e mossy
hillocks, and the elder-trees were covered with rich purple grapes,
while the woods re-echoed with the song, and its notes spread far over
the heaths and meadows till the little water-nymphs shed tears of
rapture.

The third brother sat down under a magnificent oak in the sacred
oak-forest of Taara, and began to sing a song. As he sang, the wild
beasts of the neighbouring woods and heaths gathered round him, and the
cuckoos, doves, magpies, larks, nightingales, and swallows joined in the
concert. The swans, geese, and ducks swam towards the sound, the waves
of the sea beat on the rocks, and the crowns of the trees bowed down.
The green hills trembled, and the clouds parted to permit the sky to
listen to the singing, while the forest-king's daughter, the slender
wood-nymphs, and the yellow-haired water-nymphs wept tears of rapture
and glowed with longing for the handsome singer.

Evening now approached, and the heroes made the best of their way
homewards, the youngest, as before, loading himself with all the game.
They looked out anxiously for the smoke of their home and the glow of
the kitchen-fire, but they could discover nothing.

They quickened their pace as they crossed the deep sand of the heath,
but no smoke nor fire nor steam from the kettle could be seen. They
rushed into the house, but the fire was out and the hearth was cold.
Again and again they shouted to their mother, but there was no answer
save the echo. The evening became darker and stiller, and the brothers
went out to search in different directions. The youngest went down to
the beach, where he found such traces of his mother's presence that he
concluded that she had been carried off by her disappointed suitor, the
Finnish sorcerer.

The eldest brother proposed that they should eat their supper and go to
sleep, hoping that a dream might show them where to seek for their
mother. The second assented, hoping that Ukko would send them a vision;
but the youngest was unwilling to put off till to-morrow what might be
done to-day, and finally determined to repair to his father's grave.[36]

From his grave there spoke the father--
"Who upon the sand is treading,
With his feet the grave disturbing?
In my eyes the sand is running,
On my eyelids grass is pressing."

The youth told his father who he was, and all his trouble, and implored
him to rise and help him. But his father answered that he could not
rise, for the rocks lay