298 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



[April 10, 1885. 



■who, like Charon, ferry the souls across, to bring their boat. 

 But 



She, the virgin of Manala, 



She, the washer of the clothiiif,', 



She, the wringer of the linen. 



By the river of Tuonela, 



In the under- world Manala, 



Spake in words and this their meaning, 



Forth the boat ehall come from hither. 



When the reason thou hast given 



That hatli brought thee to Manala, 



Neither slain by any sickness, 



Nor by death dragged from the living. 



Nor destroyed by other ending. 



Then Wainamciinen belied the epithet "truthful " bestowed 

 upon him in Sohiefuer's translation. He told a series of 

 lies to account for his coming, but at last spake the truth, 

 and was ferried across. Tuonetar, the kindliest of the three 

 maidens, brought him beer, but Wainilraoinen saw the 

 frogs and worms in the jug, and would not drink it. 

 Falling asleep, nets of iron and copper were spread over 

 him, but he turned himself into a reed (or, as in some 

 versions, a stone), then into an eel, and slipped through 

 the meshes. 



Tuoni's son with hooked fingers 

 Went to draw his net at morning — 

 Salmon-tront he found a hundred, 

 Thousands of the little fishes. 

 But he found no WiiinamOinen. 



After his narrow escape and fruitless journey, Wiiinii- 

 moinen, when he returned to earth, warned men against 

 Tuonela in language expressing ideas of reward and punish- 

 ment foreign to the barbaric mind, and, therefore, probably 

 referable to Christian influences: — 



I In the course of your existence 



■' ' ' Deal not ill, sons of mortals. 



With the men whose sons are sinless ; 

 Leave the innocent unharmed. 

 Evil are the wages paid one 

 In the household of Tuoni. 

 There is set the couch of sinners ; 

 There the bed of evil doers j 

 Under stones that bum for ever 

 Under blocks of glowing granite, 

 With a coverlet of serpents. 

 Of Tuoni's swarthy reptiles. 



We have almost a paraphrase of the scripture " Broad is 

 the way," an echo of facilis descensus Averni, in this : — 



Many they who travel thither ; 



Few who thence have found the home-way 



From the houses of Tuoni, 



From the dwellings of Manala. 



Still in search after the needed Shibboleth, Wainiimoinen 

 bethought Lim of the giant Antero Wipunen, who had been 

 dead many a year, and who could be reached only by going 

 along a road made of needle tips of girls, sword-points of 

 meu, and bittleaxes of heroes. Encased in iron armour 

 made by llmarinen he passed over all thtsp, and came to 

 the grave of Wipunen, who slept so soundly that trees had 

 sprouted from his body. These Waiuamninen cut down, 

 and then drove a crowbar into the giant's mouth, which 

 awakened him. He swallowed Wainiimniuen, who caused 

 him to break forth into song ; and when at the end of it 

 W;iin;imi)inen was cast out, he had heard the magic words 

 in the verse which Wipunen had sung. Not only have we 

 iu this an illustration of that help and counsel sought from 

 the dead which was practised among Greeks and Norse- 

 men as well as among Finns, but also of the Shamanistic 

 belief that the magician may in trance wander through the 

 lower regions, and g>iin wisdom and strength from their 

 inmates. 



Having finished his boat, WiiinJimoinen set sail in it for 

 Pobjola ; but Ilmarinen's sister found out his plans, and 

 hastened to tell her brother, who hurried on horseback 

 and overtook him. They agreed to abide by Lonhetar's 

 choice, which fell on llmarinen, as the younger and as the 

 forger of the Sampo. But, as usual, conditions were im- 

 posed before he could marry her. He must plough with a 

 golden plough in a field of serpents ; he must muzzle the 

 bear and the wolf of Tuoni ; and he must catch without 

 hook or net a pike that swims in the river of Tuoni. He 

 succeeded in all, and when the " old and steadfast " heard 

 it he turned his way homeward, warning the sons of men 

 never to swim a match, or lay a wager, or go wooing with 

 IlmariDen the Smith, or with any man younger and lustier 

 than one's self. 



Several runes are now filled with the description of a 

 Finnish wedding, which must be passed over in this 

 analysis. 



The preparations made in Pobjola for the marriage of 

 llmarinen and Louhetar were on a colossal scale ; the ox 

 killed for the banquet had horns so far apart that a swallow 

 would take all day to fly the space between them ; and as 

 to the brewing of the beer, a whole year was spent at it 

 for lack of yeast, which, when obtained by a magic bird, 

 worked so quickly that no vats could hold the liquid unless 

 certain songs were sung by the drinkers, and the words of 

 which Wainiimoinen, who " buried the hatchet " with his 

 brother and came to the feasting, alone remembered. 



Everybody in both Kalevala and Pohjola was asked to 

 the wedding, except Lemminkainen, for which slight he 

 resolved to go to Pohjola despite the warnings of his 

 mother and the threatened perils of the journey — the 

 cataracts of flame, the islands of fire in a molten lake, 

 which had to be passed, and the great serpent at the 

 iron gates of Pobjola, which^had to be overcome. This 

 serpeut, which guarded Louhi's house, reminding us of the 

 sleepless dragon, longer than the ship Argo, which guarded 

 the Golden Fleece, is thus described : 



Longer is it than a house-beam. 

 Thicker than the entrance doorpost. 

 Hundred eyes the serpent glares with. 

 Thousand tongues the viper owneth : 

 All the eyes are big as sift-sieves. 

 All the tongues are long as spearshafts. 

 Seven boat-lengths has the body. 



After escaping these perils by the aid of charms, Lem- 

 minkainen reached Pobjola, where the mistress gave him 

 no welcome. A quarrel ensued, ending with a duel, in 

 which Lemminkainen cut off the head of the representative 

 champion of Louhi, and then, fearing her vengeance, made 

 hasty escape home, and asked his mother to hide him from 

 the Northland pursuers. She told him how hard this was ; 

 hard for a fir or a birch-tree that may be cut down ; hard 

 for the bilberry that may be picked ; hard, too, for the pike 

 in the waters and the bear in the woods ; but harder stiU 

 for a hunted man. But at her counsel he went to the 

 island of Saari, the scene of his old amours, where he 

 played with renewed vigour the part of Don Juan until he 

 was expelled by the husbands and brothers whom he had 

 wronged, and by the one girl whom he had not wronged. 



On reaching Kalevala, he found his house burned down 

 and his mother missing ; but, to his joy, he discovered her 

 hiding place, and, after promising to return and restore the 

 homestead, he set out for Pohjola with Tiera, an old com- 

 rade-in-arms, to avenge himself of his adversaries. Louhi, 

 thereupon, sent against him no armed men, but the Frost- 

 Giant, whose father was the north-wind, whose foster- 

 mother was the serpent, nurturing him on its barren breasts, 

 whom the ice-wind lulled to slumber in the midst of the 



