On hearing this Lemminkainen began again to mourn her loss, and to look
about for some dear relic that he might keep in remembrance of her. But
as he looked he suddenly came on a faint pathway leading away from the
house, and on it he saw the prints of light feet. He began to follow it
eagerly, over hill and valley until he reached the gloomy forest. There
it led him to a hidden glade, right in the middle of the island, and
there he found a humble cabin, and his gray-haired mother weeping in it.

Ahti cried aloud for joy at the sight of her, and then he told her how
he had mourned her as dead. She asked him in return how he had spent
those years on the Isle of Refuge, and he told her all; how charming the
life there was, and how he had enjoyed himself there, but that at the
end all the men of the isle had come to hate him, because the maidens
admired him so much, and how through their jealousy and the hatred of
the one maid whom he had neglected, he had nearly lost his life. And
when he had ended his story they both gave thanks to great Ukko that
they had found each other again.

[Illustration]

THE FROST-FIEND

When the next day began to dawn, Lemminkainen went to the beach, that
was hidden behind a projecting point, where his vessels lay. He found
them still there, but as he approached he heard the rigging wailing in
the wind, and saying: 'Must we lie here for ever and rot, since Ahti has
sworn not to go to war for sixty long years?'

Then Lemminkainen cried out to his vessels: 'Mourn no more, my good
warships, for soon ye shall be filled with warriors and hastening to the
battle.' When he had uttered these words he hurried back to his mother
and bade her sorrow no longer over the insult that the Pohjola warriors
had offered to her, for he was going now to make war on them in order to
punish them for it.

His mother, when she heard his intention, besought him earnestly not to
go to war and break his oath to her, for some great misfortune would
surely come upon him. But he paid no heed to her, and went to seek his
friend Kura to accompany him on his expedition. When he came to the isle
on which Kura lived, he went up to the house and said: 'O my dear friend
Kura, dost thou not remember the time when we fought together long ago
against the men of dismal Northland? Come with me now and be my
companion in another war against them.'

Now Kura's father was sitting by the window, whittling out a javelin,
a