The fourth day has come of the brothers’ sojourn on the rock, and still the bulls surround them. Ever and again the beasts would wander afield, but one or two always paced within view, quickly passing the news to their fellows whenever the brothers attempted to flee from their prison. All around them they tug on the backwood grass, hooking their tongues round the stalks, or chew the cud and, breathing heavily, lie on their distended bellies. There two contend, midway between sport and earnest, and the rattle of their horns echoes around. And there again, right at the foot of the Devil’s Rock, one paws the earth wrathfully, casting the soil and sods on high, and roaring wickedly. Thus to the agony, the livid fury of the brothers, they linger on; for already the stout sons of Jukola await but the moment when they must die. A moment ago Lauri had poured a stiff gulp of spirits down his throat, now he did the same again, which caused the others to wonder greatly and to begin seriously scolding him.

JUHANI. Has the Devil bewitched thee?

AAPO. Whatever art thou thinking of? Remember that we are all in the same hole.

TUOMAS. Remember that our dwelling is no wider than a man’s palm, where it behoves us to move warily.

LAURI. A man mad with anger!

AAPO. But that won’t do here.

LAURI. Let it do for the pit of Hell then. Let the old castle spin like a millstone and cast down seven unhappy lads to the brutes there. Spin, rock, from east to west, and the forest around us from west to east; spin! Heleiyah!

JUHANI. Art thou drunk already, boy?

Lauri. Is that a question to ask? What is life and the world worth? Not a mouldy farthing. Well then, let everything go in dust and ashes the way of the wind. Clunk! A drop of this, my heart’s brothers.

AAPO. He’s drunk. Take the can away from him!

LAURI. It won’t come in play. The can’s mine; I didn’t leave it to be trodden by bulls on the clearing. But you others? Ah! you all placed your knapsacks nicely on the ground like wretched gypsies when the bailiff’s gun goes bang.

JUHANI. The can here!

LAURI. The can’s mine.

JUHANI. But I want it in my care.

LAURI. Thou wantest it? If thou wantest it thou’lt get it in the forehead.

JUHANI. Wouldst thou show fight?

LAURI. If thou wilt, even that shall not be lacking. But loving brothers never fight. So let’s take a drop of this.

TIMO. Don’t drink, Lauri.

JUHANI. Give the can here at once!

LAURI. A hiding’s what thou’lt get from me. What dost thou fancy thou art?

JUHANI. A sinful being, true; but still thy eldest brother.

LAURI. Eldest? Well, all the more time hast thou had to sin in, and all the more thou deservest a hiding. But here’s to thee!

TUOMAS. Thou shalt not taste a drop.

LAURI. I like Tuomas very much, Tuomas and Little-Eero. But those others there? What am I to say of them?

TUOMAS. Hold thy jaw and give the can here! There, Juhani, take the knapsack on thy back and the spirits in thy keeping.

LAURI. Thou alone canst turn the will of Lauri. I love thee, thee and Little-Eero.

TUOMAS. Silence!

LAURI. Men like they! What is Jussi Jukola? a chuckle-headed cock; a hammerheaded bull.

JUHANI. Shut thy mouth at once that my ears needn’t hear such words a second time.

LAURI. ‘He that hath an ear, let him hear’, preaches Aapo, Jukola’s holy Paul.

SIMEONI. Ah thee! Art thou the former grave, solemn and silent Lauri? Can this be Lauri? This babbling child of sin?

LAURI. Thou too art Simeoni, the mealy-mouthed ‘Hail-Rabbi’.

SIMEONI. That I forgive thee, ever heaping coals of fire on thy head.

LAURI. Go to Hell, there are coals of fire!

SIMEONI. Godless!

TIMO. Even the hairs on my back bristle.

LAURI. What is Timo, Jukola’s watery-eyed he-goat, bleating?

TIMO. Never thou mind. Goat’s milk is good.

LAURI. Hey?

TIMO. Goat’s milk is good. But I thank thee for the honour: thankye kindly! Ay, that was our share; thankye kindly! But here’s another kind of truck before thee too. Look at thy honey-boys there, Tuomas and Eero, yonder.

LAURI. Hey?

TIMO. Look thy honey-boys, Tuomas and Eero, yonder.

LAURI. Hey?

TIMO. A priest speaks thrice, but he’s paid for it.

LAURI. ‘Another kind of truck’, thou didst bleat. I know well what kind of truck to compare them with. Tuomas-lad is a noble axe, grave, manly and strong, but little Eero-nipper is a tiny, sharp and biting whittling-hatchet. Ay, that lad can whittle, whittle right smartly, throwing little jests like chips around him, the scamp.

JUHANI. Good. But didst thou call me a chuckle-headed cock?

TIMO. He called me too a he-goat. Thankye kindly!

LAURI. Eero whittles jokes, but he has the heart of a man.

