hurried home.
"My dear," he said to his oldest daughter, "I left a bit of the
harness down at the lake. Like a good girl will you run down and get
it for me."
The eldest daughter went at once and when she reached the water's
edge, old Wetehinen reached up and caught her about the waist and
carried her down to the bottom of the lake where he lived in a big
house.
At first he was kind to her. He made her mistress of the house and
gave her the keys to all the rooms and closets. He went very carefully
over the keys and pointing to one he said:
"That key you must never use for it opens the door to a room which I
forbid you to enter."
The eldest daughter began keeping house for old Wetehinen and spent
her time cooking and cleaning and spinning much as she used to at home
with her father. The days went by and she grew familiar with the
house and began to know what was in every room and every closet.
At first she felt no temptation to open the forbidden door. If old
Wetehinen wanted to have a secret room, well and good. But why in the
world had he given her the key if he really didn't want her to open
the door? The more she thought about it the more she wondered. Every
time she passed the room she stopped a moment and stared at the door.
It looked just exactly like the doors that led into all the other
rooms.
"I wonder why he doesn't want me to open just that door?" she kept
asking herself.
Finally one day when old Wetehinen was away she thought:
"I don't believe it would matter if I opened that door just a little
crack and peeped in once! No one would know the difference!"
For a few moments she hesitated, then mustered up courage enough to
turn the key in the forbidden lock and throw open the door.
The room was a storeroom with boxes and chests and old jars piled up
around the wall. That was unexciting enough, but in the middle of the
floor was something that made her start when she saw what it was. It
was blood--that's what it was, a pool of dark red blood! She was about
to slam the door shut when she saw something else that made her pause.
This was a lovely shining ring that lay in the midst of the pool.
"Oh!" she thought to herself, "what a beautiful ring! If I had it I'd
wear it on my finger!"
The longer she looked at it, the more she wanted it.
"If I'm very careful," she said, "I know I could reach over and pick
it up without touching the blood."
She tiptoed cautiously into the room, wrapped her skirts tightly about
her legs, knelt down on the floor, and stretched her arm over the
pool. She picked up the ring very carefully but even so she got a few
drops of blood on her fingers.
"No matter!" she thought, "I can wash that off! And see the lovely
ring!"
But later, after she had the door again locked, when she tried to wash
the blood off, she found she couldn't. She tried soap, she tried sand,
she tried everything she could think of, but without success.
"I don't care!" she thought to herself. "If Wetehinen sees the blood,
I'll just tell him I cut my finger by accident."
So when Wetehinen came home, she hid the ring and pretended nothing
was the matter.
After supper Wetehinen put his head in her lap and said:
"Now, my dear, scratch my head and make me drowsy for bed."
She began scratching his head as she had many nights before but, at
the first touch of her fingers, he cried out:
"Stop! You're burning my ear! There must be some blood on your
fingers! Let me see!"
He reached up and caught her hand and, when he saw the blood stains,
he flew into a towering rage.
"I thought so! You've been in the forbidden room!"
He jumped up and without allowing her time to say a word he just cut
off her head then and there with no more concern than if she had been
a mosquito! After that he took the body and the severed head and threw
them into the forbidden room and locked the door.
"Now then," he growled, "_she_ won't disobey me again!"
This was all very well but now he had no one to keep house for him and
cook and scratch his head in the evening and soon he decided he'd have
to get another wife. He remembered that the farmer had two more
daughters, so he thought to himself that now he'd marry the second
sister.
He waited his chance and one day when the farmer was out in his boat
fishing, old Wetehinen came up from the bottom of the lake and
clutched the boat. When the poor old farmer tried to row back to shore
he couldn't make the boat move an inch. He worked and worked at the
oars and wicked old Wetehinen let him struggle until he was exhausted.
Then he put his head up out of the water and over the side of the boat
and as though nothing were the matter he said:
"Hullo!"
"Oh!" the farmer cried, wishing he were safe on shore, "it's you, is
it? I wondered what was holding my boat."
"Yes," wicked old Wetehinen said, "it's me and I'm going to hold your
boat right here on this spot until you promise to give me another of
your daughters."
What could the farmer do? He pleaded with Wetehinen but Wetehinen was
firm and the upshot was that before the farmer again walked dry land
he had promised Wetehinen his second daughter.
