hree water-maidens sitting on a rock by the
sea. She hastened to them, weeping, and then began to take off all her
ornaments and lay them carefully away. When at length she had laid all
her gold and silver decorations on the ground, she took the ribbons from
her hair and hung them in a tree, and then laid her silken dress over
one of the branches and plunged into the sea. At a distance she saw a
lovely rock of all the colours of the rainbow, shining in the golden
sunlight. She swam up and climbed upon it to rest. But suddenly the rock
began to sway, and with a loud crash it fell to the bottom of the sea,
carrying with it the unhappy Aino. And as she sank down she sang a last
sad farewell to all her dear ones at home--a song that was so sweet and
mournful that the wild beasts heard it, and were so touched by it that
they resolved to send a messenger to tell her parents what had happened.

So the animals held a council, and first the bear was proposed as
messenger, but they were afraid he would eat the cattle. Next came the
wolf, but they feared that he might eat the sheep. Then the fox was
proposed, but then he might eat the chickens. So at length the hare was
chosen to bear the sad tidings, and he promised to perform his office
faithfully.

He ran like the wind, and soon reached Aino's home. There he found no
one in the house, but on going to the door of the bath-cabin he found
some servants there making birch brooms. They had no sooner caught sight
of him than they threatened to roast him and eat him, but he replied:
'Do not think I have come hither to let you roast me. For I come with
sad tidings to tell you of the flight of Aino and how she died. The
rainbow-coloured stone sank with her to the bottom of the sea, and she
perished, singing like a lovely song-bird. There she sleeps in the
caverns at the bottom of the sea, and on the shore she has left her
silken dress and all her gold and jewels.'

When these tidings came to her mother the bitter tears poured from her
eyes, and she sang, 'O all other mothers, listen: never try to force
your daughters from the house they long to stay in, unto husbands whom
they love not. Thus I drove away my daughter, Aino, fairest in the
Northland.'

Singing thus she sat and wept, and the tears trickled down until they
reached her shoes, and began to flow out over the ground. Here they
formed three little streams, which flowed on and grew larger and larger
until they became roaring