350 



• KNOWLEDGE 



[April 24, 1885. 



elements in it make their separation from the primitive 

 native elements a difficult task. 



As Wainamoinen could not recover his harp, he made 

 another. Its framework was cut from a birch-tree, which, 

 like the boat he sailed in to Pohjola, was heard lamenting 

 its purposeless life, and its strings were woven of the hair 

 of a lovelorn girl. Like the lost harp, it brought gladness 

 to all the land when the old minstrel .swept the strings with 

 his master-fingers, and it charmed away the ills which the 

 revengeful Louhi sought to inflict on Kalevala. She sent 

 plague and disease, but Wainamoinen healed the smitten ; 

 and when she sent a bear he killed the monster, " and the 

 body was brought home with the bear-dance and the hymn 

 of the bear. ' Oh, Otso,' cry the singers, ' be not angry 

 that we come near thee. The bear, the honey-footed bear, 

 ■was born in lands between sun and moon, and he died not 

 by men's hands, but of his own will.'" "The Finnish 

 savants," remarks Mr. Lang, " are probably right who 

 find here a trace of the beast-worship which in many 

 lands has placed the bear among the number of the stars." 

 While Wainamoinen was playing at the banquet over the 

 slain bear, the sun and moon came down to listen to him, 

 and Louhi succeeded in capturing them and shutting them 

 np in a copper mountain, as she did the Sampo. She also 

 at the same time stole the hearth-fire from the heroes, thus 

 depriving them of both light and warmth. Ukko, the 

 Supreme, who, when he appears in the epic, is more often 

 depicted as leaving mortals to act on the maxim that they 

 are most helped by Heaven who help_ themselves, str\ick fire 

 to kindle a new sun and moon. The fire, which acts 

 throughout as a living creature, has all kinds of adventures. 

 It fell to the earth, and both Wainamoinen and Ilmarinen 

 searched for it in vain, till Luonnotar told them that a 

 guinard had swallowed it. The guinard was swallowed 

 by a salmon, and the salmon was swallowed by a pike, 

 which the heroes at last, after two attempts, caught with a 

 hempen net. Having no iron gloves with which to lay 

 hold of it, the fire eluded them, and, burning Ilmarinen as 

 it escaped from the salmon, carried " red ruin " through 

 the land. Variants of the story alike speak of the salmon 

 as the fire-fish, and the Finnish runic incantations against 

 fire banish it to the salmon's tail, by which it is inferred that 

 Ilmarinen was burnt in trying to capture the fire. In the 

 prose Edda, when Loki had caused the death of Baldr,'he 

 flees from the wrath of the gods and changes himself into 

 a salmon. He slips through the meshes of a net which the 

 gods cast for him, but in the second cast he tries to leap 

 over it, and is caught by Thor. " Being, however, 

 extremely slippery, he would have escaped had not Thor 

 held him fast by the tail ; and this is the reason why 

 salmons have had their tails ever since so fine and thin."* 

 Loki, as the name indicates (Swedish, loiji, flame), is the 

 evil fire-god, and the similarity in outline between the two 

 stories is probably referable to the influence of Scan- 

 dinavian myth on that of the Finns. 



Ilmarinen then forged a new sun and moon, but could 

 not make them shine, and Wainiimuinen, having found out 

 ■where the true sun and moon were hidden, went to Pohjola, 

 but was not able to recover them for lack of tools to open 

 the magic mountain. 



While Ilmarinen was forging these, Louhi, anxious to 

 know what he was doing, flew to him in the form of a 

 swallow, and asked him. 



He replied : — 



" It's a necklace I'm forginf; 

 For the mistress of Pohjola, 

 Wherewithal to chain her firmly 

 To the ledges of the mountain, 



* Mallet's Norliiern Antiq., p. 450. 



which so frightened her that she released the sun and 

 moon, and at their shining in the heaven, Wainamoinen 

 sang a song of joy, the last wherewith he was to gladden 

 his people. How this came about needs a concluding 

 chapter to tell. 



FIRST STAR LESSONS. 



By Richard A. Proctoh. 



THE constellations included in the twenty-four maps of 

 this series are numbered throughout as follows (the 

 names being omitted on the maps, to clear these as far as 

 possible from all that might render the star-grouping less 

 distinct) : — 



1. 



2. 



3. 

 4. 



5. 



6. 



7. 



8. 



9. 



10. 



11. 



12. 

 13. 

 14. 

 15. 



16. 

 17. 



18. 

 19. 

