Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/246

Rh

Means she knew to ban the fire,

And to drive away its glowing,

Through the little eye of needle,

And across the back of axe-blade,

Through the sheath of glowing sword-blade,

Past the ploughed land did she drive it.”

Väinämöinen, old and steadfast,

Heard her words, and then made answer:

“Whither has the fire retreated,

Whither did the pest take refuge,

Was it in the field of Tuuri,

In a lake, or in a forest?”

Then the matron made him answer,

And she spoke the words which follow:

“When from thence the fire departed,

And the flame went wandering onward,

First it burned o’er many districts,

Many districts, many marshes,

Rushed at last into the water,

In the billows of Lake Alue,

And the fire rose up all flaming,

And the sparks arose all crackling.

“Three times in the nights of summer,

Nine times in the nights of autumn,

Rose the lake the height of fir-trees,

Roaring rose above the lake-banks,

With the strength of furious fire,

With the strength of heat all flaming.

“On the bank were thrown the fishes,

On the rocks the perch were stranded,

And the fishes looked around them,

And the perch were all reflecting

How they could continue living.

Perch were weeping for their dwellings,

Fish were weeping for their homesteads,

Perches for their rocky castles.

“And the perch with back all crooked,

Tried to seize the streak of fire,

But the perch was not successful;

Seized upon it the blue powan.