Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 6 1888.djvu/203

The younger Aino indeed require to be specially taught by their elders before they can understand the allusions and idioms which occur in this and other legends of a like character. Old men listen with rapt attention to the recital of this really exciting tale, so pathetic and graphic as it is in the original—qualities, however, which are much lost in the translation. The title Poiyaumbe means literally "little beings residing on the soil"—"little" being probably meant to express endearment or admiration. The heroes of the people seem to be meant, or simply the brave Aino. The tale is one of invasion and war. The enemy invade the land in the form of deer, male and female, a large speckled buck, speckled even to its horns, leading the male herd, and a speckled doe leading the female. The reciter, who is aided by his younger sister and elder brother, sends a poisoned arrow into the thickest of the herd, slaying multitudes with one shot. The speckled buck took then his true form of a man, and a fierce duel followed between the two. Meanwhile both the brother and sister were slain by the woman who had been the doe, and, in the quaint phrase of the Aino, "rode upon the setting sun." The malignant man and bad woman then set fiercely upon the Aino, who, after vanquishing the latter, swooned under a blow from the former. On his recovery he set out to discover the path by which the deer had been seen to come, and after six days' travelling came to a tall mountain with a beautiful house built on its summit. Descending — for his path had always been through the air—by the side of the house, and looking through the chinks of the door, he saw a little man and a little woman sitting beside the fireplace. At the request of the man the woman proceeds to prophecy. She tells of the fight that had just been in the distant land, and of the victory of the single Poiyaumbe over their elder brother, who had without cause been the aggressor. She cannot clearly see what is next to happen, but there is clashing of swords and spurting forth of blood. As she ends her prophecy the Aino enters, fiercely curses the Sematuye man and his people, and chases him about the house with intent to kill. The noise attracts the multitude, who swarm as thick as flies, but are mown down like grass. The little woman curses her people for their wickedness in attacking the Poiyaumbe without a cause, and throws in her