JUHANI. Good, good! But didst thou call me a chuckle-headed cock?

LAURI. I called thee a hammerheaded bull too.

JUHANI. Good, brother, good!

TIMO. Keep quiet, Juho. Me too he called a he-goat, and I thank him for the title; for the goat is no useless animal at all. The red-cheeked young mistress at Viertola, Mistress Lydia, drinks only the milk of white goats, and nothing else. There you are.

SIMEONI. Should we be men if we hooked on to the words of a drunken man?

LAURI. Thou a man? Thou? Oh little brother! bitterly wouldst thou weep if a maid were to accost thee--something that would hardly happen to a milksop like thee.

JUHANI. Simeoni, Simeoni, I’d sooner be stabbed with a knife than with such words.

SIMEONI. Ay, ay, it’ll be seen on the last day whom they have stabbed.

TIMO. Us thou hast painted as anything between a cock and an axe, but what art thou thyself, if I ask thee sternly and take on my worst temper.

LAURI. I am Lauri.

TIMO. See, see! Simply gentle Lauri?

LAURI. Good-fellow Lauri, and nothing more, though you have been pleased to make me out and call me many things: badger, Könni’s hoer, mopy, and a thousand suchlike. Hm! I’ve heard something of the kind from the lips of each of you. And in deepest silence I have put by every word. Now I feel like spreading out the pile a little, I feel, devil take it! like giving you real hard knocks, and down every man of you to the bulls like a sack of chaff!

AAPO. Is this truly Lauri, well-behaved, silent Lauri? Who’d believe it?

JUHANI. Ah! brother Aapo, ah! there’s many weeds in that wheatfield. I’ve suspected it long, but now I know the man’s heart.

LAURI. Hold thy jaw, thou Jukola’s bull.

JUHANI. For the Lord’s sake don’t annoy me any longer, for my blood’s getting hotter and hotter! Thou accursed puppy, I’ll throw thee down into the mortar of those bulls, and then may the day of terror come, the last day of the almanack!

SIMEONI. Misery, misery!

AAPO. Silence, silence! No fighting.

TUOMAS. Be sensible, thou.

JUHANI. He has shamelessly insulted me. A cock, chuckle-headed!

AAPO. What about Apostle Paul. Keep calm.

TIMO. What about he-goat. What sayst to that? Many thousand thanks, twin-brother!

AAPO. Let us remember how near we are to the jaws of death. Brothers, there is a thought in my brain, an idea on the tip of my tongue that I believe is important to us just now. Note: this rock is a ship in a storm, the storm being that muttering, angry drove of bulls around our rock. Or shall I choose another picture? Ay, let this rock of ours be a castle, which the enemy, an enemy cruelly armed with spears, besieges. Now if the besieged castle has no chieftain, no leader in discipline and defence, mutiny and disorder will spread amongst the men, and soon both castle and garrison are lost. And that is what will happen with us, unless we arrange and provide for ourselves differently, unless we set up lawful order in our midst. Therefore, let there be one whose words of wisdom all shall listen to, and behave accordingly. Juhani, do thou now control thyself and the whole band of brothers. Know that most of us are on thy side and uphold thy authority in this besieged castle.

JUHANI. What punishment shall we settle on for the one who disobeys my word, and through his evil temper causes a general disorder and danger?

TUOMAS. Let him be cast down to the bulls.

JUHANI. Right, Tuomas.

AAPO. A stern punishment, but one our situation demands. I agree to the rule.

SIMEONI. ‘Cast before the bulls’ like the martyrs aforetime; but tenderness won’t help here.

TIMO. May he be cast before the bulls; let this be the law and commandment.

JUHANI. Let it be the law and commandment. Impress this terrible paragraph on your hearts and live thereafter. Now my first command is that Lauri is silent and lays himself nicely down to sleep; secondly, I command that each of us except Lauri takes a little sup from the tin flask to comfort our hearts. Ay, here’s to us!

LAURI. And I’m to be without? I?

JUHANI. Thou art to go to sleep.

LAURI. Time enough for that in Hell.

JUHANI. God knows, Lauri-dear, where we shall yet sleep.

LAURI.

‘God knows, Jussi-dear, Where our skins will dry this year.’

I sing like a man, hoot like a hunter’s horn.

‘I’m a loving little child, Mother’s little Jussi. I’m a loving little child, Mothers little Jussi.’

JUHANI. Spare thy song for the present.

EERO. Spare the little boy’s song for me.

LAURI. Spare it for Jukola’s Jussi and let’s begin a new one, a real big song. Let’s sing and dance, heleiyah!

JUHANI. See that I do not sentence thee to be cast down to the bulls.

TUOMAS. Lauri, I warn thee now for the last time.

LAURI. For the last time? Well, it is best thou ceasest.

JUHANI. That we can brawl like this at the very gates of Death, we full-fledged heathens!

