into barley, the rivers into beer, the fruit to
gold, and the mountains into bread. Grant thy blessing, great Ukko, upon
this feast of ours. Send joy and health and comfort to all those here,
that we may ever look back with pleasure to Ilmarinen's marriage with
the fair Maiden of the Rainbow.'

Thus Wainamoinen, the great singer, ended his singing, and the time had
come for the bride and bridegroom to leave for their distant home in
Kalevala. But first must Osmotar, the wise maiden, instruct the bride as
to her future life. Osmotar told her that she must henceforth be
thoughtful and not foolish, that she must love her husband's kinsfolks
as her own. Osmotar told her, too, never to be idle, and then instructed
her in all the many household duties of the wives of Kalevala, but at
the same time impressed it upon her how wicked she would be if with all
this she were to forget her own parents. After this Osmotar turned to
the bridegroom and bade him ever love his bride and honour her, nor ever
treat her ill.

Thus she advised them both, and they made ready to leave. But the Maiden
of the Rainbow wept, because she was leaving all the joys and pleasures
of her youth, and those she loved, to go to a distant land, where all
would be new and strange, and perhaps, too, hard for her. Yet at length
all the farewells had been said, the last goodbye was spoken, and the
two got into their sledge and the next instant the swift black steed
flew off like an arrow, rushing on toward the land of Kalevala, leaving
far behind them the gloomy Northland, which was yet so dear to the
Rainbow-maiden, and which she was never to see again.

Three days they journeyed onward over hill and valley without stopping,
and the third evening brought them in sight of Ilmarinen's smithy, and
they could see the smoke rising from the chimneys of their home. There
they found that they had been expected for a long time, and there was
great rejoicing when their sledge drove up, with the birds singing
merrily on its front, and all bright and happy.

Lakko, Ilmarinen's mother, received them at the door and welcomed the
fair Rainbow-maiden most heartily, and when the bridal pair had taken
off their furs, she served them with the very best of food and
drink--choicest bits of reindeer, wheaten biscuit, honey-cakes, and fish
of all sorts, and the best of beer. And while they ate, the others, who
had been old Louhi's guests, began to arrive, and soon there was a grea