uoni's tankards. 300
Those who drink this beer are drunken,
Drinking from such cans they perish."

Then said Tuonela's great mistress,
"O thou aged Vainamoinen,
Why to Manala dost travel,
Why to Tuonela hast ventured,
Though by Tuoni never summoned,
To the land of Mana called not?"

Said the aged Vainamoinen,
"At my boat as I was working, 310
While my new boat I was shaping,
Then I found three words were wanting,
Ere the stern could be completed,
And the prow could be constructed,
But as I could find them nowhere,
In the world where'er I sought them,
Then to Tuonela I travelled,
Journeyed to the land of Mana,
There to find the words I needed,
There the magic words to study." 320

Then said Tuonela's great mistress,
And she spoke the words which follow:
"Ne'er the words will Tuoni give you,
Nor his spells will Mana teach you.
Never shall you leave these regions,
Never while your life remaineth,
Shall you ever journey homeward,
To your country home returning."

Sank the weary man in slumber,
And the traveller lay and slumbered, 330
On the bed prepared by Tuoni,
There outstretched himself in slumber,
And the hero thus was captured,
Lay outstretched, but quickly wakened.

There's in Tuonela a witch-wife,
Aged crone with chin projecting,
And she spins her thread of iron,
And she draws out wire of copper.
And she spun of nets a hundred,
And she wove herself a thousand, 340
In a single night of summer,
On the rock amid the waters.

There's in Tuonela a wizard,
And three fingers has the old man,
And he weaves his nets of iron,
And he makes his nets of copper,
And a hundred nets he wove him,
And a thousand nets he plaited,
In the selfsame night of summer,
On the same stone in the water. 350

Tuoni's son with crooked fingers.
Crooked fingers hard as iron,
Took the hundred nets, and spread them
Right across the stream of Tuoni,
Both across and also lengthwise,
And in an oblique direction
So that Vaino should not 'scape him,
Nor should flee Uvantolainen,
In the course of all his lifetime,
While the golden moon is shining, 360
From the dread abode of T