SIMEONI. God has cause to punish us thus. O punish us, smite us on this rock of torture.

LAURI. A rock of joy, this is, Väinämöinen’s rock of joy, which same old gaffer is said to have been the god of Savo. I once heard a right smart song of him from an imp of a chimneysweep’s boy. I remember too a real jolly sermon by that same boy, which he spouted glibly between his red lips and grinning teeth as he stood in a smoking chimney at Kuninkala. And this is what he preached...

JUHANI. Quiet now, thou raving brute!

LAURI. And now, having sung to our fill, sung together with one voice as is the custom in church, let us preach; I am the parson, this rock is the pulpit, you are the choir, and the bulls around us the congregation, solemn and pious. But first a marching hymn to accompany parson to the pulpit. Ye heard. Parson’s waiting.

JUHANI. Wait, wait, thou’lt soon be marched and hymned.

LAURI. Thou art the choir-leader, the old parish clerk himself, these others thy ’prentices, the half-woollen gentry, thou knowest, that fill the choir bench on Sundays and holy days, sweating and red as turkeycocks. Here they sit again like owls, with swelling lapels, hair smoothed with butter and lard, fading grey beard quaking somewhat. Sit in peace, however, and sing Parson-Matt into the pulpit. True, he trotted from Keijula tavern to church, but he laved his head and brushed his hair, and now, greatly moved, climbs prayerfully into his tub and sets the old women weeping like a true lad. Now, choir-leader, I roll my eyes at thee, so let her ring. ‘Make haste Jim’, as the former parson shouted to his choir-leader.

JUHANI. Close thy mouth right quickly, thou vagabond!

LAURI. Not so, but ‘Open Thou each shepherd’s mouth’ is what thou hast to sing. But let this be enough, be still, hearken, and purse thy mouth to a smug church-mouth when I preach. Now, chimney-sweep’s boy, lend me thy mind and thy unfettered tongue. A sermon I will preach today, a thing to reach your souls, of Peter’s tattered travelling-cloak and its ten button-holes. However, glancing o’er my flock, my heart receives a sorry shock, for mine eye sees only stinking nanny-goats and the devil’s own billy-goats. O virgin-maids, sluts and jades of Kärkölä! ye strut in silks and satins, gilded o’er like peacocks; but spit me right i’ the face if on the last day ye do not shout loudly for Parson-Matt to speak for you. But that’s a vain hope, yea! Good morrow, old man Sorrow, I would have a word with you: take after old man Kettula. But thou damned Paavali Peltola, how didst thou behave at building-bee last winter? Thou drainedest many glasses and huggedst the serving-lasses. But I say unto thee, young feller: take after Jumppila Jalli; or be judged in the end by Parson-Matt, the heathens, Greeks and breeks; and then a sack over thy head and down to Hell. Open therefore in time the flaps of thy ears and hear my speech and what I proclaim and preach; for I’ve been boiled in many a broth, and the heart in this breast is like an old sealskin pouch. This lad has been in much and various. In Helsinki I’ve been bound to a trade, bound in jail, bound in the stocks and behind other locks. But best to my belief is that I am no thief, never besmirched my neighbour’s well, or hugged his wife and then farewell.

I had a little sweetheart once, a little cat, a down-right minx, but she escaped and ran away. Forth I went to look for her: sought through Finland’s lands and lakes, round the Baltic and Germany, but couldn’t find my golden nugget. Back I came to Finland’s fells and firs and found her on a sandy ridge beyond the town of Tampere. There’s my little Tettu! I cried, nigh off my head, but Tettu was touchy and said: What art thou? And skipped into the nearest shanty. But I, always a jolly lad, was neither hurt nor sad, but stuffing a quid into my cavern, went to the town’s best tavern, where Mick was fighting and old women frighting.

A mug of ale and two spans of spirits as a chaser is a fair amount of measure for a tired man’s throat and head. And now the can danced and my beard wagged, the boys all burst out singing and the old woman’s daughters giggling. But I forsook the joyous scene and set off down the street. My song rang out, the windows fell bang out, and this set all the Tampere townsmen afoot. But I, always a jolly lad, I ran like a rabbit along the strand, kicking up in their faces stones and sand. I came along to Pori, they put me in a basket there and dragged me round the market square; to Uusikaupunki I roamed, they called me names from every home; Turku’s worst of all the pack, they stuck a knife into my back. However, I came to Aningaisten Street and there five merry jades did meet. The first she kicked me on the thigh, the second said ‘let the lad go by, for he is no meddler and no broken-down peddler’. But the third inquired ‘what aileth the lad?’ and the fourth said ‘let’s help him before it gets bad’. Well, let’s go along then arm in arm, said I, but the fifth poked me furiously with her fist and howled: ‘Go to Helsinki!’ To Helsinki I then did plod, they gave me gruel in the quod, and then they cross-examined me, and mercilessly punished me: ‘Go now, go thy way, thou son of a hammer!’ I took the road again and went, I, always a merry lad, I, whose heart is like an old seal-skin pouch. I wandered singing along the road: and so I came to Häme, popped into the Kuninkala pulpit; and then ’tis amen!

