. When he had sunk up to his waist he
began to beg for mercy, and cried out: 'O great Wainamoinen, thou art
the greatest of all magicians. Release me, I beg, from this quicksand,
and I will give thee two magic bows. One is so strong that only the very
strongest men can draw it, and the other a child can shoot.'

But Wainamoinen refused the bows and sank Youkahainen still deeper. And
as he sank, Youkahainen kept begging for mercy, and offering first two
magic boats, and then two magic steeds that could carry any burden, and
finally all his gold and silver and his harvests, but Wainamoinen would
not even listen to him. At length Youkahainen had sunk so far that his
mouth began to be filled with water and mud, and he cried out as a last
hope: 'O mighty Wainamoinen, if thou wilt release me I will give thee my
sister Aino as thy bride.'

This was the ransom that Wainamoinen had been waiting for, for Aino was
famous for her beauty and loveliness of character, and so he released
poor Youkahainen and gave him back his sledge and everything just as it
had been before. And when it was all ready Youkahainen jumped into it
and drove off home without saying a word.

When he reached home he drove so carelessly that his sledge was broken
to pieces against the gate-posts, and he left the broken sledge there
and walked straight into the house with hanging head, and at first
would not answer any of his family's questions. At length he said:
'Dearest mother, there is cause enough for my grief, for I have had to
promise the aged Wainamoinen my dear sister Aino as his bride.' But his
mother arose joyfully and clapped her hands and said: 'That is no reason
to be sad, my dear son, for I have longed for many years that this very
thing should happen--that Aino should have so brave and wise a husband
as Wainamoinen.'

So the mother told the news to Aino, but when she heard it she wept for
three whole days and nights and refused to be comforted, saying to her
mother: 'Why should this great sorrow come to me, dear mother, for now I
shall no longer be able to adorn my golden hair with jewels, but must
hide it all beneath the ugly cap that wives have to wear. All the golden
sunshine and the silver moonlight will go from my life.'

But her mother tried to comfort her by telling her that the sun and moon
would shine even more brightly in her new home than in her old, and that
Kalevala was a land of flowers.

* * * *