incantations adduced above, proves that these witch-songs date from a
time when the Hungarians and the Finns were still united as one people;
in other words, to a time at least 3000 years ago. The whole poem
betrays no important signs of foreign influence, and in its entire
tenor is a thoroughly pagan epic. There are excellent reasons for
believing that the story of Mariatta, recited in the 50th Rune, is an
ante-Christian legend.

An additional proof of the originality and independent rise of the
Kalevala is to be found in its metre. All genuine poetry must have its
peculiar verse, just as snow-flakes cannot exist without their peculiar
crystalizations. It is thus that the Iliad is inseparably united, and,
as it were, immersed in the stately hexametre, and the French epics, in
the graceful Alexandrine verse. The metre of the Kalevala is the
"eight-syllabled trochaic, with the part-line echo," and is the
characteristic verse of the Finns. The natural speech of this people
is poetry. The young men and maidens, the old men and matrons, in
their interchange of ideas, unwittingly fall into verse. The genius of
their language aids to this end, inasmuch as their words are strongly
trochaic.

This wonderfully versatile metre admits of keeping the right medium
between the dignified, almost prancing hexameter, and the shorter
metres of the lyrics. Its feet are nimble and fleet, but yet full of
vigor and expressiveness. In addition, the Kalevala uses alliteration,
and thus varies the rhythm of time with the rhythm of sound. This
metre is especially fit for the numerous expressions of endearment in
which the Finnish epic abounds. It is more especially the love of the
mother for her children, and the love of the children for their mother,
that find frequent and ever-tender expression in the sonorous lines of
the Kalevala. The Swedish translation by Castren, the German, by
Schiefner, and the Hungarian, by Barna, as well as the following
English translation, are in the original metre of the Kalevala.

To prove that this peculiar and fascinating style of verse is of very
ancient origin, the following lines have been accurately copied from
the first edition in Finnish of the Kalevala, collated by Dr. Lonnrot,
and published in 1835 at Helsingfors, the quotation beginning with the
150th line of the 2nd Rune:

Louhi Pohjolan emanta
Sanan wirkko, noin nimesi:
"Niin mita minulleannat,
Kun saatan omille maille,