“All hail, all hail!” cried the Mistress earnestly, but with voice cracked and broken. “Welcome to the great large man who deigns to enter this lowly cottage, this poor little house of wood, this humble hut so unworthy of the presence of one so noble!”
Then she called to her waiting-maiden, and bade her hasten to bring a light, that all might see the hero and be glad.
“Kindle the fattest knot of pine and fetch it hither blazing,” she said. “Fetch it quickly that we may see the hero’s eyes whether they [[240]]are blue or grayish, whether they are green or brownish.”
The waiting-maiden ran quickly to obey. She lighted a pine-knot that was always ready, and brought it blazing to her mistress.
“Ah! no, no!” shouted the aged wise one, grim and gray in the flickering light. “See how the ugly torch flares and sputters, and how the black smoke rises in clouds above it. The hero’s face will be smutted, his eyes will be filled with soot. Take the cheap thing away and bring us better torches, torches made of white wax, cleanly and beautiful.”
The maiden obeyed. She brought torches of the purest wax, white and clear, and held them before the Mistress, before the waiting hero.
“Now I see his eyes!” cried the wise one. “They are neither blue nor whitish. They are not green, they are not gray; but they are brownish like the sea-foam in the shadow of a rock, brownish like a bulrush in the early days of winter.”
Then Ilmarinen took the head of the Great Pike from his shoulders and set it upon the floor by the side of the hearth. And all that were in the house admired its size and its wonderful [[241]]shape and the mighty teeth that were set in the mighty jaws. But most of all, they wondered at the manner in which the bones were laid, this way and that, and knit firmly into a framework both neat and strong.
“It will serve you as a throne, O mother of my Maid of Beauty!” said Ilmarinen. “I will dress it, and polish the bones, and make of it a great chair wherein you can sit on winter evenings, feeling yourself the queen of all that is around you.”
Then, while food was brought to him and the people of the household both high and low sat round him listening, he told the story of his adventure by the shore of Tuonela’s river. [[242]]