lls which unnerved
her strength and overpowered her feeble efforts, and her prayers and
cries for help were unheard by men. But she cried to the gods for
protection, and the Thunder-God himself came to her aid.

Just as the sorcerer was about to push off from the shore, Pikker darted
a bolt from the clouds. His chariot thundered over the iron bridges of
the sky, scattering flames around it, and the sorcerer was struck down
senseless. Linda fled; but the gods spared her further sorrow and
outrage by transforming her into a rock on Mount Iru.

It was a long time before the sorcerer woke from his swoon, when he sat
up, rubbing his eyes, and wondering what had become of his prey; but he
could discover no trace of her. The rock is now called "Iru's
Stepmother;" and old people relate that when it was once rolled down
into the valley, it was found next morning in its original place on the
mountain.

The sons of Kalev were now making the best of their way home, sometimes
along well-trodden paths or across the plains, sometimes wading through
deep sand or mossy bogs, and then through forests of pine, oak, birch,
and alder. The pine forest was called the King's Wood; the oak forest
was sacred to the God Taara; the forest where the slender birch-trees
grew was called the Maidens' Wood, and the alder-wood was sacred to
mourners, and was called the Wood of the Poor Orphans.

As they passed through the pine forest which was called the King's Wood,
the eldest brother sat down under a tree and began to sing a song. He
sang till the leaves on the trees shone brighter than ever, and the
needles on the fir-trees turned to silken tassels, and the fir-cones
gleamed purple in the sunshine. Acorns sprouted on the oaks, tender
catkins on the birch-trees, and other trees were covered with
sweet-scented snow-white flowers, which shone in the sunshine and
glimmered in the moonlight, while the woods re-echoed with his singing,
and the tones were heard far over the heaths and meadows, and the
daughter of the king of Kungla wept tears of rapture.[35]

The second brother sat down in the birch-wood under a weeping
birch-tree, and began to sing a song. As he sang, the buds unfolded and
the flowers bloomed, the golden ears of corn swelled, and the apples
reddened, the kernels formed in the nuts, the cherries ripened, red
berries grew on the hills and blue berries in the marshes, while black
berries grew at the edges of the swamps, yellow ones on th