selves into a fairy ring, and sang while they danced round it;--

Will you leave us? Will you leave us?
Slagfid, Eigil, and Wayland, sons of a King.
Is not the emerald better than grass?
Is not the ruby better than roses?
Is not the sapphire better than the sky?
Why do you leave the mountains of Finmark?

But Eigil was impatient and struck his reindeer, that willing beast
which flies like the wind and needs not the touch of a whip. It
bounded forward in surprise, and knocked down one of the elves that
stood in its path. But the hands of his brothers laid hold of the
reins, and stopped the reindeer, and sang again:--

The Finlander's world, the Finlander's joy
Lies under the earth;
Seek not without what we offer within,
Despise not the elves small and dark though they be.
The best is within, do not seek it without.
The Finlander's world, the Finlander's joy,
Lies under the earth.

Slagfid struck his reindeer. It bounded forward and struck down an elf
who stood in its road. Then his brothers stood in its path, and
stopped the reindeer, and sang:--

Because Slagfid struck his reindeer,
Because Eigil struck his reindeer,
Our hatred shall follow you.
A time of weal, a time of woe, a time of grief, a time of joy.
Because Wayland also forsook us,
Though he struck not the reindeer,
A time of weal, a time of woe, a time of grief, a time of joy.
Farewell, O Finlanders, sons of a King.

Their voices died away as they crossed a bright strip of moonlight,
which lay between them and the mountains and so they were seen no more.

The brothers thought no more about them or their words, but went
swiftly on their way south, sleeping at night in their reindeer skins.

After many days they came to a lake full of fish, in a place which was
called the Valley of Wolves, because of the number of wolves which hid
there. But the Finlanders did not mind the wolves, and built a house
close to the lake, and hunted bears, and caught fish through holes in
the ice, till winter had passed away and spring had come. Then one day
they noticed that the sky was blue and the earth covered with flowers.

By-and-by they noticed something more, and that was that three maidens
were sitting on the grass, spinning flax on the bank of a stream.
Their eyes were blue, and their skins were white as the snow on the
mountains, while instead of the mantles of swansdown they general