Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 3, 1892.djvu/69

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Magic Songs of the Finns.
61

(f.)

A wee man emerged from the sea with a tiny axe in his hand and a little billhook under his arm. He encountered an oak upon the path, a gigantic tree upon the shore. He struck the tree with his axe, dealt it a blow with the level edge. A chip stuck very firmly to the axe. With tooth and nail he tried to detach it. Then the obstruction stuck in his mouth, an aching pain took possession of his teeth, a stench diffused itself in his jaws. Hence the great devourer, the evil hacker of the teeth originated.


(g.)

A fox carried off and crunched a fragment of bone as he ran along between two rocks, along the slopes of five mountains. Hence, indeed, the worm was bred, hence originated Tuoni's grub, that spread itself as far as the jaws, and played havoc with the teeth.


XXXVIII.—The Origin of Cancer and White Swellings.

Cancer was born in Cottage Creek, at the mouth of the Jordan river. Harlots rinsed their linen caps at the mouth of the Jordan. Hence, then, a cancer was bred, hence the bone-biter made its appearance that bites bone, eats flesh, sucks blood raw without its being cooked in a pot, without its being heated in a copper. The 'dog' set off to run about, the 'worm' began to crawl; went to corrupt bone, to macerate flesh, to make it suppurate, to cause it to swell in the shape of boils and white swellings.


XXXIX.—The Origin of Ale.

(a.)

The origin of ale is known, the first beginning of drink is guessed. The origin of ale is from barley, of the noble