Well, when he got home, he pretended he had forgotten his ax in the
boat and sent his second daughter down to the lake to get it. Wicked
old Wetehinen caught her as he had caught her sister and carried her
home with him to his house at the bottom of the lake.
Wetehinen treated the second sister just exactly as he had the first,
making her mistress of the house and telling her she might use every
key but one. Like her sister she, too, after a time gave way to the
temptation of looking into the forbidden room and when she saw the
shining ring lying in the pool of blood of course she wanted it and of
course when she reached to get it she dabbled her fingers in the
blood. So that was the end of her, too, for wicked old Wetehinen when
he saw the blood stains just cut her head right off and threw her body
and the severed head into the forbidden room beside the body and head
of her sister and locked the door.
Time went by and the farmer was living happily with his youngest
daughter when one day while he was out chopping wood he found a pair
of fine birch bark brogues. He put them on and instantly found himself
walking away from the woods and down to the lake. He tried to stop but
he couldn't. He tried to walk in another direction but the brogues
carried him straight down to the water's edge and out into the lake
until he was in waist deep.
Then he heard a gruff voice saying:
"Hullo, there! What are you doing with my brogues?"
Of course it was wicked old Wetehinen who had played that trick to get
the farmer into his power again.
"What do you want this time?" the poor farmer cried.
"I want your youngest daughter," Wetehinen said.
"What! My youngest daughter!"
"Yes."
"I won't give her up!" the farmer declared. "I don't care what you do
to me. I won't give her up!"
"Oh, very well!" Wetehinen said, and immediately the brogues which had
been standing still while they talked started walking again. They
carried the farmer out into the lake farther and farther until the
water was up to his chin.
"Wait--wait a minute!" he cried.
The brogues stopped walking and Wetehinen said:
"Well, do you promise to give her to me?"
"No!" the farmer began. "She's my last daughter and--"
Before he could say more, the brogues walked on and the water rose to
his nose. In desperation he threw up his hands and shouted:
"I promise! I promise!"
[Illustration: _She fitted the key in the lock_]
So when he got home that day he said to his youngest daughter whose
name was Lisa:
"Lisa, my dear, I forgot my brogues at the lake. Like a good girl
won't you run and get them for me?"
So Lisa went to the lake and Wetehinen of course caught her and
carried her down to his house as he had her two sisters.
Then the same old story was repeated. Wetehinen made Lisa mistress of
the house and gave her keys to all the doors and closets with the same
prohibition against opening the door of the forbidden room.
"If I am mistress of the house," Lisa said to herself, "why should I
not unlock every door?"
She waited until one day when Wetehinen was away from home, then went
boldly to the forbidden room, fitted the key in the lock, and flung
open the door.
There lay her two poor sisters with their heads cut off. There in the
pool of blood sparkled the lovely ring, but Lisa paid no heed to it.
"Wicked old Wetehinen!" Lisa cried. "I suppose he thinks that ring
will tempt me but nothing will tempt me to touch that awful blood!"
Then she rummaged about, opening boxes and chests, and turning things
over. In a dark corner she found two pitchers, one marked _Water of
Life_, the other _Water of Death_.
"Ha! This is what I want!" she cried, taking the pitcher of the _Water
of Life_.
She set the severed heads of her sisters in place and then with the
magic water brought them back to life. She used up all the _Water of
Life_, so she filled the pitcher marked _Water of Life_ with the water
from the other pitcher, the _Water of Death_. She hid her sisters each
in a big wooden chest, she shut and locked the door of the forbidden
room, and Wetehinen when he came home found her working at her
spinning wheel as though nothing unusual had happened.
After supper Wetehinen said:
"Now scratch my head and make me drowsy for bed."
So Lisa scratched his wicked old head and she did it so well that he
grunted with satisfaction.
"Uh! Uh!" he said. "That's good! Now just behind my right ear! That's
it! That's it! You're a good girl, you are! You're not like some of
them who do what they're told not to do! Now behind the other ear! Oh,
that's fine! Yes, you're a good girl and if there's anything you want
me to do just tell me what it is."
"I want to send a chest of things to my poor old father," Lisa said.
"Just a lot of little nothings--odds and ends that I've picked up
about the house. I'd be ashamed to have you open the chest and see
them. I do wish you'd carry the chest ashore to-morrow and leave it
where my father will find it."
