in the smoke-hole, but it is light on the heath, and for the guest it is now time to depart." That this sentence, which was written down in the year 1774, consists of old Norwegian words, though in a corrupted form, is quite evident.

The Shetlanders still retained, in the last century, many of the customs of their Scandinavian forefathers. Thus surnames were given both to sons and daughters, according to the genuine Scandinavian custom, from the father's Christian name. The eldest son, for instance, of Magnus Anderson was called Anders Magnuson, and all the other sons had likewise the surname of Magnuson; whilst the daughters, in like manner, were all called Magnus-daughter, of course with different Christian names. Even the Norwegian language is said to have been spoken at that time. by some few old persons in the most remote islands. The traditions and songs handed down by their forefathers still lived among the people, whose poets and poetical feeling have been celebrated from the earliest times. It was customary to revive the memory of former days by festal assemblies, in which the youth of both sexes danced to songs ("Visecks") and ballads, as they did in ancient times throughout the North, and as is still the custom in the Faroe Isles. At Yule time (Christmas), which was the chief festival, and the beginning of which was always announced at daybreak by playing an ancient Norwegian melody, called "the day-dawn" (Dan., Daggry), all kinds of merriment took place. A favourite amusement was the so-called sword-dance, the origin of which may be traced with sufficient certainty to the times of the heathens. The Vikings were frequently very dexterous in playing with naked swords, throwing several at once into the air without allowing them to fall to the ground. This practice was easily converted into a dance, performed by several men with drawn swords; and consisting of many windings. and figures calculated to develope a dexterous agility, which, in those warlike times, must naturally have excited

a lively interest among the spectators. Later in the middle ages the sword-dance in the Shetland Isles lost by degrees the wildness of its character, the number of dancers being limited to seven, representing the Seven Champions of Christendom, viz., St. James of Spain, St. Denis of France, St. Anthony of Italy, St. David of Wales, St. Patrick of Ireland, St. Andrew of Scotland, all under the command of St. George of England, who both opened and closed the dance by reciting some English verses appropriate to the occasion.

All this, however, is now much changed. In the farthest island towards the west, that of Papa stour (" Papey stærri," the great Pap Island, in contradistinction to the neighbouring Papa little, "Papey litla"), a last shadow of the old warlike sword-dance is occasionally to be seen. Instead, however, of being clothed in armour or shirts of mail, the dancing knights have shirts of sackcloth; and, in place of huge swords, they brandish straightened iron hoops, stripped from some herring-cask. The old Norwegian songs are no longer heard. Of the ancient Norwegian popular language the only remains are partly a few words, which, however, appear conspicuously in the English dialect now used; and partly a peculiarly sharp pronunciation, with a considerable rising and sinking of the voice, not unlike the vulgar pronunciation in the Faroe Isles. The old Norwegian words are particularly employed for certain objects and implements which have been in use from time immemorial.

Thus, for instance, the hole through which the smoke escapes (Dan., Lyre) in the roof of houses covered with flat turf (flaas) is sometimes still called by the name of "livra" (in the Feroic language "ljowari "). The high seat for the mistress of the house is called, in remote districts, "hoy-saede" (Dan., Höisæde); her "bysmer," which serves her for weighing, exactly agrees, both in name and nature, with the "Bismer " common in the North. The hand-mill, which is fast disappearing, is

called as in the Danish part of north England, "qvern." The turf-spade, called in the Faroe Isles "torvskjæri " (Dan., Törveskjærer), is here named "tuysker." The land-tax also, according to Scandinavian fashion, is paid in "merk" and "ure" (Mark and Öre). The outlying fields are called "hogan," "hagan" (Old Norsk, "hagi," an inclosed field). The deep-sea fishery (Dan., Hav) is called "the haaf;" the fishing itself, "haaf-fishing" (Dan., Havfiskerie); and the necessary lines, "tows" (Dan., Touge). To the present day the Shetlanders use, in these fisheries, boats imported from Norway, which are peculiarly suited, by their construction, for the high seas and rapid currents on the coasts of Shetland. The dress worn by the fishermen when out at sea bears a striking resemblance to that of the Faroe men. The head is covered with a cap knit in the form of a night-cap, and ornamented with the most motley colours. They wear a coat of tanned sheep-skin, reaching down to the knees, where it generally meets a pair of huge and capacious skin boots, very carefully sewed. On land the Shetlanders use only a simple kind of shoe called "rivlins," consisting of a square piece of untanned cow-hide, covering little more than the sole of the foot, and fastened with a fishing-line or a strip of skin. The men of Faroe have similar shoes, called "skegvar," which, however, are far better made.

