Page:Kalevala (Kirby 1907) v1.djvu/262

From the copper-plated harness,
From the tin-decked breastband likewise,
From the best of reins of leather,
And from harness of the finest.
Lead the courser of the bridegroom,
And with greatest care conduct him
By the reins, of silken fabric,
By the bridle, decked with silver,
To the softest place for rolling,
Where the meadow is the smoothest,80
Where the drifted snow is finest,
And the land of milky whiteness.
“Lead the bridegroom’s horse to water,
To the spring that flows the nearest,
Where the water all unfrozen,
Gushes forth, like milk the sweetest,
’Neath the roots of golden pine-trees,
Underneath the bushy fir-trees.
“Fodder thou the bridegroom’s courser,
From the golden bowl of fodder,90
From the bowl adorned with copper,
With the choicest meal of barley,
And with well-boiled wheat of summer,
And with pounded rye of summer.
“Then conduct the bridegroom’s courser
To the best of all the stables,
To the best of resting-places,
To the hindmost of the stables.
Tether there the bridegroom’s courser,
To the ring of gold constructed,100
To the smaller ring of iron,
To the post of curving birchwood,
Place before the bridegroom’s courser,
Next a tray with oats o’erloaded,
And with softest hay another,
And a third with chaff the finest.
“Curry then the bridegroom’s courser,
With the comb of bones of walrus,
That the hair remain uninjured,
Nor his handsome tail be twisted;110