came escorted by
hundreds of his friends, driving a coal-black steed, and with the same
birds singing on his sledge as when he came to woo the Rainbow-maiden,
Louhi's fairest daughter. When he alighted from his sledge, Louhi sent
her best servants to take the steed and give him the very best of food
in a manger of pure gold. But as Ilmarinen advanced to enter the house,
they found that he was too tall to pass through the doorway without
stooping, which would have been very unlucky: so Louhi had to have the
top beam taken away before he could enter.

Inside the dwelling was so changed that no one would have recognised it.
Louhi had cast a magic spell over it, and all the beams and door and
window-sills were made from bones that gleamed like ivory; the
windows were adorned with trout-scales, and the fires were set in
flowers; and the seats and tables and floors were of gold and silver and
copper, with marble hearth-stones and silken carpets on the floors.
Louhi bade Ilmarinen welcome when he came into the guest-hall, and
calling up her servant-maidens, she gazed at her daughter's suitor. The
maidens bore wax tapers, and by their light the bridegroom looked
handsomer than ever, and his eyes sparkled like the waves of the sea.

[Illustration: LAPP WOMAN IN HOLIDAY COSTUME.]

Then Louhi bade the maidens lead Ilmarinen to the seat of honour at the
table in the great hall, and then all the other guests took their
places, and the feast began. First of all the daintiest dishes of every
sort were served by Louhi to the bridegroom--honey-biscuits,
river-salmon, butter, bacon, and every delicacy one can think of--and
after he was served, the servants took the dishes around to the others.
After this the foaming beer was brought in silver pitchers, and all were
served in the same order.

All the heroes and magicians assembled there began to grow merry, and
Wainamoinen said that some one should sing the praises of the beer. But
no one else could be found to do it, and all pressed Wainamoinen to
sing, so at last he arose and began. He sang of the beer first, and
then from his great stock of wisdom he sang them one song after the
other of the days of old, until every guest grew happy from his magic
power of song. But when Wainamoinen had finished his singing, he added:
'Yet I am but a poor singer. For if great Ukko should sing his perfect
songs of wisdom, he would sing the oceans into honey and the sands to
berries, and the pebbles