a lawn, all winter on a hard plain, in the middle of a cornfield, in the bosom of a grain-ship. Hence the words Sampo and Sampsa seem to have been confounded.
A good many lines of (a.) will be found in the Kalevala, ii, 17, etc. The Finnish for alder tree is leppä puu, and means 'the blood tree', from the red colour obtained from the bark, which is used as a dye. In Zirian and Votyak it is called lol-pu, lul-pu, 'the spirit or life-tree'.
xxiv.—The Origin of Copper.
(a.)
Smith Ilmarinen himself, that skilful hammerer,
Was walking on a tinkling-road—along the liver-coloured ground.
A speckled stone, a bit of rock came in his way.
The smith flung it into the fire—placed it under his forge.
He blew the fellows a whole day, blew them the next day,
Blew them forthwith a third day too.
Then smith Ilmarinen stooped down to look
At the under surface of the forge, at the upper side of the bellows.
Already the stone shook like water—the rock is melting like copper.
The smith snatched it from the fire—the copper from under the forge.
He began to mould the copper—to make kettles jingle (with his blows).
(b.
Hilahatar, Hiisi's maiden, Hiisi's old woman, Hiisi's mare,
These made water on a rock, the urine dried upon the rock,
Then transformed into copper—grew into copper ore,
Poured like water from a mountain—like copper from a smelting furnace.
