d I will show thee that I speak the
truth.' So off they set to see the wondrous tree. When they had come to
it Wainamoinen asked Ilmarinen to climb the tree and to bring down the
moon and stars, and he at once began to climb up towards them.

But, while he was climbing, the fir-tree spoke to him, saying: 'Foolish
hero, why hast thou so little knowledge as to try to steal the moon from
my branches?' No sooner had the tree said these words to Ilmarinen, than
Wainamoinen sang a magic spell, calling up a great storm-wind, and
saying to it: 'O storm-wind, take Ilmarinen and carry him in thy airy
vessel to the dark and dismal Northland.'

And the storm-wind came and heaped up the clouds so that they formed a
boat, and seizing Ilmarinen from the tree it placed him in the clouds
and rushed off to the north, carrying clouds and all with it. On and on
he sailed, rising higher than the moon, tossed about by the wind, until
at last he came to the Northland and the storm-wind set him down in
Louhi's courtyard.

Old toothless Louhi saw him as he alighted, and asked him: 'Who art thou
that comest through the air, riding on the storm-wind? Hast thou ever
met the great smith Ilmarinen, for I have long been waiting for him to
come and forge the magic Sampo for me.'

'I do indeed know him well,' he replied, 'for I myself am Ilmarinen.'

At these words Louhi hurried into the house and told her youngest
daughter to dress herself in all her most splendid clothes and
ornaments, for Ilmarinen was come to make the Sampo for them. So the
maiden chose her loveliest silken dresses, and placed a circlet of
copper round her brow, a golden girdle round her waist, and pearls about
her neck, and in her hair she twisted threads of gold and silver. When
she was dressed she looked, with her rosy red cheeks and bright
sparkling eyes, more lovely than any other maiden in all the Northland,
and then she hurried to the hall to meet Ilmarinen.

Louhi went to Ilmarinen and led him into the house, where there was a
feast spread ready for him. She gave him the best seat at the table, and
the choicest viands to eat, and gave him everything he wished for. Then
she asked him if he would forge the Sampo for her, and promised him, if
he would, her fairest daughter as his wife.

Ilmarinen was charmed with her daughter's beauty, and he promised to do
what she asked. But when he went to look for a place to work in, he
could find no place, and not even so much as a