“Oh, sisters, I shall get them one way or another for there is no one to warn them. If there was anyone to warn them, he wouldn’t dare tell them what he knows, for he would also know that if he told them he would himself be turned into a blue cross and have to stand forever in the cemetery.”
There is a lot to digest here.
What are the sign of the moss, bark, and tree? And what a novel punishment that last is. Suyettar is certainly novel.
[Author’s note: Some research from a Finnish reader indicates that this whole sign-of-moss thing is a later addition (and in fact, there are a lot of peculiar translation liberties taken with this story). It was probably originally the sign of the cross, and the moss/bark/tree was a retrofit to make it seem more pagan.]
As Log knew now all the dangers that threatened, he slipped away from the woodpile and, when he was outside, took his own shape and hurried back to his comrades.
… this seems to imply that he can move as firewood.
The mind boggles. Are little barky bits wiggling along like millipede legs? Is he hopping? Is he rolling down stairs and over the neighbor’s dog?
“Away!” he cried. “We are in great danger!”
They all spurred their horses and rode swiftly on until Three Bottles suddenly cried, “Hold, comrades, hold! I am faint with hunger!”
“Me, too!” cried Six Bottles.
At that instant a great table, laden with delicious food, appeared before them. “Look!” cried the one of them.
“Food!” cried the other.
They flung themselves from their horses and ran towards the table; but quick as they were, Log was quicker. He reached the table first and, raising his hand, made the sign of the moss three times. The table disappeared as suddenly as it had come and with it the strange hunger that had but now consumed them.
Sign of the moss. Still baffled. I am wavering between crossing oneself and shining the Moss-signal over Gotham. “He’ll be here as soon as he can, Commissioner! Which is about an inch a season, unless we treat the Joker with buttermilk!”
“Strange!” Three Bottles exclaimed. “I thought I was hungry, but I’m not!”
“I thought I saw food just now,” Six Bottles said. “I must have been dreaming.” So they mounted again and pushed on.
“Danger threatens us,” said Log. “We must hurry and not dismount no matter what the temptation.”
They agreed, but then one of them cried out, and then the other, “Water! Water! We shall soon perish unless we have water!”
At once by the wayside appeared a spring of cool sparkling water and it was all Log could do to reach it before his fellows. He did get there first and made the sign of the bark three times, so that the spring disappeared and with it the thirst which had but now consumed the mall.
“I thought I was thirsty,” Three Bottles said, “but I’m not!”
“Why did we dismount?” Six Bottles asked. “There’s no water here.”
So again they mounted and went forward, and Log, warning them again that danger threatened, begged them not to dismount a third time no matter what the temptation.
They promised they would not, but soon, complaining of fatigue, they wanted to. Their brides, too, swayed in the saddle, overcome with weariness and sleep.
“Dear Log,” they said, “let us rest for an hour. See, our brides are drooping with fatigue! One hour’s sleep and we shall all be refreshed!”
At once beside them on the forest floor they saw three soft white feather beds. Log leaped to the ground, but before he was able to make the sign of the tree top over more than one of the beds, his comrades and their brides had fallen headlong on the other two.
And that was the end of poor Three Bottles and Six Bottles and their two lovely brides. There was no way now of saving them from Suyettar. She had them in her power and nothing would induce her to give them up.
Well, that was abrupt and depressing.
I hope they slept peacefully and dreamed of head-scratches.
As Log and his bride sadly mounted their horse and rode on they heard an evil voice chanting out in triumph, “I’ll fall on them with a thud, he he! I’ll pick their bones and drink their blood, he he!”
… doesn’t bode well. I note that he doesn’t even try to fix it, though — nope, not happening, very sad, time to go home, I guess. Clearly Suyettar was a tough customer.
“Poor fellows! Poor fellows!” Log said, and the princess wept to think of the awful fate that had overtaken her two sisters.
Well, Log and his bride reached home without further adventure and were received by the king with great honors.
“I knew my heroes were succeeding,” the king said, “when first the dawn appeared again, and then the moon, and last the mighty sun. All hail to you, Log, and to your two comrades! But, by the way, where are Three Bottles and Six Bottles?”
“Your Majesty,” Log said, “Three Bottles and Six Bottles were brave men both. By their prowess they released the one the dawn, the other the moon. Then in an evil adventure on the way home they perished. I can tell you no more.”
“You can tell me no more?” the king said. “Why can you tell me no more? What was the evil adventure in which they perished?”
“If I told you, king, then I, too, should perish, for I should be turned into a blue cross and stood forever in the cemetery!”
“What nonsense!” the king exclaimed. “Who would turn you into a blue cross and stand you forever in the cemetery?”
“That is what I cannot tell you,” Log said.
The king laughed and pressed Log no further,
Ha ha, everybody else is dead and the god like heroic kind gentle beautiful strong sexy
