nty
of time to think about nature, to love nature and to describe it as no
other people of the same period described it. Striking comparisons have
been made between the Anglo-Saxon Runes, or charm songs, and Finnish songs
of the same kind, which fully illustrate this difference. Like the Finns,
the early English had magical songs to the gods of nature--songs for the
healing of wounds and the banishing of sickness. But these are very
commonplace. Not one of them can compare as poetry with the verses of the
Finnish on the same subject. Here are examples in evidence. The first is a
prayer said when offering food to the Spirit of the forest, that he might
aid the hunter in his hunting.

"Look, O Kuntar, a fat cake, a cake with honey, that I may propitiate the
forest, that I may propitiate the forest, that I may entice the thick
forest for the day of my hunting, when I go in search of prey. Accept my
salt, O wood, accept my porridge, O Tapio, dear king of the wood with the
hat of leaves, with the beard of moss."

And here is a little prayer to the goddess of water repeated by a sick man
taking water as a medicine.

"O pure water, O Lady of the Water, now do thou make me whole, lovely as
before! for this beg thee dearly, and in offering I give thee blood to
appease thee, salt to propitiate thee!"

Or this:

"Goddess of the Sea, mistress of waters, Queen of a hundred caves, arouse
the scaly flocks, urge on the fishy-crowds forth from their hiding places,
forth from the muddy shrine, forth from the net-hauling, to the nets of a
hundred fishers! Take now thy beauteous shield, shake the golden water,
with which thou frightenest the fish, and direct them toward the net
beneath the dark level, above the borders black."

Yet another:

"O vigorous mistress of the wild beasts, sweet lady of the earth, come
with me, be with me, where I go. Come thou and good luck bring me, to
happy fortune help me. Make thou to move the foliage, the fruit tree to be
shaken, and the wild beasts drive thither, the largest and the smallest,
with their snouts of every kind, with their paws of fur of all kinds!"

Now when you look at these little prayers, when you read them over and
observe how pretty they are, you will also observe that they make little
pictures in the mind. Can not you see the fish gliding over the black
border under the dark level of the water, to the net of a hundred fishers?
Can you not see the "dear king of the wood," with hi