if Ilmarinen _had_ made a steel
collar and put it round her neck,' said Mimi. 'But I'm so glad that
Wainamoinen always got the best of it,' she added.

'There was one time when he was defeated, however,' said Father Mikko,
'and now I shall tell it you. It is the last story, and is about
Wainamoinen's departure from Kalevala.' So he began.

[Illustration]

MARIATTA AND WAINAMOINEN'S DEPARTURE

There lived a fair and lovely maiden in Kalevala, called Mariatta. She
was the loveliest and purest of virgins, and tended her parents' flocks
upon the mountain sides. Here one day, as she was watching the sheep,
she heard a voice calling to her, and on looking round she found that it
was a bright red berry calling to her, and asking her to pluck it.
Mariatta did not know that this was a magic berry, so she picked it and
put it to her lips to eat it. But the berry rolled from her lips down
into her bosom, and said to her: 'Thou shalt have a son, and he shall
become a mighty man and drive forth the old magician Wainamoinen.'

Then Mariatta took the flocks home and was so silent and still that her
parents noticed it and asked her what was the matter. So she told them
what had happened, but they grew angry and would not keep her in their
house, for they did not believe the story about the berry.

Poor Mariatta was now obliged to wander about without a shelter from the
cold winds. At length she sent a servant, who had remained faithful to
her and had accompanied her, to a village of Pohjola to ask for shelter
from an old man named Ruotus. The maid, Piltti, went to Ruotus and told
him of Mariatta's hard lot, but Ruotus and his wife would not have her
in their house, but only grudgingly consented to let her go to a stable
in the forest, where the Fire-horse of Hisi was kept.

So Mariatta was obliged to go to the stable in the dense forest far off
from every human being, and there she begged the Hisi-horse to keep her
warm by his fiery breath. The Hisi-horse was kinder to her than men had
been, for he let her lie down comfortably in his manger, and kept her
warm with his fiery breath. There the babe was born, and his mother grew
happy once more, in spite of her sorrowful circumstances. But one night,
while she slept, the babe disappeared, and the poor mother was
overwhelmed with grief.

Then she wandered forth and looked everywhere for him, but in vain. So
she asked the North-star if he had seen her son. But the North-sta