But the soldier was one of those people who don't keep their word as they ought. As soon as the devil was in the knapsack, he buckled all three straps tight, saying, "A soldier mustn't go through the town with loose straps. Do you think that the corporal would excuse me on your account if he saw me so untidy?" But the soldier had a friend on the other side of the town who was a smith. He marched straight[Pg 78] off to him with the Devil in his knapsack, and said, "Old friend, please beat my knapsack soft on your anvil. The corporal always scolds me because he says that my knapsack is as hard and angular as a dry bast shoe." "Pitch it on the anvil," said the smith. And he hammered away at the knapsack till the wool flew from the hide. "Won't that do?" asked he after a while. "No," said the soldier, "harder still." And again the blows hailed on the knapsack. "That's enough," said the soldier at last. "I'll come to you again, if it's necessary." Then he took the knapsack on his shoulder, and went back to the town, where he pitched the Devil out of the knapsack in the middle of the street. The Devil was crushed as flat as a mushroom. He could hardly stand on his legs. It had never gone so ill with him before; but the soldier had money enough and to spare, and there was some left over for his heirs. When he died and arrived in the other world, he went to hell and knocked at the door. The Devil peeped through the door to see who it was, and yelled out, "No, no, you scamp, you're[Pg 79] not wanted here; you may go wherever you like, but you won't get in here." So the soldier went to the Old God, and told him how it had fared with him. He replied, "Stay here now; there's plenty of room for soldiers." Since that time the Devil has admitted no more soldiers into hell. [Pg 80] SECTION V _STORIES OF THE GODS, AND SPIRITS OF THE ELEMENTS_ Vanemuine appears in the _Kalevala_, under his Finnish name of Väinämöinen, as a culture-hero, though in the first recension of the poem, as well as in most of the creation-myths of the Finns, the creation is ascribed to him, and not to his mother, Ilmatar. He is, however, always a great musician, and in Esthonian tales usually appears rather in the character of a god than of a patriarch. We read much of Väinämöinen's playing and singing in the _Kalevala_, especially in Runo 46, where he charms all nature by his playing and singing, like Orpheus. In Runo 50 he is described as leaving Finland on account of his authority departing at the coming of Christ; though it is said by an old writer that the favourite deities[Pg 81] of the Finns in his time were Väinämöinen and the Virgin Mary. THE SONG-GOD'S DEPARTURE. (Jannsen.)