regions,

And in hard and rocky places.

On the hills he sowed the pine-trees,

On the knolls he sowed the fir-trees,