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Wainamoinen replies with lying reasons. Iron brought him, he says, but Tuoni's daughter answers that no blood drips from his garment; Fire brought him, he says, but she answers that his locks are unsinged, and at last he tells his real mission. Then she ferries him over, and Tuonetar the hostess brings him beer in the two-eared jug, but Wainamoinen can see the frogs and worms within and will not drink, for it was not to drain Manala's beer-jug he had come. He lay in the bed of Tuoni, and meanwhile they spread the hundred nets of iron and copper across the river that he might not escape; but he turned into a reed in the swamp, and as a snake crept through the meshes: —

Tuoni's son with hooked fingers Iron-pointed hooked fingers Went to draw his nets at morning— Salmon-trout he found a hundred, Thousands of the little fishes, But he found no Wainamoinen, Not the old friend of the billows. Then the ancient Wainamoinen, Come from out of Tuoni's kingdom, Spake in words, and this their meaning, This their answer to the hearer:— "Never mayst thou, God of goodness, Never suffer such another Who of self-will goes to Mana, Thrusts his way to Tuoni's kingdom.