But what particularly reminds the Scandinavian traveller in Shetland of finding himself in a country formerly altogether Norwegian, is the names of places, all of which bear the impress of their Norwegian origin. This remark applies to the names of the islands themselves, as well as to the names of towns, farms, promontories, and bays existing in them. They, of course, resemble, in a great degree, the old Scandinavian names of places farther south, in Scotland and England. Thus, for instance, a fiord is generally called "firth" (fjorðr); a creek “wick” (Dan., Vig); a holm, or small island, “holm;" a promontory, or "ness;" a valley, daill," or dale." But it is

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peculiar to these districts, that the forms of names of places which occur most frequently in the old Danish part of the north of England, namely, those ending in by, thwaite, and thorpe, are extremely rare in Shetland, and in the rest of the old Norwegian possessions in Scotland. Of those in by, only a few instances are to be found; those in thwaite are still more rare; and those in thorpe are not to be met with at all. On the other hand, these districts possess several Scandinavian names of places which are also most frequently found in the old Norwegian colonies in the north and west of Scotland, but which are perfectly unknown in the old Danish part of the north of England. For instance, a small bay (Dan., Vaag) is called “voe” (vágr); whence, on Mainland, we find “West-voe,” “Aiths voe (the bay by the tongue of land), “Lax-voe" (Lax, or Salmon-bay), "Selia-voe" (sildavágr, the "Silde Vaag," or herring-bay), "Hamna-voe" (hafnarvágr, the Havne Vaag, or harbour bay), together with others. A still smaller bay, navigable only by boats, is called "gjo," or “goe" (Old Norsk, gjá, an opening or cleft). For the rest, many farms have names with such endings as seter (Old Norsk, setr), ster and sta (Old Norsk, staðr, a place); and also busta, buster, and bister (contracted from "bolstar," a dwelling-place); whence, for instance, Kirkbuster (formerly Kirkjubólstaðr); all of which names agree just as well with those found in the Faroe Isles, Iceland, and the mother-country, Norway, as the names of places in the north of England ending in by, thwaite, and thorpe, agree with those in the corresponding mother-country, Denmark. Although the difference between the present traces of Danish colonization in England, and of Norwegian in Scotland, is not considerable, still it may be recognised in this manner.

In consequence of the remote situation of the Shetland Isles, the names of places, in spite of all revolutions, remain so much the same, that the old political and religious institutions of the islands are visible, as it were, through them. In the south part of Mainland lies the

farm of Howff, where in ancient times there was certainly a "Hof," or house of God; and far northwards, near Hillswick (formerly Hildiswik), is the promontory of Torness (Þórsness), which probably once had a Hof for the god Thor. Nor far from thence is the Lake Helgawater (Helgavatn), or the holy water. Heathenism, however, lasted but a short time in the islands. The Irish Christian priests (Old N., "Paper ")—the memory of whom still lives in the names of the islands Papa (Papey), as Papa stour (great) and Papa little-seem to have worked indefatigably; insomuch that the Norwegian king Olaf Tryggveson was able, at the close of the tenth century, to introduce Christianity throughout the islands. In place of the old god-houses there speedily arose a number of chapels or small churches, consecrated to different saints: viz., to the Norwegian saints, St. Sunifva (the daughter of an Irish king who suffered shipwreck in Norway), St. Olaf, as well as, at a somewhat later time, to St. Magnus, the patron saint of the Orkneys, after whom a great bay on the north-west coast of Mainland is to the present day called St. Magnus' Bay. St. Magnus seems also to have been the patron, or rather the chief saint, of Shetland; at least, the principal church in Shetland is consecrated to him. This church did not stand in Lerwick, the present chief town in Shetland, which has risen far later in the southeastern part of Mainland, on the site of an old sea-side town near Bressasound (formerly "Breideyjarsund"). It lay about four miles to the north-west of Lerwick, in the parish of Tingwall; where, as the name (pingavöllr) denotes, the chief Thing of the islands was held for centuries, and where, in heathen times, the chief place of sacrifice undoubtedly existed. The parish of Tingwall comprises one of the prettiest and best-cultivated valleys in Shetland. The old Thing place is still to be seen near the church, in a small holm, or island, in a lake, connected with the land by a row of large stepping stones. Secure against a sudden attack, here sat, when the island was free, the