I will now announce the banns. The parish clerk and the parish cupper are firmly bent on marrying; their wedding’s tomorrow, tomorrow after supper. May they join together and stick to each other like pitch and tar! The following farms are ordained a day’s work at the vicarage: Yllilä, Allila, Yli-Seppälä, Pimppala and Alavesi. A dozen boards, a box of nails, a man from each and two from the best to patch up the smaller vicarage pig-trough. From Kiiala meadow a horse has escaped, old but well-shaped, bearing a bell, ironed well, smallish, shortish, dock-tailed, white-maned. And now dear brothers, one word more, the sheep on violence sets no store, he doth not kick, he doth not gore, but alas when a savage bull is loose, he worries trees, paws up the soil and casts confounded filth and dirt over his shepherd’s Sunday shirt. And then again amen once more, each to his shanty as before, I’m off to a real brick house. That was the sermon.

SIMEONI. Such godless doggerel thou knowest, but canst thou read, evildoer?

LAURI. There’s a question for you: can a parson read? ‘Here’s a man can read and rant, and never falters in his chant: a hymn as tall as the cowshed wall’. But a parson sings the Mass and no hymn. I’ll say the Mass and Little Eero can do the responses.

EERO. I’ll answer if hunger’ll let me.

JUHANI. Wouldst thou begin larking with a madman? Thou limb! Always ready to play the puppy. Ay, that I can believe. And thou, Lauri, lay thyself quietly to sleep; finish, brother, this dancing and raving, or I’ll utter the dreadful sentence, and in a trice ten arms will cast thee down to the bulls. Stop this play.

LAURI. This is only the opening dance, brother, the opening dance. Ay, let’s dance, let’s wrestle, let’s dance a Jussian-jig till the moss flies. Look so!

TIMO. Thou confounded youngster! I was near to tumbling off the rock. Quieter, quieter!

JUHANI. Lauri, must I now say the dread word that turns thee in a twinkling to hash? And that merciless word is this: let him be thrown to the bulls. Shall I say it?

LAURI. Say nothing, but sing while I dance a Jussian-jig. Hih!

JUHANI. Let him be thrown to the bulls, and may God be with him! Amen. Now it’s said. Let him go.

LAURI. Let’s all go together, hand in hand out of this vale of starvation--Life!

TUOMAS. Let the law be fulfilled, and go to thy death.

JUHANI. What the Hell, Tuomas!

TUOMAS. Down from the rock, lad!

JUHANI. Stop, for Heaven’s sake!

AAPO. Tuomas turns pale! God help us! Tuomas turns pale.

JUHANI. Wouldst thou do deeds of horror? Brother, brother!

AAPO. He turns pale like a dying man, and deeds of terror are upon us! Calm thyself, Tuomas, Oh calm thyself! I beseech thee. Up all of you and help Lauri, help him!

TUOMAS. Out of the way!

JUHANI. No, Tuomas, no!

TUOMAS. Out of my way! Thou wert the judge, I am the hangman, and may our law be fulfilled. Down from the rock without mercy, man!

LAURI. Like a log down the chute at Nukari. Heleiyah!

SIMEONI. Mercy, Tuomas, mercy, mercy!

TUOMAS. Not a grain of mercy!

JUHANI. God keep us from killing our brother!

TIMO. Ay, Cain from killing Abel.

AAPO. Calm thy mind!

TUOMAS. He dies.

JUHANI. May the powers of Heaven shelter us! No, Tuomas, this cannot be.

TIMO. Never, never. Lauri is the brother of each of us. Stand!

JUHANI. Murder is nigh. Save Lauri, save our wretched brother!

A fierce struggle now arose on the rock. And while some held the enraged Tuomas by the collar, others by his belt, some clung to Lauri’s legs, others wherever they could lay hold of him, to prevent him from rolling off the rock. Like a terrible, many-headed, many-legged monster seemed the group of brothers as, entwined in one single body, they struggled noisily. Tearing at itself, growling, grunting and sighing this monster moved, whirled round, tumbled from one side of the rock to the other and back again. With drooping tails the dogs dodged hither and thither in their fear, often on the point of rolling down to destruction, intent on preserving their lives. In greater numbers than ever the bulls too gathered round the rock, looking round-eyed at the furious struggle. But a general weariness brought peace at last on to the rock, and panting, the brothers rested on the moss, now ground to a fine powder. Then Simeoni lifted up his voice and preached, rolling his eyes fearfully upward towards the heavens.

SIMEONI. Wild beasts and devils are Christian folk become. So punish us, O Lord! Strike hither with thy lightning, pound to mash and offal the seven sons of sinful Zion!

