Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/217

Runo XLV]

From the clouds then bespoke her Jumala,

The Creator spoke from heaven:

“Stands in swamp a hut three-cornered,

Just upon a lakelet’s margin,

In the gloomy land of Pohja,

Near where Sariola’s bay stretches.

There thou may’st bring forth thy offspring,

There lay down thy heavy burden,

There it is that people need thee,

There do they expect thy offspring.”

Therefore Tuoni’s blackest daughter,

Manala’s most hideous damsel,

Came unto the house of Pohja,

Came to Sariola’s great bathroom,

That she there might bear her children,

And she might bring forth her offspring.

Louhi, Pohjola’s old Mistress,

Old and gap-toothed dame of Pohja,

Secret led her to the bathroom,

Secretly into the bathroom,

But the village did not know it,

Nought was spoken in the village.

Secretly she warmed the bathroom,

Hastily she made it ready,

And with ale the doors smeared over,

And with beer the hinges wetted,

That the doors should make no jarring,

And the hinges make no creaking.

Then she spoke the words which follow,

And expressed herself in thiswise:

“Noble dame, Creation’s daughter,

Noble one, as gold all lustrous,

Thou the oldest of all women,

Thou the first of all the mothers,

Knee-deep in the lake descend thou,

To thy waist among the billows,

From the perch the slime obtain thou,

And the slime from creeping creatures,

Do thou smear with this the gateway,

And upon the sides anoint it,