"All right, I will," Wetehinen promised.
He was true to his word. The next morning he hoisted one of the chests
on his shoulder, the one that had in it the eldest sister, he trudged
off with it, and tossed it up on shore at a place where he was sure
the farmer would find it.
Lisa then wheedled him into carrying up the second chest that had in
it the second sister. This time Wetehinen wasn't so good-natured.
"I don't know what she can always be sending her father!" he grumbled.
"If she sends another chest I'll have to look inside and see."
Now Lisa, when the second sister was safely delivered, began to plan
her own escape. She pulled out another empty chest and then one
evening after she had succeeded in making old Wetehinen comfortable
and drowsy she begged him to carry this also to her father. He
grumbled and protested but finally promised.
"And you won't look inside, will you? Promise me you won't!" Lisa
begged.
Wetehinen said he wouldn't, but he intended to just the same.
Well, the next morning as soon as Wetehinen went out, Lisa took the
churn and dressed it up in some of her own clothes. She carried it to
the top of the house and perched it on the ridge of the roof before a
spinning wheel. Then she herself crept inside the third chest and
waited.
When Wetehinen came home he looked up and saw what he thought was Lisa
spinning on the roof.
"Hullo!" he shouted. "What are you doing up there?"
Lisa, in the chest, answered in a voice that sounded as if it came
from the roof:
"I'm spinning. And you, Wetehinen, my dear, don't forget the chest
that you promised to carry to my poor old father. It's standing in the
kitchen."
Wetehinen grumbled but because of his promise he hoisted the chest on
his shoulder and started off. When he had gone a little way he thought
to put it down and take a peep inside. Instantly Lisa's voice,
sounding as if it came from the roof, cried out:
"No! No! You promised not to look inside!"
"I'm not looking inside!" Wetehinen called back. "I'm only resting a
minute!"
Then he thought to himself:
"I suppose she's sitting up there so she can watch me!"
When he had gone some distance farther, he thought again to set down
the chest and open the lid but instantly Lisa's voice, as from a long
way off, called out:
"No! No! You promised not to look inside!"
"Who's looking inside?" he called back, pretending again he was only
resting.
Every time he thought it would be safe to put down the chest and open
the lid, Lisa's voice cried out:
"No! No! You promised not to!"
"Mercy on us!" old Wetehinen fumed to himself, "who would have thought
she could see so far!"
On the shore of the lake when he threw down the chest in disgust he
tried one last time to raise the lid. Instantly Lisa's voice cried
out:
"No! No! You promised not to!"
"I'm not looking inside!" Wetehinen roared, and in a fury he left the
chest and started back into the water.
All the way home he grumbled and growled:
"A nice way to treat a man, always making him carry chests! I won't
carry another one no matter how much she begs me!"
When he came near home he saw the spinning wheel still on the roof and
the figure still seated before it.
"Why haven't you got my dinner ready?" he called out angrily.
The figure at the spinning wheel made no answer.
"What's the matter with you?" Wetehinen cried. "Why are you sitting
there like a wooden image instead of cooking my dinner?"
Still the figure made no answer and in a rage Wetehinen began climbing
up the roof. He reached out blindly and clutched at Lisa's skirt and
jerked it so hard that the churn came clattering down on his head. It
knocked him off the roof and he fell all the way to the ground and
cracked his wicked old head wide open.
"Ouch! Ouch!" he roared in pain. "Just wait till I get hold of that
Lisa!"
He crawled to the forbidden room and poured over himself the water
that was in the pitcher marked _Water of Life_. But it wasn't the
_Water of Life_ at all, it was the _Water of Death_, and so it didn't
help his wicked old cracked head at all. In fact it just made it worse
and worse _and_ worse.
Lisa and her sisters were never again troubled by him nor was any one
else that lived on the shores of that lake.
"Wonder what's become of wicked old Wetehinen?" people began saying.
Lisa thought she knew but she didn't tell.
[Decoration]
LOG
[Decoration]
_The Story of the Hero Who Released the Sun_
LOG
[Decoration]
There was once a poor couple who had no children. Their neighbors all
had boys and girls in plenty but for some reason God didn't send them
even one.
"If I can't have a flesh and blood baby," the woman said one day, "I'm
going to have a wooden baby."
