Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/83

Runo XXXI]

When the boy began his kicking,

And he kicked and pushed about him,

Tore his swaddling clothes to pieces,

Freed himself from all his clothing,

Then he broke the lime-wood cradle,

All his rags he tore from off him.

And it seemed that he would prosper,

And become a man of mettle.

Untamola thought already

That when he was grown to manhood,

He would grow both wise and mighty,

And become a famous hero,

As a servant worth a hundred,

Equal to a thousand servants.

Thus he grew for two and three months,

But already in the third month,

When a boy no more than knee-high,

He began to speak in thiswise:

“Presently when I am bigger,

And my body shall be stronger,

I’ll avenge my father’s slaughter,

And my mother’s tears atone for.”

This was heard by Untamoinen,

And he spoke the words which follow:

“He will bring my race to ruin,

Kalervo reborn is in him.”

Thereupon the heroes pondered

And the old crones all considered

How to bring the boy to ruin,

So that death might come upon him.

Then they put him in a barrel,

In a barrel did they thrust him,

And they pushed it to the water,

Pushed it out upon the billows.

Then they went to look about them,

After two nights, after three nights,

If the boy had sunk in water,

Or had perished in the barrel.

In the waves he was not sunken,

Nor had perished in the barrel,