t up with silken ribands,
Slip the gold rings on thy fingers,
Deck thy wrists with golden bracelets. 180
After this return thou homewards
From thy visit to the storehouse,
As the joy of all thy kindred,
And of all thy race the fairest,
Like a floweret by the wayside,
Like a raspberry on the mountain;
Far more lovely than aforetime,
Fairer than in former seasons."

Thus the mother urged her counsel,
Thus she spoke unto her daughter, 190
But the daughter did not heed her,
Heeded not her mother's counsel.
From the house she wandered weeping,
From the homestead went in sorrow,
And she said the words which follow,
And expressed herself in this wise:
'What may be the joyous feelings,
And the thoughts of one rejoicing?
Such may be the joyous feelings,
And the thoughts of one rejoicing; 200
Like the dancing of the water
On the waves when gently swelling.
What do mournful thoughts resemble?
What the long-tailed duck may ponder?
Such may mournful thoughts resemble,
Thus the long-tailed duck may ponder,
As 'neath frozen snow embedded,
Water deep in well imprisoned.

"Often now my life is clouded.
Often is my childhood troubled, 210
And my thoughts like withered herbage.
As I wander through the bushes,
Wandering on through grassy meadows,
Pushing through the tangled thickets,
And my thoughts are pitch for blackness
And my heart than soot not brighter.

"Better fortune had befel me,
And it would have been more happy.
Had I not been born and nurtured,
And had never grown in stature, 220
Till I saw these days of sorrow,
And this joyless time o'ertook me,
Had I died in six nights only,
Or upon the eighth had perished.
Much I should not then have needed,
But a shroud a span-long only,
And of earth a tiny corner.
Little then had wept my mother,
Fewer tears had shed my father,
And my brother not a tearlet." 230

Thus she wept a day, a second.
And again her mother asked her,
"Wherefore dost thou weep, poor maiden.
Wherefore thus lament and sorrow?"

"Therefore weep I, hapless maiden,
Therefore do I weep for ever,
That yourself have pledged me, hapless.
And your daughter you have promised
Thus to