The Kalevala.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2036, 25 July 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

The Kalevala.

Mr. Andrkw Lang in conjunction with Mr. Kirby, of the British Museum, in preparing a translation or paraphase of " The Kalevala," the national poem of the Finns. The transktion of this epic poem is looked forward to with much interest, as the castoms and legends which are the outcome of waterworship among the Finnea and Esthonians are numerous and interesting, and as instancing thia a writer in Kvmoledqr. gives the following beautiful legend of the Eethonians concerning Lake Erin :—": — " Savage evil men dwelt in its borders. They neither mowed the meadows which it watered, nor sowed the fields it made fruitful ; but robbed and murdered insomuch that its clear waves grew dark with the blood of the slaughtered men. Then did tho lake mourn, and one evening it called together all its fishps, and rose aloft with thfm ivto the air. When the robbers heard the sound, they exclaimed, ' Etm hath nrisen ; let us gather its fishes and treasures. 1 But the fishes had departed with the lake, and nothing was found on the bottom but snakes and lizards and toads. And Eire rose higher and higher, and hastened through the air, like a white oloud. And the hunters in the forest said : < What bad weather is ooming on ! ' — the herdsman : ' What a white swan is flyiog above there I ' For the whole night the lake hovered among the ttars, and in tho morning the reapers beheld it sinking. And from tho swan grew a white ship, and from the ship a dark train of olouds ; and a voice oame from the waters : ' Got thee hence with thy harvest, for I will dwell beside thee.' Then they bade the lake welcome, for it would only bedew their fields and meadows ; and it sank down and spread itself out in its home to the full limits. And they set the bed in order, and built dams, and planted young trees on the bank to 000 l the waters. Then the lake mado all tho neighborhood fruitful, and the fields became green, and the people danced around it, bo that the old man became joyoui m a youth."