wonderful virtues. Those who taste
the water of this spring are greatly strengthened; weak children grow
strong, the sick grow healthy; the water heals sore eyes, and even
blindness; the weary are refreshed, and the maidens who taste it have
rosy cheeks for their whole lifetime.

While the Kalevide lay asleep, he dreamed that he saw his good horse
torn to pieces by wolves. And truly the horse had strayed away to some
distance, when a host of wild animals, wolves, bears, and foxes, emerged
from the forest. As the horse's feet were hobbled, he could not escape,
and was soon overtaken. He defended himself as well as he could with
hoofs and head, and killed many of the beasts; but he was finally
overpowered by their ever-increasing numbers, and fell. Where he sank
the ground is hollow, and a number of little hills represent the wolves
killed in the struggle. The horse's blood formed a red lake, his liver a
mountain, his entrails a marsh, his bones hills, his hair rushes, his
mane bulrushes, and his tail hazel-bushes.[51]

[Footnote 48: This lake (Saad jaerv) lies a little north of Dorpat.]

[Footnote 49: Nothing is said as to how the government was carried on
during the Kalevide's minority.]

[Footnote 50: White horses constantly occur in Esthonian tales; and the
devil's mother or grandmother usually appears as a white mare. One of
the commentators remarks that as the white horse was sacred in
pre-Christian times, the missionaries represented it as peculiarly
diabolical. It will be remembered with what severity the early
missionaries suppressed the horse feasts among the Teutonic tribes.]

[Footnote 51: This is a little like the formation of the world from the
body of the giant Ymir, as described in the Edda. As W. Herbert
paraphrases it,

"Of his bones the rocks high swelling,
Of his flesh the globe is made,
From his veins the tide is welling,
And his locks are verdant shade."

"Helga" is a somewhat poor production, containing but few striking
passages except the description of the appearance of the Valkyrior
before the fight between Hialmar and Angantyr. But the shorter poems at
the end, "The Song of Vala" and "Brynhilda," ought to be alone
sufficient to remove the name of this forgotten poet from oblivion.]

CANTO IX

RUMOURS OF WAR

When the Kalevide awoke, he followed the traces of his horse till he
found the remains; and he secured the skin as a relic, cursing the
wolves, and