did not stop till he reached Porgu. Here
he hid the stolen property in an iron chamber secured by seven
locks,[53] thanked the Thunderer's son for his friendly aid, and
relinquished all claims upon his soul.

But now a misfortune fell upon the world and men which the Thunderer's
son had not foreseen, for the clouds no longer shed a drop of moisture,
and everything withered away with drought.[54] "If I have thoughtlessly
brought this unexpected misery on the people," thought he, "I must try
to repair the mischief as best I can." So he travelled north to the
frontiers of Finland, where a noted sorcerer lived, and told him the
whole story, and where the thunder-weapon was now hidden. Then said the
sorcerer, "First of all, you must tell your old father Kou where the
thunder-weapon is hidden, and he will be able to find means for
recovering his property himself." And he sent the Eagle of the North to
carry the tidings to the old Father of the Clouds. Next morning Kou
himself called upon the sorcerer to thank him for having put him on the
track of the stolen property. Then the Thunderer changed himself into a
boy, and offered himself to a fisherman as a summer workman. He knew
that the Devil often came to the lake to catch fish, and he hoped to
encounter him there. Although the boy Pikker watched the net day and
night, it was some time before he caught sight of his enemy. It often
happened to the fisherman that when he left his nets in the lake at
night, they had been emptied before the morning, but he could not
discover the cause. The boy knew very well who stole the fish, but he
would not say anything about it till he could show his master the thief.

One moonlight night, when the fisherman and the boy came to the lake to
examine the nets, they found the thief at work. When they looked into
the water over the side of their boat, they saw the Old Boy taking the
fishes from the meshes of the net and putting them into a bag over his
shoulder. Next day the fisherman went to a celebrated sorcerer and asked
him to use his magic to cause the thief to fall into the net, and to
enchant him so that he could not escape without the owner's consent.
This was arranged just as the fisherman wished. Next day, when the net
was drawn up, they drew up the Devil to the surface and brought him
ashore. And what a drubbing he received from the fisherman and his boy;
for he could not escape from the net without the consent of the
sorcerer. The fi