AAPO. Ay, Tuomas, there’s always five against one here; that thou knowest. But may there be peace now; and keep Lauri still until he falls asleep, poor wight.

TUOMAS. Curse! I’ll cast every man of you down if I want, and I shall want if the flame of my anger grows hotter. But quietly, boys, bow, quietly and nicely! For my blood boils and at such moments the slightest thing looks to me like death and the horrors of death. So--nicely, nicely now!

JUHANI. Tuomas is a dangerous man. Be thou my comrade man, who flyest out at me every day and hour, rather than thou, man, who art enraged seldom but powerfully, putting at such times my miserable life in danger. Ah! this was a wicked game.

SIMEONI. Whip us, punish us, Power on high!

TIMO. Shut up, Simeoni, I beseech thee.

SIMEONI. If I am silent, this stone shall speak and cry out. Whip us, beat us!

JUHANI. Stop calling down worse things upon us. This is plague enough.

TUOMAS. There he preaches like a madman, his hands crossed, the eyes in his head like those of a death-owl. Hold thy jaw at once!

TIMO. Shut up, Simeoni, I beseech thee; and let us all live in peace. Look at Lauri-lad; he droops already and falls asleep, the poor lad; he sleeps. Ay, for God’s sake let us live in peace and patience till we can march home from here.

JUHANI. Home! We shan’t even reach our eternal home, an honourable graveyard; but here we shall sleep at last to be picked clean by ravens and eagles. I shall die this minute, on this very spot; ay, well, I die then. Was this life? What was it worth?

TIMO. Ay, was this life? What was it worth? A question.

JUHANI. Thou knewest not dear mother, into what misery thou once broughtest forth seven little nippers.

TIMO. Thou knewest not.

JUHANI. Oh, what if we were to take one more drink, drain the last drop from the bottle. There, Tuomas, take a sup and let her go round.

TUOMAS. I don’t want your spirits!

JUHANI. Ha-ha! Now Lauri’s forgotten Jumppila Jalli and Kuninkala’s pulpit and all that. Well, well, thou didst indeed rage, rage and foam on the very verge of life and death. Terrible, when I think of thee gone before thy Maker, drunk, with eyes aslit.

TIMO. Thou scarest me! Before God drunk!

JUHANI. Before God drunk, with eyes aslit. That’s a bold thought.

SIMEONI. Thou canst well say it.

JUHANI. It was perilous near it didn’t happen. But there he lies now pale. Ah! my eyes brim over, for my soul mourns over him, and I would hide that wretched, poor and suffering brother of mine in the deepest chamber of my heart.

AAPO. In his sleep he can forget this hunger of ours, this murderous worm.

SIMEONI. The fourth day! Ah, let us sink down in death.

EERO. For die we must, though meat, living meat walks before us.

SIMEONI. It is this same meat that kills us!

JUHANI. This very day, this hour and minute! Ay, this hour.

TIMO. Let us kill the meat, shoot every horned brute, and have fresh meat in stacks. Five rifles are loaded and there’s plenty of ammunition in Lauri’s knapsack.

JUHANI. There’s an idea!

AAPO. That will save us!

EERO. In truth, ’twill save us!

JUHANI. Ah! how shall we reward Timo?

SIMEONI. Thou angel of God!

TIMO. Meat, fresh meat! And nothing else. He-he! There’s dozens of newly-cast bullets in Lauri’s knapsack, and even more charges of powder.

JUHANI. Just as thou sayest, thou peerless boy! Here’s bullets and powder, more than enough. The bulls number thirty and three. Hm. We dolts and idiots! Why didn’t we think of this idea before?

AAPO. In truth I did think of the same trick once, but the stuff in Lauri’s knapsack never came into my mind, which is why I never spake my thought to you, for five bullets, five bulls.

JUHANI. Something of the sort crossed my mind too, but without getting further. Three and thirty bulls. Good! Listen, you good-for-nothing sons of Kaura-Matti! if we shoot now like men, we can pierce the heart or brain of a bull with every shot, and the road to freedom lies open, open. Ah thee, Timo-lad!

TIMO. Hey, didn’t I say it. And there’s nothing else to do. And well thou knowest it. Are we to perish here like rats? Bonny lads have no time for that. Hey, hey! I said it.

JUHANI. Now a flash and thunder and the road to freedom is burst open!

AAPO. Ay, Juhani! True, this road goes over bleeding corpses, but it can’t be helped.

JUHANI. It can’t be helped, so let the red-black blood flow round the Devil’s Rock. We lucky badgers! soon we shall be gorging meat like wolves!

AAPO. But how shall we pay for forty bulls?

JUHANI. It is a matter of life and death, in which case the law is on our side. We’ll make meat, and the pot-bellied master of Viertola can cart away his meat, if he likes. It doesn’t concern us.

