From that dismal gulf eternal.
Get thee gone, I do conjure thee,
Into Lapland's thickest forest,
To the North's extremest region;
Get thee gone, I do command thee,
To the North's most dusky region.




WOINOMOINEN.


From the Finnish.

Woinomoinen was, according to the Mythology of the ancient Finns, the
second Godhead, being only inferior to Jumala. He was master of the
musical art, and when he played upon his instrument produced much the same
effect as the Grecian Orpheus, enticing fishes from the stream and the
wild animals from the forest. The lines here translated are a fragment of
a poem which describes a musical contest between Woinomoinen and the Giant
Joukkawainen, in which the latter was signally defeated.

Then the ancient Woinomoinen,
On the bench himself he seated,
Took the harp betwixt his fingers,
On his knee about he turn'd it,
In his hand he fitly plac'd it.
Play'd the ancient Woinomoinen,
Universal joy awaking;