The queen listened, and her ashy-pale face grew paler still and an unpitying smile overspread her joyless countenance. When he had finished she answered him briefly and sternly:
“Truly there are magic words in plenty stored up in Tuoni’s treasure houses; but they are [[136]]neither sold nor lent nor yet given away. The king imparts his knowledge to none; the secrets of his kingdom remain unknown forever. Rash man! You have come hither uninvited; you shall not soon depart.”
Even while she was speaking she began her spells of enchantment. She waved her wand of slumber and chanted strange runes never heard on this side of the dark water. Softly, very softly, she began to sing a weird lullaby—a song of the silent land. And Wainamoinen neither spoke nor made resistance, but, wrapping his cloak about him, he laid himself down to sleep on the dread couch of King Tuoni. [[137]]
[1] See [Note E], at the end of this volume. [↑]
CHAPTER XIV
THE HAG OF THE ROCK
Silently, stealthily, Tuoni’s queen glided from the room in which the Minstrel lay asleep. Hastily she went out from the castle, furtively she glanced backward over her shoulder as though fearful of pursuit. Down to the river-side she went, nor did she pause or slacken her speed until she came to a sudden turn in the shore where a huge ledge of rock jutted far out into the stream.
An old, old woman, gray-eyed, hook-nosed, wrinkled, was sitting on the rock and busily spinning.