Wainamoinen went fishing
with Ilmarinen, and at last caught the gray pike,--found in it the trout,
found in the trout the whiting, and in the whiting the fireball. When he
attempted to seize the fireball he burned his fingers, and dropped it.
Ilmarinen did likewise. Then the ball rolled rapidly away until
Wainamoinen caught it in an elm-tree, and took it home to gladden his
people. Still they were cheerless without the sun and moon, and
Wainamoinen was obliged to go to Louhi and compel her to give up the sun
and moon. When he returned there was joy in Kalevala.
In the Northland dwelt a happy maiden, Mariatta, who, eating of the magic
berry, as she wandered one day in the fields, bore by it a child which she
called Flower. Her parents cast her off, and as no one would take her in,
she was compelled to go to the flaming steed of Hisi, in whose manger the
child was born. Once when she slumbered the child vanished, and she sought
for it in vain, until told by the sun that it was in Wainola, sleeping
among the reeds and rushes.
The child grew in grace and beauty, but no priest would baptize him, all
saying that he was a wizard. Wainamoinen, too, counselled that he be
destroyed; but when the two weeks old babe lifted its head and reproached
him, saying that he had committed many follies but had been spared by his
people, Wainamoinen baptized him, and gave him the right to grow a hero
and become a mighty ruler over Karyala.
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