But his voice sounded harsh and unmelodious, and it made
the very ship tremble.

Far off on the land a crane was standing amidst the rushes, amusing
itself by counting its toes. But when it heard Lemminkainen's attempts
at singing, it was so frightened that it flew off screaming over
Pohjola, and by its screeching it awoke all the slumbering people. As
soon as Louhi awoke she hurried off to her barns and cattle-pens to see
if anything had been stolen, but she found everything all right. Next
she hurried to the mountains, to the cavern where she had hidden the
Sampo, but when she came there she found the cavern empty, and saw how
her visitors had torn the Sampo loose from its fastenings.

Then Louhi returned to her house pale with anger and fear, for she knew
that if the Sampo were lost that all the prosperity of the Northland
would be lost with it. So she called up the goddess of the fogs, and
sent her out to delay Wainamoinen's vessel. And then she called on
Iko-Turso--a wicked monster living in the depths of the sea--to swim to
the ship and sink it, and to eat the men in it, but to bring back the
Sampo to Pohjola once more. And she prayed, moreover, to great Ukko that
if the sea-monster should not succeed, that Ukko himself would send a
fearful tempest to wreck the vessel.

First came the goddess of the fog, and wrapped them in such a thick mist
that they could not move. Three days they lay so, and then Wainamoinen
drew his sword, exclaiming: 'We shall all perish here in the fog if no
attempt is made to drive it away,' and with these words he struck the
waves with his sword. From the blade there flowed a stream of honey, and
all at once the fog broke up, and left the way clear before them. But
scarcely had the fog disappeared than they heard a mighty roaring sound,
and the foam began to shoot up from the water alongside, and to cover
the ship. Then Wainamoinen leaned over the vessel's side, and stretching
out his arm he grasped something that he saw in the water, and pulled up
the awful monster Iko-Turso. But the monster was so affrighted by being
lifted out of the water that he promised to leave them in peace, and
never to appear above the waters again if Wainamoinen would only release
him. So Wainamoinen let him go, and the second danger was past.

But now came the third and most terrible of all, for Ukko sent a mighty
storm-wind, which lashed the waves into a fury, and stirred up the ocean
to its very bottom. An