yed their
strongest spells against me, but I stood unmoved. Then I began my own
magic songs, and before long I overcame them and sank them to the bottom
of the sea, where they are still sleeping and the seaweed is growing
through their hair and beards.'

Still his mother tried to stop him, and his wife Kyllikki begged his
forgiveness in tears. He stood listening to them and brushing out his
long black hair, but at last he became impatient, and threw the brush
from him and cried out: 'I will not stay, but keep that brush, and when
ye see blood oozing from its bristles, then ye may know that some
terrible misfortune has overtaken me.'

Saying this he left them and put on his armour and harnessed his steed
into his sledge. Then he sang a song, calling on all the spirits of the
woods and the mountains and the waters and on great Ukko himself to help
him against the Northland wizards, and when his song was ended he drove
off like the wind.

In the evening of the third day he reached a little village in the
Northland. Here he drove into a courtyard and called out: 'Is there any
one strong enough to attend to my horse and take care of my sledge.'
There was a child playing on the floor of the house, and it replied that
there was no one there to do it. Then Lemminkainen rode on to another
house and asked the same question; and a man standing in the doorway
replied: 'There are plenty here that are mighty enough not only to
unharness thy steed, but to conquer thee and drive thee to thy home ere
the sun has set.'

Then Lemminkainen told him that he would return and slay him, and so
drove off to the highest house in the village. Here he cast a spell over
the watch-dog, so that he should not bark, and drove in. Then he struck
on the ground with his whip, and from the ground there arose a vapour
that concealed the sledge, and in the vapour was a dwarf that took his
steed and unharnessed it and gave it food. But Lemminkainen went on into
the house, having first made himself invisible. There he found a great
many people singing and making merry, and by the fires the Northland
wizards were seated. He made his way on, and then took on his own shape
again and entered into the main hall, and cried out to those that were
singing to be silent.

As soon as she saw him the mistress of the house ran up to him and asked
him who he was, and how he had passed the watch-dog unnoticed. Then
Lemminkainen told her who he was, and instantly began