his time he succeeded in dragging the pike from out the
river.

Then the eagle flew off with the pike to the top of a tall pine-tree,
and there ate the body of his victim, leaving the head for Ilmarinen.
But the eagle himself soared up into the air, up beyond the clouds, and
at length disappeared behind the sun.

Ilmarinen returned to Louhi with the pike's head and again claimed her
daughter in marriage. Louhi answered him: 'Thou hast performed this last
task but badly, since thou only brought me the worthless head. But
still, since thou hast completed the other tasks also, I will give thee
my fair daughter. Thou hast won the Maid of Beauty, to be the help and
joy of all thy future life.'

But while Ilmarinen was rejoicing in his good fortune, the aged
Wainamoinen wandered sorrowfully homewards, bewailing his sad lot, thus
to be compelled to live without a wife to cheer his home. 'Woe is me,'
he sang, 'that I did not woo and marry in my youth, for the old men
cannot hope to conquer the young ones when they go a-wooing.'

* * * * *

When this story was ended, Father Mikko stopped a while to rest, and the
others discussed the stories that he had just told. All were pleased
that the Rainbow-maiden had chosen Ilmarinen instead of the aged
Wainamoinen, and little Antero asked 'Pappa' Mikko what they had had to
eat at the wedding--he was rather more deeply interested in things to
eat than anything else--so Father Mikko continued, after he had rested a
while.

[Illustration]

THE BREWING OF BEER

Great preparations were now made in Louhi's home for her daughter's
wedding with Ilmarinen. In distant Karjala, a part of Kalevala, was a
great ox, the largest in the world. It took a weasel seven days to
travel round his neck and shoulders; the swallow had to fly a whole day
without resting, to get from one horn-tip to the other; the squirrel
travelled thirty days, starting from the tail, before he reached the
shoulders. This great ox was led by a thousand heroes to Pohjola, to
Louhi's house, but when he had come thither, no one could be found to
kill him.

Then there came an aged hero from Karjala, and went up to the ox to kill
him with his war-club. But the ox turned and gave him one fierce glance,
and the old warrior dropped his club and ran away and hid in the
forest. Then they sent forth far and near to find some one to kill the
ox, but no one came. At last there arose from the