She went to the woods and cut a log of alder just the size of a nice
fat baby. She dressed the log in baby clothes and put it in a cradle.
Then for three whole years she and her husband rocked the cradle and
sang lullabies to the log baby.
At the end of three years one afternoon, when the man was out chopping
wood and the woman was driving the cows home from pasture, the log
baby turned into a real baby! It was so strong and hearty that by the
time its parents got home it had crawled out of the cradle and was
sitting on the floor yelling lustily for food. It ate and ate and ate
and the more it ate the faster it grew. It wasn't any time at all in
passing from babyhood to childhood, from childhood to youth, and from
youth to manhood. From its beginnings it was known in the village as
Log and never received any other name.
Log's parents knew from the first that Log was destined to be a great
hero. That was why he was so strong and so good. There was no one in
the village as strong as he nor any one as kind and gentle.
Now just at this time a great calamity overtook the world. The Sun and
the Moon and the Dawn disappeared from the sky and as a result the
earth was left in darkness.
"Who have taken from us the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn?" the people
cried in terror.
"Whoever they are," the King said, "they shall have to restore them!
Where, O where are the heroes who will undertake to find the Sun and
the Moon and the Dawn and return them to their places in the sky?"
There were many men willing to offer themselves for the great
adventure but the King realized that something more was needed than
willingness.
"It is only heroes of exceptional strength and endurance," he said,
"who should risk the dangers of so perilous an undertaking."
So he called together all the valiant youths of the kingdom and
tested them one by one. He had some waters of great strength and it
was his hope to find three heroes the first of whom could drink three
bottles of the strong waters, the second six bottles, and the third
nine bottles.
Hundreds of youths presented themselves and out of them all the King
found at last two, one of whom was able to take three bottles of the
strong waters, the other six bottles.
"But we need three heroes!" the King cried. "Is there no one in all
this kingdom strong enough to drink nine bottles?"
"Try Log!" some one shouted.
All the youths present instantly took up the cry:
"Log! Log! Send for Log!"
So the King sent for Log and sure enough when Log came he was able to
drink down nine bottles of the strong waters without any trouble at
all.
"Here now," the King proclaimed, "are the three heroes who are to
release the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn from whoever are holding
them in captivity and restore them to their places in the sky!"
He equipped the three heroes for a long journey furnishing them money
and food and drink of the strong waters, each according to his
strength. He mounted them each on a mighty horse with sword and arrow
and dog.
So the three heroes rode off in the dark and the women of the kingdom
wept to see them go and the men cheered and wished that they, too,
were going.
They rode on and on for many days that seemed like nights until they
had crossed the confines of their own country and entered the
boundaries of an unknown kingdom beyond. Here the darkness was less
dense. There was no actual daylight but a faint grayness as of
approaching dawn.
They rode on until they saw looming up before them the towers of a
mighty castle. They dismounted near the castle at the door of a little
hut where they found an old woman.
"Good day to you, granny!" Log called out.
"Good day, indeed!" the old woman said. "It's little enough we see of
the day since the Evil One cursed the Sun and handed it over to
Suyettar's wicked offspring, the Nine-Headed Serpent!"
"The Evil One!" Log exclaimed. "Tell me, granny, why did the Evil One
curse the Sun?"
"Because he's evil, my son, that's why! He said the Sun's rays
blistered him, so he cursed the Sun and gave him over to the
Nine-Headed Serpent. And he cursed the Moon, too, because at night
when the Moon shone he could not steal. Yes, my son, he cursed the
Moon and handed her over to Suyettar's second offspring, the
Six-Headed Serpent. Then he cursed the Dawn because he said he
couldn't sleep in the morning because of the Dawn. So he cursed the
Dawn and gave her over to Suyettar's third offspring, the Three-Headed
Serpent."
"Tell me, granny," Log said, "where do the three Serpents keep
prisoner the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn?"
"Listen, my son, and I will tell you: When they go far out in the
Ocean they carry with them the Sun and the Moon and the Dawn. The
Three-Headed Serpent stays out there one day and then returns at
night. The Six-Headed Serpent stays two days and then returns, and the
mighty Nine-Headed Monster does not return until the third night. As
each returns a faint glow spreads over the land. That is why we are
not in utter darkness."
