t
feast going on, almost as great a one as there had been before at
Louhi's.

While they were all feasting, Wainamoinen arose and began to sing again.
This time he sang the praises of the bridegroom's father and mother, and
the bride and groom, and ended up with praising the guests that were
assembled there. Then he and many of the guests took their leave and
journeyed off together to their homes. Three days they drove on
together, and Wainamoinen kept on singing all the time, until suddenly
his song was cut short, for his sledge ran into a birch-tree and was
broken into pieces. But Wainamoinen considered the case and then said:
'Is there any one here who will go to Tuonela, to the Deathland, for the
auger of Tuoni, that I may mend my sledge with it?' But no one would
venture on so perilous a journey, so at length Wainamoinen went himself
and obtained Tuoni's magic auger, and with its aid, on his return, he
put together his magic sledge again.

Then he harnessed up his steed once more and galloped off to his home.
Thus ended Ilmarinen's wedding and the feasts that followed it.

* * * * *

These two stories took Antero's fancy, and he begged that 'Pappa Mikko
would tell about some more times when they had good things to eat.'

But Father Mikko said: 'People can't be eating all the time, Antero, and
I think the others would rather hear about what Lemminkainen did, when
he heard of the feast and was not invited himself.'

Mimi cried 'Yes, yes!' and so the old man began.

[Illustration]

THE ORIGIN OF THE SERPENT

As Lemminkainen was ploughing his fields one day, he heard the noise of
sledges as if a vast number of people were on their way past. At once he
guessed the reason, for they were the guests going to Ilmarinen's
wedding, while he alone had not been invited. Then his face turned pale
with anger, and he left his ploughing and hastened off to his house.
When he arrived there, he asked his mother to give him a hearty meal,
and after that he went to the bath-house and after the bath put on his
finest garments, as if going to a feast.

His mother asked him where he was going and he told her that he was
bound for the great feast that Louhi had prepared. But his mother tried
to keep him from going, telling him that they did not want him there, or
else they would have invited him, but he answered: 'This sword with its
sharp edges constantly reminds me that I am needed in di