 20. 



Ursa Minor, the Little Bear 



(a, the Pole Star). 

 Draco, the Dragon (a, 



Thuban) 

 Cephens, King Cepheus. 

 Cassiopeia, the Lady in the 



Chair. 

 Perseus, the Champion {ft, 



Algol, famous variable). 

 Auriga, the Charioteer (a, 



Capella) 

 Ursa Major, the Greater 



Bear (a, ft, the Pointers). 

 Canes Venatici, the Hunting 



Dogs (a. Cor Caroli). 

 Coma Berenices, Queen 



Berenice's Hair. 

 Bootes, the Herdsman (a, 



Arctur\is). 

 Corona Borealis, the Nor* 



them Crown. 

 Serpens, the Serpent, 

 Hercules, the Kneeler. 

 Lyra, the Lyre (a, Vega). 

 Cygnus, the Swan (a, 



Arided ; ft, Alhiresf, 

 Pegasus, the Winged Horse. 

 Andromeda, the Chained 



Lady. 

 Triangula, the Triangles. 

 Aries, the Ram. 

 Taurus, the Bull (a, Aide- 



baran ; tj, Alcyone, chief 



Pleiad). 

 Gemini, the Twins (a. 



Castor ; ft, Pollux). 



22 



23 

 24. 

 25. 

 26. 



27. 

 28. 

 29. 

 30. 

 31. 



32. 

 33. 



34. 



35. 



36. 

 37. 

 88. 



39. 



40. 

 41. 



42. 

 43. 

 44. 



45. 



Cancer, the Crab (the 

 cluster is the Beehive). 



Leo, the Lion {a, Regulus). 



Virgo, the Virgin (o, Spica) 



Libra, the Scales. 



Ophiuchus, the Serpent 

 Holder. 



Aquila, the Eagle (a,Altair). 



Delphimis, the Dolphin. 



Aquarius, the Water Carrier. 



Pisces, the Fishes. 



Cetus, the Sea Monster (o, 

 Mira, remarkable va- 

 riable) . 



Eridanus, the Biver. 



Orion, the Giant Hunter 

 (a, Betelgeux; ft, Rigel). 



Canis Minor, the Lesser Dog 

 (a, Procyon). 



Hydra, the Sea Serpent (o, 

 Alphard). 



Crater, the Cup (a, Alkes). 



Corvus, the Crow. 



Scorpio, the Scorpion {a, 

 Antares) . 



Sagittarius, the Archer. 



Capricornus, the Sea Goat. 



Piscis Australis, the Sou- 

 thern Fish (o, Fomal- 

 haut). 



Lepus, the Hare. 



Colmyiba, the Dove. 



Canis Major, the Greater 

 Dog (a, Sirius). 



Argo, the Ship. 



Under the title of " The Imperial Parliament" a series of short 

 volumes on current political topics is about to be issued, under t.h<^ 

 editorship of Mr. Sydney Buxton, M P. The volumes will 

 written by politicians who are recognised as authorities on ti-. 

 subjects of which they treat. Each volume will be complete in 

 itself, uniform in crown 8vo. neatly bound in a permanent form, 

 and issued at the price of one shilling. Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein 

 it Co., of London, are to be the publishers. Nine volumes are 

 already arranged for. The subject of the first volume of the series, 

 which will bo published immediately, is " Imperial Federation," 

 and is treated by the Marquis of Lome. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., 

 M.P., will follow with a volume on " Representation " ; and Messrs. 

 Wm. Rathbonc, M.]'., A. Pell, M.l'., and F. C. Montague will 

 together write on " Local and County Government." These three 

 volumes will be produced shortly. In the course of the summer 

 and autumn Mr. W. S. Caine, M.P., and Mr. Wm. Hoyle will 

 together contribute a volume on " Local Option " ; Mrs. Ashton 

 Dilke and Mr. Wm. Woodall, M.P., will write on "Women's 

 Suffrage"; and Mr. Henry Richard, M.P., and Mr. Carvell 

 Williams on "Disestablishment." Mr. H. Broadhurst, M.P., and 

 Mr. K. T. Rcid, M.P., combine on " Leasehold Enfranchisement,'' 

 while Mr. Baxter, M.P. will produce a volume on " Taxation and 

 Tariffs," and Mr. Bryco, M.P., one on the "Reform of the House 

 of Lords." Other volumes will follow. We invite attention to 

 this series rather in its sociological aspect, since, though political, 

 it will, it is stated, not be of a party character. 