AAPO. What’ll happen afterwards we’ll see when the fated work is done. But when the great murder is over there is another task to be done at once. Note this, as soon as the last beast is stretched on the ground, we must start flaying them; and one of us must bear the mournful tidings to Viertola manor.

JUHANI. Important advice. Flay them, skin them, before the hide sticks to the flesh. Let it be so, and then he who will can take the flesh and skin, the guts and all else within. The ox on the bench and the skin off him! Each of us has a knife at his belt that can cut; here’s my sheath-knife, sharp as a serpent’s tongue. Ay; let’s start the bloody work. Let the man whose firelock is empty, load it again with a reliable charge; and then the bloody, bloody work can begin.

AAPO. But brothers! we can wrestle with hunger an hour or two yet, especially as our salvation is now sure. Let us try once more the power of six men’s throats and then wait an hour, the last hour of our captivity.

JUHANI. True, hunger pinches us, but let us do as thou sayest. Let’s shout, and maybe we can get out of the trap without shedding a drop of blood. A vain hope, however. Well, well, we can wait a bit longer; for the terrible key to our freedom is in our fists. So let’s yell with all our might again. I beseech you all, do it, for it is my command. Tuomas, silent as this rock, set thy trumpet roaring too. Do it, I beseech thee, for it is my command.

TUOMAS. Don’t babble. I’ll do as our common law demands.

JUHANI. Be ready then. One, two, three.

They lifted up their voices, shouting seven times, and their cry and the howling of the dogs was borne afar. Whereafter they sank down to wait again, although hunger assailed them fiercely, for now the certainty of salvation infused new strength into them. Of their number, one, however, brother Lauri, felt neither the pangs of hunger nor the joy of hope. Snoring and pale, he lay at the others’ feet. The brothers waited one hour, waited a second, and the sun of the fourth day already approached its setting. Then Juhani, hearing the faint rumble of thunder in the southwest, shouted in a high, deathlike voice: ‘Now, boys! The Lord help us and Amen!’ And soon the fiery, blood-letting game had begun.

The grey Devil’s Rock disappeared in clouds of smoke: but from the clouds came flashes, death thundered everywhere into the hosts of bulls. Now here, now there, as the bullets found their mark, a bull leapt up with a sudden groan and collapsed, blowing the powerful life out of his chest as he fell. The brute whose brain was pierced collapsed quickly, scarcely kicking once, only straining out his legs like four stiff bars; thus he gave up his life, and darkly-red the blood spouted from his wound high into the air and from the air in a curve to the ground. But he whose wound was in the breast, with heart still untouched, raged for long, galloping bleeding hither and thither amongst those whom the bullets had as yet spared, until at last he too tumbled headlong on the field, and, groaning, flung his hooves about one final moment. Panic haste and a horrific liveliness now seized the others, as, scenting the smell of the steaming blood of their comrades, they charged with mighty trumpetings into one tumultuous mass. With hanging tongues, rolling their eyes and filling the forest with a fearful bellowing, they kicked the dead twigs, sods and soil high over their backs.

On the rock, enwrapped in smoke, the brothers stood like pale phantoms, shooting, loading, and shooting without cease, and ever new bulls fell on the field. The guns flashed and banged, but sterner yet was the crashing and flame up in the heavens, where the thunder rode over mountains of cloud. The smoke and the sombre clouds in the sky cast a lurid gloaming over the Devil’s Rock. In this half-darkness the shrieks and groans of the bulls, the howling of the dogs, the crash of the rifles and the long-drawn tearing rumble of thunder echoed again, and in the treetops the tempest boomed. Direful was the hour; the air seemed hot as blood. Even Lauri awoke to semi-consciousness and opened his eyes, but saw only a ghastly dimness, and in the dimness a few dark shadows standing around him. He heard a matchless din, heard it beside him, heard it rise from the ground and sink down from the skies; and in the unrest of his blood it seemed to him as though everything were falling downward at terrific speed. A joyless thought entered his mind and he said to himself: ‘thus we go down to the bottomless pit; we’re going; well, we can go; what help is there for it?’ So muttering, he turned on his side, and closing his eyes sank again into deepest sleep.

Like to an arrogant castle the Devil’s Rock wrapped itself in a garment of smoke, aping the tongue of the thunder. Around it blood streamed and hooves waved in the air in hundreds. Thunder rolled in the clouds, which now began to rain heavily, drenching the rustling forest with water. But the murderous work was done; not a single horn was to be seen erect. On the ground lay the three and thirty bulls from the Viertola Manor, some stone-dead, others still kicking; and here and there the rattling breath of a bull in its death-agony was heard. With their dogs, the brothers climbed down from the rock and hastened to shelter at the foot of a dense spruce; for the thunder-cloud still rained heavily and the bearded forest soughed. There they stood, regarding the abundant harvest of death before them; and in many gurgling torrents the blood-bemingled water flowed in every direction from the Devil’s Rock. But when the rain ceased, they emerged from their cover, and walked silently with distorted faces among their victims, looking about them with dreadful glance and at intervals shaking their heads.

