Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/58

46

And he ate till he was sated,

Drank the ale in full contentment.

Then the lively Lemminkainen,

Roamed about through every village,

For the island-maidens’ pleasure,

To delight the braidless damsels,

And where’er his head was turning,

There he found a mouth for kissing,

Wheresoe’er his hand was outstretched,

There he found a hand to clasp it.

And at night he went to rest him,

Hiding in the darkest corner;

There was not a single village

Where he did not find ten homesteads,

There was not a single homestead

Where he did not find ten daughters,

There was none among the daughters,

None among the mother’s children,

By whose side he did not stretch him,

On whose arm he did not rest him.

Thus a thousand brides he found there,

Rested by a hundred widows;

Two in half-a-score remained not,

Three in a completed hundred,

Whom he left untouched as maidens,

Or as widows unmolested.

Thus the lively Lemminkainen

Lived a life of great enjoyment,

For the course of three whole summers

In the island’s pleasant hamlets,

To the island-maidens’ rapture,

The content of all the widows;

One alone he did not trouble,

’Twas a poor and aged maiden,

At the furthest promontory,

In the tenth among the hamlets.

As he pondered on his journey,

And resolved to wend him homeward,

Came the poor and aged maiden,

And she spoke the words which follow: