'She, the virgin of Manala, She, the washer of the clothing, She, the wringer of the linen, By the river of Tuonela, In the under-world Manala, Spake in words, and this their meaning, This their answer to the hearer: — "Forth the boat shall come from hither, When the reason thou hast given That hath brought thee to Manala, Neither slain by any sickness, Nor by Death dragged from the living, Nor destroyed by other ending."'

Wainamoinen replies with lying reasons. Iron brought him, he says, but Tuoni's daughter answers that no blood drips from his garment; Fire brought him, he says, but she answers that his locks are unsinged, and at last he tells his real mission. Then she ferries him over, and Tuonetar the hostess brings him beer in the two-eared jug, but Wainamoinen can see the frogs and worms within and will not drink, for it was not to drain Manala's beer-jug he had come. He lay in the bed of Tuoni, and meanwhile they spread the hundred nets of iron and copper across the river that he might not escape; but he turned into a reed in the swamp, and as a snake crept through the meshes: —

'Tuoni's son with hooked fingers Iron-pointed hooked fingers Went to draw his nets at morning — Salmon-trout he found a hundred, Thousands of the little fishes, But he found no Wainamoinen, Not the old friend of the billows. Then the ancient Wainamoinen, Come from out of Tuoni's kingdom, Spake in words, and this their meaning, This their answer to the hearer: — "Never mayst thou, God of goodness, Never suffer such another Who of self-will goes to Mana, Thrusts his way to Tuoni's kingdom.