JUHANI. There’s meat here.

TIMO. And blood.

JUHANI. And blood too, in truth. Round this rock even pepper’d grow for ten years at a stretch; so well has the soil been fertilized. But let us strike a light and make a fire, in which we can roast fresh meat for ourselves. Ah, a beefsteak will taste good to us lads now. Bring, brothers, wood and resiny chips, I’ll strike a light; and Timo can run to the clearing and fetch my axe and the knapsacks that we flung down in the face of danger. And then, when we have eaten, every man of us to work ‘undressing the skins’, as redheaded old man Krööm used to say. He’s buried now, and best for him to be there. Here the poor old beggar went hungry as a stray cur; without a friend, a relation, or a roof to shelter him; even the good name of him had been struck off his papers. There he crumpled up behind Kolistin’s threshing-barn, and all lies forgotten now under the sod. That’s it, Eero, resiny chips; there’s Simeoni with dry faggots; soon we’ll have a merry fire a-blazing. Cut a few big slices ready Tuomas, from the thigh of that mottled one. Ahah! I could pounce like a cat this very instant on the raw, bloody joint.

TUOMAS. A little patience yet, and our joint will taste still better.

JUHANI. Quite so. But let us be thankful that we belong to a family used to fighting hunger, a family and a race. We shouldn’t otherwise be bustling about like this. That I wager.

Soon seven enormous slices of meat were roasting in the flames. Thus Lauri was not forgotten, although no one wished to disturb his slumbers on the rock, where he still slept, not awakening even when the rain poured over him. Timo had set out on his errand; he found the knapsacks, found the axe on the bloodstained ground, where lay the bear and seven bulls. And he returned from his errand with the knapsacks on his back and the axe under his arm, and then six round loaves were shared out and the meat taken from the fire; and the dry bread and roast beef, dipped in salt, was ground small between the men’s teeth. Killi and Kiiski, too, having fasted four days with their masters, now made a gluttonous meal. But when they had refreshed themselves, men and dogs, a leaden lethargy suddenly spread through their limbs. A powerful, unconquerable slumber oppressed them, and with closed eyes they sank, one after the other, down to the ground. Up on the rock Lauri slept snoring, down at its base the others lay around the fire as the sun went out and the September day darkened into night. So amid their victims, the lifeless herd of bulls, they slept; and savage Killi and Kiiski kept watch over their camp.

But at last, when the night was already far advanced, they awoke from their slumber and felt the former strength return to their limbs. They stood up and began carrying black, juicy, resinous stumps to the fire; that they might see to flay their monstrous prey in its ruddy glow, while Eero was immediately despatched with the tidings of these events to the Viertola bailiff. Up danced the red-black flames, lighting up the ground and the rugged forest. And off to the manor hastened Eero, while the others commenced flaying with all their might the prey that had fallen to them.

Then Lauri too awoke from his deep, long sleep and looked blinking around him; he looked for a space without comprehending what he saw. Yonder a burning fire of stumps illumined the calm, dark night; on every hand cattle weltering in their blood, with tongues outstretched and stomachs distended in the air. Two of them had already been transformed into meat, a third was just undergoing the same change. And of the brothers, some were busy flaying, others held the carcases by the legs; one smashed the powerful bones with an axe, another heaped up the meat in a gigantic pile at the foot of a spruce. All this Lauri saw with confused eyes; until at last he grasped what had happened. He looked down and saw near the fire a loaf and on the loaf a hunk of roasted meat. At that a fierce spasm ran through his stomach, he climbed down from the rock, seated himself in the warmth of the fire and snatched up the bread and the meat. First, however, he uncovered his head, crossed his hands, and rapidly nodding his tousled head, blessed the food, before beginning his tasty supper. There, with glowering eyes under a wrathful brow, he sat and ate in silence. There he sat, drying his clothes in the glow of the resiny fire while the others, a few paces distant, toiled and laboured nimbly; for they had to cut up a huge bear and forty bulls.

Eero carried word to the Viertola bailiff, the bailiff as hastily to his master, and then an outcry and a fiery bustle arose, and Eero started off home at more than usual speed. But, screaming and flashing with anger, the master of Viertola called together all his available men. Whereafter he set out wildly for the Devil’s Rock, ten brawny men with him, and near to his master marched the manor’s lusty bailiff, a fear-inspiring, tarry knout in his fist. They fared sternly onward and at last approached their goal, whence a ruddy light flowed forth to meet them. In the light they perceived seven men, like seven nerve-shaking ghosts of night, and in bloody work the seven ghosts laboured, with bloodstained knives in bloodstained fists. Some were busily flaying, others held the carcases by the legs, some smote asunder the mighty bones of the flayed beasts and some spread the hides to dry on the pliant branches of spruce-trees. Quickly Killi and Kiiski observed the approach of strangers and charged straight at them with angry barks, but the brothers hastened with stern commands to control the hounds. The wrathful master of Viertola stepped forward; perspiring, pot-bellied and goggle-eyed, he stepped forward, backed by ten strong men.

