Vanemuine sang of love and of the beautiful springtime. The happy lark
heard and understood, and the sweetest tones of the song she sings over
and over with each returning morning. As she soars higher and higher
into the clear air, she sings her song, trying to tell the whole world
of the love and beauty of which she heard so long ago.
While everything else was being made so happy, the poor fishes were
having a sad time. They could not leave the water to go to the Hill of
Taara, but they stretched their heads out of the brooks and rivers to
their very eyes, yet kept their ears under. So they saw Vanemuine, the
song-god, move his lips, but heard nothing, and they did as he did and
made no sound. To this day the poor, dumb fishes move their lips, but
speak no language.
Only the men and women who stood close around the Hill of Taara
understood everything that was sung. That is why human voices more than
any others can thrill us and make us see the beautiful and true.
Vanemuine sang of the glory of heaven and of the beauty of earth. He
sang of the flowing waters and of the rustling leaves. He sang of the
joys and the sorrows that come to all people, to children and parents,
to the rich and to the poor. If we listen to the songs sung to-day, with
open ears and expectant hearts, we may hear all that Vanemuine sang so
long ago upon the Hill of Taara.
When Vanemuine's songs had been heard by all the world, he rose on the
wings of the winds and went far into cloudland to his golden palace in
the sky. There he still sings his wonderful songs for those who are
greater than mankind.
To this very day the people of Finland think they can sometimes hear
Vanemuine's voice when the forest trees sigh in the wind, or the water
in the river softly laps against its rocky shore. Perhaps--who
knows?--we may hear him, too, if we listen well!
A BAG OF WINDS
_Greek_
"Oh, Grace, do see that man with all those little balloons! Don't they
look like a bunch of big cherries?"
"Yes, they do, Carrie, but cherries are all of one color, and some of
his balloons are red and some are blue. Oh, here is one that has burst.
See, it is only a little rubber sack that was once full of air."
"That makes me think, Carrie, of a story I read the other day about a
bag of winds. It was about the King of the Winds and his kindness. It
was this way:
"Once a man named Ulysses was sailing over a great sea, and he came to
an island. He and his sailors were so tired and hungry that they
stopped for food and rest. The King of the Winds--his name was
Aeolus--was very kind to them, and they feasted for fifteen days; then
they had to go forward on their journey again. King Aeolus thought so
much of Ulysses that he told him that he would see that he had good
sailing weather all the way home, if Ulysses would promise to take
charge of what he would give him.
[Illustration: ULYSSES. Making an offering of wine.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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