Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/28

16

And for wattles creeping serpents,

Thus the fence with snakes was wattled

And among them there were lizards,

And their tails were always waving,

And their thick heads always swelling,

Rows of heads erected always,

Heads turned out and tails turned inwards.

Then the lively Lemminkainen

Gave himself to his reflections.

“This is what my mother told me,

This is what my mother dreaded;

Here I find a fence tremendous

Reared aloft from earth to heaven,

Down below there creeps a viper,

Deeper yet the fence is sunken,

Up aloft a bird is flying,

But the fence is builded higher.”

Natheless was not Lemminkainen

Greatly troubled or uneasy;

From the sheath he drew his knife out,

From the sheath an iron weapon,

And he hewed the fence to pieces,

And in twain he clove the hedgestakes;

Thus he breached the fence of iron,

And he drove away the serpents

From the space between five hedgestakes,

Likewise from the space ’twixt seven,

And himself pursued his journey,

On to Pohjola’s dark portal.

In the path a snake was twisting,

Just in front across the doorway,

Even longer than the roof-tree,

Thicker than the hall’s great pillars,

And the snake had eyes a hundred,

And the snake had tongues a thousand,

And his eyes than sieves were larger,

And his tongues were long as spear-shafts,

And his fangs were like rake-handles;

Seven boats’ length his back extended.

Then the lively Lemminkainen