AAPO. Good evening, master!

JUHANI. God help us! here’s been a terrible game.

VIERTOLA. Has Hell broken loose? Forty bulls killed! Death and torment!

AAPO. It happened for the sake of seven men’s lives.

VIERTOLA. I’ll teach you, you Jukola’s robbers and bandits! At them, men, and beat them until they lie in their blood like my fine cattle there. At them, men!

AAPO. Softly, master!

TUOMAS. Softly, softly!

JUHANI. Halt, master, with thy men, halt! and remember what becomes thy peace.

AAPO. Let us talk sensibly of a case of hard fortune.

JUHANI. There is one common law for all of us, before which we stand as equals. From the womb of a woman thou camest as I came, and as naked, just as naked, a lad not an inch better than I. And thy noble birth? Our old filmy-eyed cock can do a little trick on that. The common law! in this case it stands strongly on Jukola’s side.

VIERTOLA. On your side! Have you the right, accursed, to kill my oxen on my own ground?

JUHANI. Have you the right to let loose bulls that might cost a man his life?

VIERTOLA. They were on my own land and in a fenced pasturage.

JUHANI. Then we’ll set this in the scales. The piece of boundary-fence that the bulls, to our great worry, broke down, belongs rightly to Viertola’s section. But now I’m minded to ask: why does a wealthy manor set up so wretched a fence that a beast can break it down at one rush?

THE BAILIFF. A fence as dense as the face of a brush, thou scoundrel!

JUHANI. A fence that a bull pushed out of its way like a blade of grass.

VIERTOLA. What were you doing in my pasturage, my pasturage, you rogues! What?

JUHANI. We chased a bear, a dangerous brute that would soon squash both thee and thy bulls. We killed the preying bear, and thus did our country a great, a public service. Isn’t this a public service! to weed wild beasts, bogies and devils out of the world? Look you to that. The law is strongly on our side, though I were to rot.

THE BAILIFF. Keep thy mouth shut, thou rogue, and don’t talk nonsense!

VIERTOLA. They’re minded to make a mock of us now, the scoundrels. Beat them! At them!

AAPO. Softly, gentlemen, bailiffs and grooms, and remember how we have been tortured on the rock, and that every one of us will soon be mad with fury.

JUHANI. Truly said. Mad with fury, mad with fury! Ah! the thoughts of a man in that state turn swiftly round, he clenches his heart hard as a rock and then a single flash, and earth and heaven squeak. Ah! here we’ve been tortured three days and three nights betwixt life and death.

TUOMAS. But now we have eaten bloody meat, breathed murder’s bloody vapour, and here we stand, bloodstained knives in our blood-drenched hands, bloody up to the elbows. May the Lord move you to take heed of our words in time, else we’ll make this night a hell of horror. Take heed, take heed of our words!

EERO. And a warning from the bulls there.

JUHANI. O God, grant them this moment eye-salve, and strength to their hearts to keep them from teasing us longer! Give wisdom to their brains and make them take warning from the unhappy bulls there, for we are still in a state to make mincemeat! Give to them wisdom, Lord, else shall we become priests over them and with these bloody knives wed them to one flesh and one blood with the unhappy bulls, and make a shrieking hell of this dark forest. O Lord, protect that big-bellied master of Viertola there and his arrogant men! Have mercy on them, Almighty Son of God!

TUOMAS. Here we stand, come forth if ye are minded.

JUHANI. Here we stand, come forth if ye are minded.

VIERTOLA. Good--good! Brag and boast now, but the time will come, I believe, when the law will decree otherwise, and then the tail of your pride will droop, and even your miserable home will go, down to its rotting foundations. Away, men! I leave you forty bulls as your prey now, but every one will yet be torn from you to the very last hoof. Let us go!

JUHANI. Take away your meat and offal before they spoil. They’re nothing to do with us; we only hastened to flay them before the hide stuck to the flesh.

VIERTOLA. All’s well! Home, men, as I command.

And with his men the master of Viertola departed, still fiercely threatening and cursing; but the brothers set themselves to their butchering again. And the following day the forty bulls had been flayed, and the brothers returned to their home, carrying the enormous grey-black bear on a pole. The flesh, hides and offal of the oxen they left in the forest, with two of the brothers, however, to guard them. And thus ended the hunting-trip that was born of Tinder-Matti’s tales of the lands of the north, and planned, in the beginning, as a hunt for wild duck on Kourusuo Bog.