rge a Sampo,
Nor can weld its pictured cover.
Only bring me to my country,
And I'll send you Ilmarinen,
Who shall forge a Sampo for you,
Weld its many-coloured cover. 330
He perchance may please the maiden,
Win your daughter's young affections.

"He's a smith without an equal,
None can wield the hammer like him,
For 'twas he who forged the heaven,
And who wrought the air's foundations,
Yet we find no trace of hammer,
Nor the trace of tongs discover."

Louhi, Pohjola's old Mistress,
Answered in the words which follow: 340
"I will only yield my daughter,
And my child I promise only
To the man who welds a Sampo
With its many-coloured cover,
From the tips of swan's white wing-plumes,
From the milk of barren heifer,
From a single grain of barley,
From a single fleece of ewe's wool."

Thereupon the colt she harnessed,
In the front she yoked the bay one, 350
And she placed old Vainamoinen
In the sledge behind the stallion.
And she spoke and thus addressed him,
In the very words which follow:
"Do not raise your head up higher,
Turn it not to gaze about you,
That the steed may not be wearied,
Till the evening shall have gathered.
If you dare to raise your head up,
Or to turn to gaze around you, 360
Then misfortune will o'ertake you,
And an evil day betide you."

Then the aged Vainamoinen
Whipped the horse, and urged him onward,
And the white-maned courser hastened
Noisily upon the journey,
Forth from Pohjola's dark regions,
Sariola for ever misty.

RUNO VIII.--VaINaMoINEN'S WOUND

_Argument_

On his journey Vainamoinen encounters the magnificently-clad Maiden of
Pohja, and makes advances to her (1-50). The maiden at length consents
to his wishes if he will make a boat from the splinters of her spindle,
and move it into the water without touching it (51-132). Vainamoinen
sets to work, but wounds his knee severely with his axe, and cannot
stanch the flow of blood (133-204). He goes in search of some magic
remedy and finds an old man who promises to stop the bleeding (205-282).

Lovely was the maid of Pohja,
Famed on land, on water peerless,
On the arch of air high-seated,
Brightly shining on the rainbow,
Clad in robes of dazzling lustre,
Clad in raiment white and sh