God
of the Wind. Other authorities consider him a water-god. (Kreutzwald und
Neus, _Mythische und Magische Lieder_, p. 108.)]

[Footnote 31: Kullervo in the _Kalevala_ (Runo 30) bursts his
swaddling-clothes and smashes his cradle in the same way.]

CANTO III

THE FATE OF LINDA

One hot day, the youngest son of Kalev was sitting on the top of a cliff
watching the clouds and waves. Suddenly the sky became overcast, and a
terrific storm arose, which lashed the breakers into foam. Aeike,[32] the
Thunder-God, was driving his brazen-wheeled chariot over the iron
bridges of the sky, and as he thundered above, the sparks flew from the
wheels, and he hurled down flash after flash of lightning from his
strong right hand against a company of wicked demons of the air, who
plunged from the rocks into the sea, dodged the thunderbolts among the
waves, and mocked and insulted the god. The hero was enraged at their
audacity, and plunging into the water, dragged them from their
hiding-places like crabs, and filled a whole sack with them. He then
swam to the shore, and cast them out on the rocks, where the bolts of
the angry god soon reduced them to a disgusting mass that even the
wolves would not touch.

Another day, the three sons of Kalev went hunting in the forest with
their three dogs.[33] The dogs killed a bear among the bushes, an elk in
the open country, and a wild ox in the fir-wood. Next they encountered a
pack of wolves and another of foxes, numbering five dozen of each, and
killed them all. All this game the youngest brother bound together and
carried on his back; and on the way home they found the rye-fields full
of hares, of which they likewise secured five dozen.[34]

Meantime the Finnish sorcerer had been watching Kalev's house from his
boat, where he remained in hiding among the rocks a little way from the
shore, till he saw that the three young heroes had left the house and
wandered far into the forest, leaving their home unprotected. The
sorcerer then steered boldly to the shore, hid his boat, and made his
way by devious and unfrequented paths to the house of Kalev, where he
climbed over the low gate into the enclosure, and went to the door, but
he looked cautiously round when he reached the threshold. Linda was just
boiling soup over the fire when he rushed in, and, without saying a
word, seized her by the girdle and dragged her away to his boat. She
resisted him with tooth and nail, but he muttered spe