stood on the Hill of Pain, or from a metal pendant that fell from a maiden as she was going to the wars, but was caught by the wizard ere it touched the ground (26a, b). Here the Hill of Pain and going to the wars are allusions to the deadly nature of these arrows. The elf-bolts which, when shot into human bodies, cause pleurisy, stitch, and sudden fits, are supposed to be made in a perfectly natural manner by Evil Beings from the wood of a hellish oak of such preternatural size that it concealed the sun and moon, and hindered the stars in their courses. Iron is made by three maidens, bred from the spawn of a golden salmon, who pulverised iron seeds and lumps of steel, which were found and taken by God to the smith Ilmarinen, who forged them in his smithy (25e). It does not come out clearly whether the maidens made iron out of iron seeds (bog-iron ore), which might have been formed from their milk, as in other versions (25a, b, c), though this circumstance is not mentioned, or whether they made it out of nothing : the latter alternative being much the less probable. Copper is made from a variegated stone which the smith Ilmarinen happened to find. He took it home, flung it into his forge fire, smelted it, and finally moulded it into kettles (24a). Other examples are the Net (28a, b, c), Ale (39a, b), Brandy (40), Salves (48b,e,f,g).
The Armenians of Bukovina and Siebenbürgen have a legend which recounts that iron originated from certain black stones which a youth found in the cave of a giant he had killed. He noticed that the stones were hot and molten, but that, in cooling, they hardened into a black mass harder than the hardest stone, and also assumed certain forms. He therefore took some of the stones — white ones — and forged them first into a huge cudgel, then into balls, dishes, etc., of iron.[1] The river Theiss in Hungary is so tortuous because it is a furrow made by a plough drawn by a blind horse. A variant makes the
- ↑ Wlislocki, Märch, u. Sagen d. Biikoivinaer ti. Siebenbürger Armenier, p. 8.