Log thanked the old woman and then he and his companions pushed on
towards the castle. As they neared it they saw a strange sight which
they could not understand. One half of the great castle was laughing
and rocking as if in merriment and the other half was weeping as if in
grief.
"What can this mean?" Log cried out. "We had better ask the old woman
before we go on."
So they went back to the hut and the old woman told them all she knew.
"It is on account of the dreadful fate that is hanging over the King's
three daughters," she said. "Those three evil Monsters are demanding
them one by one. To-night when the Three-Headed Serpent comes back
from the Ocean he expects to devour the eldest. If the King refuses to
give her up, then Suyettar's evil son will devour half the kingdom,
half of the castle itself, and half the shining stones. O that some
hero would kill the monster and save the princess and at the same time
release the Dawn that it might again steal over the world!"
Log and his fellows conferred together and the one they called Three
Bottles, because his strength was equal to three bottles of the strong
waters, declared that it was his task to fight and conquer the
Three-Headed Serpent.
In the castle meanwhile preparations for the sacrifice of the oldest
princess were going forward. As the King sewed the poor girl into a
great leather sack, his tears fell so fast that he could scarcely see
what he was doing.
"My dear child," he said, "it should comfort you greatly to think that
the Monster is going to eat you instead of half the kingdom! Not many
princesses are considered as important as half the kingdom!"
The princess knew that what her father said must be true and she did
her best to look cheerful as they slipped the sack over her head. Once
inside, however, she allowed herself to cry for she knew that no one
could see her.
The sack with the princess inside was carried down to the beach and
put on a high rock near the place where Suyettar's sons were wont to
come up out of the water.
"Don't be frightened, my daughter!" the King called out as he and all
the Court started back to the castle. "You won't have long to wait,
for it will soon be evening."
Log and his companions watched the King's party disappear and then
Three Bottles solemnly drank down the three bottles of strong waters
with which his own King had equipped him. As he was ready to mount his
horse, he handed Log the leash to which his dog was attached.
"If I need help," he said, "I'll throw back my shoe and do you then
release my dog."
With that he rode boldly down to the beach, dismounted, and climbed up
the rock where the unfortunate princess lay in a sack. With one slash
of the sword he ripped open the sack and dragged the princess out. She
supposed of course that he was the Three-Headed Serpent and at first
was so frightened that she kept her eyes tightly shut not daring to
look at him. She expected every minute to have him take a first bite
and, when minutes and more minutes and more minutes still went by and
he didn't, she opened her eyes a little crack to see what was the
matter.
"Oh!" the princess said.
She was so surprised that for a long time she didn't dare to take
another peep.
"You thought I was the Three-Headed Serpent, didn't you?" a pleasant
voice asked. "But I'm not. I'm only a young man who has come to rescue
you."
The princess murmured, "Oh!" again, but this time the "Oh!" expressed
happy relief.
"Yes," repeated the young man, "I am the hero who has come to rescue
you. My comrades call me Three Bottles and you, too, may call me that.
And while we are waiting for the Serpent to come in from the Ocean I
wish you would scratch my head."
The princess wasn't in the least surprised at this request. Heroes and
monsters and fathers alike seemed always to want their heads
scratched.
So Three Bottles stretched himself at the princess' feet and put his
head in her lap. He settled himself comfortably and she scratched his
head while he gazed out over the dark Ocean waiting for the Serpent to
appear.
At first there was nothing to break the glassy surface of the water.
They waited and at last far out they saw three swirling masses rolling
landward.
"Quick, my princess!" Three Bottles cried. "There comes the Monster
now! Get you down behind the rock and hide there while I go meet the
creature and chop off his ugly heads!"
The princess, quivering with fright, crouched down behind the rock and
Three Bottles, mounting his horse, rode boldly down to the water's
edge awaiting the Serpent's coming.
It came nearer and nearer in long easy swirls, slowly lifting its
three scaly heads one after another.
As it approached shore it sniffed the air hungrily.
"Fee, fi, fo, fum!" it muttered in a deep voice, repeating the magic
rime it had learned from its evil mother, Suyettar:
"Fee, fi, fo, fum!
I smell a Finn! Yum! Yum!
I'll fall upon him with a thud!
I'll pick his bones and drink his blood!
Fee, fi, fo, fum!
Yum! Yum!"