Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 1, 1890.djvu/33

These the wind rocked to and fro—the restless breeze swang back and fore,
The water's current (F. breath) swayed,
As if five tufts of spinning-wool, as if six hanks of flax
To a honeyed forest's edge—a honeyed [v. pagan] promontory's point.
11The forest mistress, Mielikki,^[1] the careful wife of Tapio's home,
Ran waist-deep into the water—up to her garter in the wet,
Snatched the tuft from the water, stuffed the wool into her bosom,
Speedily she tied it up, neatly folded it up,
Placed it in a maple basket—in a pretty little cradle.
She walked then to a grove of firs to a blue wood's interior,
To a 'golden' hillock's side under a 'copper'-breasted hill.
She saw a fir with branching head, with branching head with golden sprays,
Lifted the swaddling bands, raised up the golden chains
To the stoutest of the boughs—the widest spreading branch of fir
She rocked her friend, swang her darling to and fro
Under five woollen coverlits—eight sheepskin coverings,
In a blue wood's interior—the centre of a 'golden' ring.^[2]
She tended wee "broadforehead" there, reared the "splendid coat of hair"
In a den of spruce—a bush of tender fir.
v. Under a little shed of oak.
"Broadforehead" grew magnificent—shot up to be extremely grand,
Short of foot and bent of knee, with flattened nose, and corpulent,
Broadheaded, with a stumpy nose and splendid shaggy coat of hair.
As yet he had no teeth—no claws whatever had been formed.
The forest mistress, Mielikki, expressed herself in words:
"I'd put together claws for him—would also procure teeth
If he would not begin to harm—not hurry off to evil deeds."
Therefore "broadforehead" swore his oath on the forest mistress' knees
In presence of the well-known God, below the Almighty's countenance,

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1. "The benevolent, the friendly."
2. I.e., a place surrounded by trees where there was plenty of game.