RUNE XXXIX. Wainamoinen's Sailing
RUNE XL. Birth of the Harp
RUNE XLI. Wainamoinen's Harp-songs
RUNE XLII. Capture of the Sampo
RUNE XLIII. The Sampo lost in the Sea
RUNE XLIV. Birth of the Second Harp
RUNE XLV. Birth of the Nine Diseases
RUNE XLVI. Otso the Honey-eater
RUNE XLVII. Louhi steals Sun, Moon, and Fire
RUNE XLVIII. Capture of the Fire-fish
RUNE XLIX. Restoration of the Sun and Moon
RUNE L. Mariatta--Wainamoinen's Departure

EPILOGUE

PREFACE.

The following translation was undertaken from a desire to lay before
the English-speaking people the full treasury of epical beauty,
folklore, and mythology comprised in The Kalevala, the national epic of
the Finns. A brief description of this peculiar people, and of their
ethical, linguistic, social, and religious life, seems to be called for
here in order that the following poem may be the better understood.

Finland (Finnish, Suomi or Suomenmaa, the swampy region, of which
Finland, or Fen-land is said to be a Swedish translation,) is at
present a Grand-Duchy in the north-western part of the Russian empire,
bordering on Olenetz, Archangel, Sweden, Norway, and the Baltic Sea,
its area being more than 144,000 square miles, and inhabited by some
2,000,000 of people, the last remnants of a race driven back from the
East, at a very early day, by advancing tribes. The Finlanders live in
a land of marshes and mountains, lakes and rivers, seas, gulfs,
islands, and inlets, and they call themselves Suomilainen,
Fen-dwellers. The climate is more severe than that of Sweden. The
mean yearly temperature in the north is about 27 deg.F., and about 38
deg.F., at Helsingfors, the capital of Finland. In the southern
districts the winter is seven months long, and in the northern
provinces the sun disappears entirely during the months of December
and January.

The inhabitants are strong and hardy, with bright, intelligent faces,
high cheek-bones, yellow hair in early life, and with brown hair in
mature age. With regard to their social habits, morals, and manners,
all travellers are unanimous in speaking well of them. Their temper is
universally mild; they are slow to anger, and when angry they keep
silence. They are happy-hearted, affectionate to one another, and
honorable and honest in their dealings with strangers. They are a
cleanly people, being much given to the use of vapor-baths. This trait
is a conspicuous note of their char