Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/60

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Though a hundred men attacked him,

And a thousand pressed upon him.”

Unembraced he left the maidens,

And he left them unmolested,

And he turned him to his vessel,

Luckless to his boat he hurried,

But he found it burned to ashes,

Utterly consumed to ashes.

Mischief now he saw approaching,

O’er his head ill days were brooding,

So began to build a vessel,

And a new boat to construct him.

Wood was failing to the craftsman,

Boards with which a boat to fashion,

But he found of wood a little,

Begged some wretched bits of boarding,

Five small splinters of a spindle,

And six fragments of a bobbin.

So from these a boat he fashioned,

And a new boat he constructed,

By his magic art he made it,

With his secret knowledge made it,

Hammered once, one side he fashioned,

Hammered twice, called up the other,

Hammered then a third time only,

And the boat was quite completed.

Then he pushed the boat in water,

On the waves he launched the vessel,

And he spoke the words which follow,

And expressed himself in thiswise:

“Float like bladder on the water,

On the waves like water-lily.

Eagle, give me now three feathers,

Eagle, three, and two from raven,

For the wretched boat’s protection,

For the wretched vessel’s bulwarks.”

Then he stepped upon the planking,

At the stern he took his station,

Head bowed down, in deep depression,

And his cap awry adjusted,