Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/122

110

With the whip then struck his courser,

With his beaded whip he lashed him.

Sprang the horse upon his journey,

Rocked the sledge, the way was shortened,

And he rattled on his journey,

And he sped upon his pathway,

Straight across the heaths of Pohja,

And the borders wide of Lapland.

And by chance a maiden met him,

Wearing a tin brooch, and singing,

Out upon the heaths of Pohja,

And the borders wide of Lapland.

Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring,

Checked his horse upon the instant,

And his mouth at once he opened,

And began to speak as follows:

“Come into my sledge, O maiden,

Underneath my rug, my dearest,

And you there shall eat my apples,

And shall crack my nuts in comfort.”

But the maiden made him answer,

And the tin-adorned one shouted:

“At your sledge I spit, O villain,

Even at your sledge, O scoundrel!

Underneath your rug is coldness,

And within your sledge is darkness.”

Kullervo, Kalervo’s offspring,

With the very bluest stockings,

Dragged into his sledge the maiden,

And into the sledge he pulled her,

And upon the furs he laid her,

Underneath the rug he pushed her.

And the maiden spoke unto him,

Thus outspoke the tin-adorned one:

“From the sledge at once release me,

Leave the child in perfect freedom,

That I hear of nothing evil,

Neither foul nor filthy language,

Or upon the ground I’ll throw me,

And will break the sledge to splinters,