Kaleva's son perished?
Or most certain death awaits you,
And you die upon the instant." 100

Then said Pohjola's old Mistress,
"Now at length I'll tell you truly.
Forth to chase the elks I sent him,
And to struggle with the monsters,
And the mighty beasts to bridle,
And to put the foals in harness.
Then I sent him forth swan-hunting,
Seeking for the bird so sacred,
But I really cannot tell you
If misfortune came upon him, 110
Or what hindrance he encountered.
Nought I heard of his returning,
For the bride that he demanded,
When he came to woo my daughter."

Then the mother sought the strayed one,
Dreading what mischance had happened,
Like a wolf she tracked the marshes,
Like a bear the wastes she traversed,
Like an otter swam the waters,
Badger-like the plains she traversed, 120
Passed the headlands like a hedgehog,
Like a hare along the lakeshores,
Pushed the rocks from out her pathway,
From the slopes bent down the tree-trunks,
Thrust the shrubs beside her pathway,
From her track she cast the branches.

Long she vainly sought the strayed one,
Long she sought, but found him never.
Of her son the trees she questioned,
For the lost one ever seeking. 130
Said a tree, then sighed a pine-tree,
And an oak made answer wisely:
"I myself have also sorrows,
For your son I cannot trouble,
For my lot's indeed a hard one,
And an evil day awaits me,
For they split me into splinters,
And they chop me into faggots,
In the kiln that I may perish,
Or they fell me in the clearing." 140

Long she vainly sought the strayed one,
Long she sought, but found him never,
And whene'er she crossed a pathway,
Then she bowed herself before it.
"O thou path whom God created,
Hast thou seen my son pass over;
Hast thou seen my golden apple,
Hast thou seen my staff of silver?"

But the path made answer wisely,
And it spoke and gave her answer: 150
"I myself have also sorrows,
For your son I cannot trouble,
For my lot's indeed a hard one,
And an evil day awaits me.
All the dogs go leaping o'er me,
And the horsemen gallop o'er me,
And the shoes walk heavy on me,
And the heels press hardly on me."

Long sh