which would lead him
to a beautiful maiden who could reply to his question. He hurried on a
long way, and at last met a rosy-cheeked maiden of flesh and bone, who
replied to his questions that she had seen no traces of his mother, and
the hawk must have flown away with her. But she invited him to her
village, where he would find plenty of rich and beautiful maidens. He
answered that he had not come to choose a wife, but to seek his mother.

Then the second brother sang how he also had wandered a long way, but at
last reached a cottage where he found an old man and woman, whom he
saluted and asked for tidings. They made no reply, and only the cat
mewed in answer.

He went on farther, and met a wolf; but when he asked if he had seen his
mother, he only opened his mouth to grin at him. Next he met the bear,
who only growled, but finally the cuckoo[47] directed him through a
wood and across a green meadow to some maidens who would give him
information. When he reached the spot, he found four beautiful maidens
in elegant attire, who told him that they had been wandering about the
woods and meadows every day, but had seen nothing of his mother, and
they thought she must have flown away. They recommended him to seek a
wife; but he answered that a young wife could not fill the place of his
dear lost mother.

Then the youngest brother related his adventures; but he said nothing
about the fatal brawl at the smith's feast, nor of the sad songs of the
island-maiden and of the spirit of his mother.

Then the eldest brother remarked that they knew not what had become of
their mother, but their parents were no more, and they must shift for
themselves, so he proposed a trial to decide which of the three should
rule as king in the land. The second brother agreed, and the third
proposed that the trial should take place next day, and be decided
according to the will of Taara.

In the evening, before twilight had quite given way to night, the
youngest son took his handkerchief, which was wet with tears, and
climbed up his father's cairn. And his father asked from below:

"Who disturbs the sandy hillock,
With his feet the grave disturbing,
Stamping with his heels the gravel,
And the gravestone thus disturbing?"

The hero besought his father to rise up and stroke his hair and speak to
him; but his father answered that he had long lain in his grave; his
bones were decayed, and the grass and moss grew over him, and he