CHAPTER X.
KAJANEBORG.
Far away in the North roar the mighty waters of the sea under vaults of ice; the fors never freezes, the green of the pine never withers, and the grey rocks, which confine the foaming floods in narrow ravines, never shake. Here the powers of nature have pursued their incessant warfare for centuries without rest, without reconciliation; the flood never tires of battling with the rocks, and these persist in resisting the stream; the hills never seem to grow old, and the immense morasses defy cultivation; the frosty transparent atmosphere quivers as of old in the northern light, and the winter sky looks down with its imperturbable, majestic calm upon the scattered huts on the banks of the streams.
This is the home of night and terror; this is the shadow of Finnish poetry's golden pictures. Here the light-shunning Black Art spins its webs around human beliefs; here are the graves of heroes; here the last giants spent their rude strength in the mountain wilderness; here stood Hüsis ancient fortress, of which the steps were each six feet in height; here the spirit of the middle ages brooded over its darkest thoughts; here it receded, step by step, before the light of a newer time, and here it has bled in its impotent rage; heathenism, fallen from its greatness, steals outlawed from place to place, in the sheep's clothing of Christendom, going restlessly around the country, and performing its miserable mummeries in churchyards at night.
Before the great northern waters, irritated by their battles in hundreds of forssar* go to seek a brief repose in Uleä Sea, they once more pour out their anger into the two mighty waterfalls of Koivukoski and Ämmä, near the little Kajana. Like two immense surfs the torrents throw themselves headlong down the narrow pass, and so violent is their fall that human daring, accustomed to struggle with nature and conquer in the end, has here stopped with dismay and acknowledged its powerlessness. Up to the latest times the boats which have steered down the forssar in their course towards Uleäborg, have always been obliged to land here and be drawn by horses through the streets of Kajana.**
* Plural of fors.
** After the surgeon's time, a lock was completed here at each fall, and the boats now continue on their way without much delay.
In the stream, right between the two falls, Koivukoski and Ämmä, lies a flat rock, to which bridges are attached from both sides. Here stand the grey walls of an ancient fortress, now in ruins, and constantly bathed by the waves of the flood. This fortress of Kajaneborg was founded in 1607, during Carl IX.'s time, as a protection against Russian invasion. Perhaps the time may come in our stories when we shall speak more of it.
It is now 1635, and the castle stands in its original strength. Its form resembles an arrow with the point turned towards the stream. Unless famine occurs, or the enemy can bring heavy artillery to the heights, it is considered impregnable. But how can a hostile army find any road to Kajaneborg? In the immense wilderness all around there is not a single road where a wheel can run. In summer the traveller follows the narrow paths, and in winter the Laplander, with his reindeer and sleigh, drives over the frozen lakes.
It is winter; a thick crust of ice on the shores and over the walls of the castle shows that the cold has been severe, though it has not been able to bind the fors in its rapid course.