to drink the richest liquors from the golden
beakers of strangers.'

Then Louhi asked him: 'What reward wilt thou give me, if I carry thee
back to thy beloved home, to the plains of Kalevala?'

Wainamoinen asked her what reward she would consider sufficient, whether
gold or silver treasures, but Louhi answered: 'I ask not for gold or
silver, O wise Wainamoinen, but canst thou forge for me the magic Sampo,
with its lid of many colours, the magic mill that grinds out flour on
one side, and salt from another side, and turns out money from the
third? I will give thee, too, my daughter, as a reward, to be thy wife
and to care for thy home.'

But Wainamoinen answered sadly: 'I cannot forge for thee the magic
Sampo, but take me to my country and I will send thee Ilmarinen, who
will make it for thee, and wed thy lovely daughter. Ilmarinen is a
wondrous smith; he it was who forged the heavens, and so perfectly did
he do it that we cannot see a single mark of the hammer on them.'

Louhi replied: 'Only to him who can forge the magic Sampo for me will I
give my daughter.' Then she harnessed up her sledge and put Wainamoinen
in it and made him all ready for his journey home. And as he started off
she spoke these words to him: 'Do not raise thy eyes to the heavens, do
not look upward while the day lasts, before the evening star has risen,
or a terrible misfortune will happen to you.'

Then Wainamoinen drove off, and his heart grew light as he left the
dismal Northland behind him on his way to Kalevala.

[Illustration]

THE RAINBOW-MAIDEN

The fair Rainbow-maiden, Louhi's daughter, sat upon a rainbow in the
heavens, and was clad in the most splendid dress of gold and silver. She
was busy weaving golden webs of wonderful beauty, using a shuttle of
gold and a silver weaving-comb.

As Wainamoinen came swiftly along the way which led from the dark and
dismal Northland to the plains of Kalevala, before he had gone far on
his way he heard in the sky above him the humming of the
Rainbow-maiden's loom. Without thinking of old Louhi's warning, he
looked up and beheld the maiden seated on the gorgeous rainbow weaving
beauteous cloths. No sooner had he seen the lovely maiden than he
stopped, and calling to her asked her to come to his sledge.

The Rainbow-maiden replied: 'Tell me what thou wishest of me.'

'Thou shalt come with me,' Wainamoinen replied, 'to bake me
honey-biscuit, to fill my cup with foaming beer, to sing be