Topic: Magic Songs of the Finns

[Nichi]

THE MAGIC SONGS OF THE FINNS
§ 1. PRELIMINARY.

How at such time is one to speak, and how should one interrogate when a time of danger is at hand, a day of jeopardy impends? Already I, poor, wretched lad, have met with some embarrassment, with toilsome tasks, with a very difficult work, (when summoned) to eject attacks of sickness, to relieve from pain, to banish ailments wrought by spells, and overcome the enemy. Now they have need of me, they need me, and require that I divine an origin profound, and a great injury remove. Shall I begin, make venture now, shall I catch hold, shall I make bold to grip with hands a pestilence, to attack a devil (Perkele) with my hands, to give a hideous one a squeeze, and trample a gigantic one? I cannot anything effect without, maybe, the grace of God, without the true Creator's aid. May the Creator help bestow, O may the Lord assistance give, may God accord his aid to me after receiving my request and after he has touched my hand. May Jesus’ fluent mouth into my mouth transform itself; may the ready tongue of Jesus turn into mine; may Jesus’ pliant fingers into my fingers fit themselves. Where my words cannot reach let God's word reach; where my hands cannot pass let God's hands enter in; there where my fingers will not serve let the Creator's fingers serve; and where I can't breathe in a breath may the Lord breathe in a breath instead.

b
If haply I'm not man enough I'll send a better one than I; I'll raise the earth-matrons from the earth, the mounted heroes from the sand, to strengthen me, to give me force, to shelter me, to give support in this extremely toilsome work in a time of sore distress. If haply I am not the man, if Ukko's son is not the man, from a damp dell let men arise, men of the sword from out the mire, glaive-men from out a sandy heath and horsemen from beneath the sand, that in the earth have lain for long, that in the ooze have long reposed, to help a well-beloved son, to be a famous fellow's mate.

c
If haply I am not the man, if Ukko's son is not the man, cannot effect deliverance, nor of this bogie (riena) riddance make, Louhi! mistress of Pohjola, come to effect deliverance and of this bogie riddance make. If haply I am not the man, if Ukko's son is not the man, O Päivätär, thou doughty maid, come to effect deliverance, to remove these plagues, to release from spell-wrought woes. If haply I am not the man, if Ukko's son is not the man, old mother Kave, Nature's daughter, O beautiful and darling Kave, come to effect deliverance, to banish sickness wrought by magic, to free from evils brought by curses. If haply I am not the man, if Ukko's son is not the man, O Hiisi, come from Hiitola, thou humpback! from the home of gods to cast out that which needs must be cast out and cause the monster's death.

d
I that am one of little strength, a full-grown man weak-spirited, shall blow a horn towards the sky, shall through a cloud-rift sound a pipe; I'll shout a cry of dire distress, send forth an agonising cry through earth, through Manala, through the level sky, its gates will burst apart whence favours issue forth. A thousand friends will then arrive, a hundred warriors of the Lord, from the heavens up above, from earth's foundations down below, to strengthen me, the feeble man, to give the weak man manliness in these exceeding toilsome tasks, in these affairs that have no end.

Magic Songs of the West Finns, Vol. 2, by John Abercromby, [1898], at sacred-texts.com

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ms2/ms203.htm

[Nichi]

§ 5. TO DISCOVER THE CAUSE.
a
Of thy old mother I'll inquire; I'll make thy mother call to mind why thou, Disease, hast made attack, why thou, Elfshot, hast found thy way into a wretched human skin, the body of a mother's son. I know not who thy maker is, I cannot tell who sent thee forth. Art thou a sickness by the Creator made, a bane decreed by God, or art thou caused by human art, both wrought and brought by another man, sent hither for reward, procured with harmful pelf to do the stipulated deeds, to execute work paid in coin, to destroy a person that was born, to ruin one that has been made? If thou be a sickness by the Creator made, a bane decreed by God, on my Creator I fling myself, I cast myself upon my God; the Lord abandons not the good, the Maker killeth not the virtuous. If thou art caused by human art, a disease produced by another man, I'll get to know thine origin, surely thy birthplace ascertain. Thence have attacks of sickness come ere now, thence elfshots have been shot, from the regions of divining men, from the grazing grounds of singing men, from the homesteads of vile miscreants, from the trampled fields of sorcerers, from the humid dells of wizards, from the hilltops of ecstatic men, from spells pronounced by harridans, from the witchery of long-haired hags, from the distant limits of the north, from the wide country of the Lapp, from spots where reindeer throw their young, from sandy heaths where stags career, from the house of the spectral host (kalmalaiset), from Manala's eternal huts, from mouldering heaps of soil, from earth that often must be moved, from the rolling gravel, from the rustling sand.

b
I do not know at all just now, the reason I cannot surmise, why, Hiisi, thou hast entrance made, hast, devil (Perkele), made, thyself at home in a guiltless heart, in a belly free of blame. From waters of witches hast thou come, from the lilies on a landlocked lake, from Nixies’ (lummekoira) haunts, from a water-Hiisi's hole, from the sea's black mud, a thousand fathoms deep, or from the heath of death (kalma), from the interior of the earth, from a dead man's belly, from the skin of one departed for eternity, from the armpit of a spectral form (kalmalainen), from beneath the liver of a shade (manalainen), hast thou been torn from a cross's base, been conjured up from women's graves, beside a decorated church, from the edge of a holy field, or from great battle-fields, from the slaughter-fields of men?

c
From where, wretch, hast thou sent thyself, whence, Lempo, hast thou cut away, whence, filthy one, torn thyself away, why, Hiisi's refuse, hast thou shamed thyself? Who created thee, who formed thee, wretch, to eat, to gnaw, to bite, to crunch? Out of the water hast thou rolled, from the froth of water poured thyself, from rushing streams, from roaring falls, from a rapid's seething foam, from burning swirls, from the great ridges of the sea, from billows capped with foam, or from still waters, running streams, from unfrozen pools, from rippling springs? Or hast thou issued from the earth, ascended from a field, thou wraith (peiko), from clearings bare, from land unploughed, from humid dells, from mossless swamps, from near mud-castle, from a watery ridge, 1 from a forest-Hiisi's hole, from the cleft of five great hills, from a copper mountain top, from the peak of a copper Fell, from Bruin's stony grot, from a bear's den of boulder-stones, from the tracks of a running wolf, from the steps of one with a down-turned snout, from places where the foxes bark, from pairing-places of the hare, hast thou been poured from froth of calves, been gathered from the foam of dogs? Or from fireplaces hast thou come, been raked up from the burning brands, hast thou arrived from heated stones, from amid the smoke of a bathing-house? Or by the wind hast thou been rocked, by a wintry blast hast thou been swung in the level sky, behind light clouds, by the wind's path hast thou come here, along the course of a wintry blast, from places shaken by the wind, from where the wintry tempest drives?

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/ms2/ms203.htm