Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v2.djvu/84

72

He had ’scaped from out the barrel,

And upon the waves was sitting,

In his hand a rod of copper,

At the end a line all silken,

And for lake-fish he was fishing,

As he floated on the water.

There was water in the lakelet,

Which perchance might fill two ladles,

Or if more exactly measured,

Partly was a third filled also.

Untamo again reflected,

“How can we o’ercome the infant,

That destruction come upon him,

And that death may overtake him?”

Then he bade his servants gather

First a large supply of birch-trees,

Pine-trees with their hundred needles,

Trees from which the pitch was oozing,

For the burning of the infant,

And for Kullervo’s destruction.

So they gathered and collected

First a large supply of birch-trees,

Pine-trees with their hundred needles,

Trees from which the pitch was oozing,

And of bark a thousand sledgefuls,

Ash-trees, long a hundred fathoms.

Fire beneath the wood they kindled,

And the pyre began to crackle,

And the boy they cast upon it,

’Mid the glowing fire they cast him.

Burned the fire a day, a second,

Burning likewise on the third day,

When they went to look about them.

Knee-deep sat the boy in ashes,

In the embers to his elbows.

In his hand he held the coal-rake,

And was stirring up the fire,

And he raked the coals together.

Not a hair was singed upon him,

Not a lock was even tangled.