farewell, but he had not gone far before he saw the men getting their
weapons ready to come and attack him, and he saw that he must fly
immediately if he wished to escape alive. So he hastened down to his
boat, but when he reached it there were only the ashes left. At first he
did not know what to do, but he spied seven broken pieces of planks and
a few fragments from a broken distaff, and taking these he began to sing
some mystic spells over them. No sooner had he finished his incantations
than a magic boat stood ready before him, and he got into it and sailed
away. But before he was far from the shore all the maidens came down to
the beach and began to weep and beg him to come back and dwell with them
for ever. But Lemminkainen answered them that he felt a great longing to
see his home once more and his mother, yet that he was truly sorrowful
to leave them, but it must be so. And so he sailed on until the isle was
out of sight.

The boat sailed on and on for two days and nights, but on the third day
came a mighty storm-wind, and tossed the vessel about until it broke all
in pieces, and left Lemminkainen struggling in the waters. He swam for
long days and nights, struggling with the waves, until at length he
reached a rocky point projecting out into the ocean. There he landed and
soon found his way to a castle that was built upon the rocks. He told
the mistress of the castle how he had been in the water for days and
days, and was almost perishing from hunger, and she, being a
kind-hearted woman, gave him a splendid feast of bread and butter, veal
and bacon, and fish and honey-cakes, and when he had eaten that and
rested, she gave him a new boat, loaded with provisions, in which to
finish his journey.

So off he sailed again, and after many weary days of sailing he at
length reached his beloved island-home. But when he landed and went up
to where the house had stood, there was not a sign of anything left. The
whole place was all overgrown with trees and bushes.

Then Lemminkainen sat down and began to weep; but it was not for the
loss of his home and all his riches that he wept but for his beloved
mother. As he sat there he caught sight of an eagle flying in the air
above, and Ahti asked him if he knew what had happened to his mother.
But the eagle could only tell him that his people had all perished long
go. Next he asked the raven, and the raven told him that his people had
been killed by his enemies from Pohjola.