branched off in three directions. He chose the
left-hand one, and galloped on till he reached a house. When he went to
the door he found only a boy and a baby inside, and when he had told
them what he wanted, the boy said, 'There is no one here that can help
thee, but take the middle road, and perhaps thou wilt find help.'

So off he galloped to where the roads branched off, and then along the
middle one to another house. There he found an old witch lying on the
floor, but she gave him the same answer that the boy had done, and sent
him to the right-hand road.

On this road he came to another cottage, where an old man with a long
gray beard was sitting by the fire. And when Wainamoinen told him of his
trouble, the old man replied, 'Greater things have been done by but
three of the magic words; water has been turned to land, and land to
water.' On hearing this answer Wainamoinen rose from his sledge and went
into the cottage, and seated himself there. And all this time his knee
was bleeding, so that the blood was enough to fill seven huge birchen
pots.

Then the old man asked him who he was, and bade him sing to him the
origin[4] of the iron that had wounded him so, and Wainamoinen related
the following story of how iron was first made:

[4] For they believed that a magic song that told the _origin_ of any
trouble would also cure it.

Long ago after there were air and water, fire was born, and after the
fire came iron. Ukko, the creator, rubbed his hands upon his left knee,
and there arose thence three lovely maidens, who were the mothers of
iron and steel. These three maidens walked forth on the clouds, and from
their bosoms ran the milk of iron, down unto the clouds and thence down
upon the earth. Ukko's eldest daughter cast black milk over the
river-beds, and the second cast white milk over the hills and mountains,
and the third red milk over the lakes and oceans; and from the black
milk grew the soft black iron-ore; from the white milk the
lighter-coloured ore; and from the red milk the brittle red iron-ore.

After the iron had lain in peace for a while, Fire came to visit his
brother Iron and tried to eat him up. Then Iron ran from him and took
refuge in the swamps and marshes, and that is how we now find iron-ore
hidden in the marshes.

Then was born the great smith, Ilmarinen, and the next morning after he
was born he built his smithy on a hill near the marshland. There he
found the hidden iron-ore, and c