g Ilmarinen's wife showed Kullervo the cattle, and bade
him take them to the open glades among the forests, where they would
find food in abundance. Then she addressed a prayer to Ukko that he
would guard the flock in case the shepherd should neglect them. And she
sought the aid too of all the goddesses of the forest and the daughters
of summer and the spirits of the fountains and the brooks, to care for
her cattle and watch over them. And she also sang a spell to keep away
the bear from coming and devouring them. And when all these prayers and
spells were ended she sent Kullervo off with the herds.

Kullervo drove them off to their pastures in the woods, carrying his
lunch in a basket on his arm. And as he walked he sang of his hard lot
as a slave, and how he was given only the scraps and crusts to eat,
while his master and mistress fed on honey-cakes and wheaten biscuit. At
length the time came for him to eat his luncheon, and he sat down and
drew the cheat-loaf from the basket. But instead of eating it at once he
turned it carefully over and over in his hands, and thought: 'Many
loaves are fine to look at on the outside, but are nothing but chaff
inside,' and he drew out his knife to try the loaf.

This knife was the one thing that his mother had kept of all her
father's possessions, and Kullervo looked upon it as something sacred.
Now as he plunged it into the cheat-loaf it hit right upon the hard
flint in the centre and broke in several pieces. Then Kullervo sat down
and began to weep over his loss, and to ponder how he should revenge
it. But a raven was sitting in a tree near by and overhead him talking
to himself, and the raven said: 'Why art thou so distressed, Kullervo?
Drive the herd away, one half to the wolves' and the other half to the
bears' dens, so that they may all be devoured. And then when it is time
to return home call together the wolves and bears and make them look
like cattle, by thy magic art, and drive them home for thy mistress to
milk. Thus thou wilt repay this insult.'

At these words Kullervo jumped up and did as the raven had said. And
when the sun was setting in the west, Kullervo hastened homeward,
driving bears and wolves before him, but by a magic spell he made them
look like cattle. And as he went, he said to them: 'Seize my hateful
mistress when she comes to milk the cattle, and tear and rend her in
pieces.' And he took a cow-horn and made a bugle of it and blew till the
hills rang,