is admirable for kitchen use, and excellent for nofegays; fo is proper both for the kitchen and pleasure garden, but more particularly for the former. It is often called knotted marjoram, from the flowers growing in close knotted-like heads. 6. ORIGANUM SIPYLÆUM, or Origany of Mount Sipglus. See N° 3. 7. ORIGANUM SMYRNÆUM, the Smyrna Origany. See N° 3. 8. ORIGANUM VULGARE, the common wild pot marjoram, poffeffes the fame properties with the HERACLEOTICUM. (See N° 4.) All thefe 8 fpecies flower in. July and Auguft; the flowers are fmall, monopetalous, ringent, univerfally hermaphrodite; and collected into verticilli round the ftalks; fucceeded by ripe feed in autumn; though in this country the annual marjoram and the 3 greenhoufe forts feldom perfect feed well, unless the autumn proves remarkably fine and warm: in default, however, of feed, the propagation of all the perennial forts, both hardy and green-house kinds, is easily effected by flips of the roots, &c. And the feed of the annual fort is imported plentifully from France and Italy. (1.) ORIGEN, one of the moft celebrated ecclefiaflical writers, greatest geniuses, and most learned men of the primitive church, during the 3d century, was born at Alexandria, A. D. 185; and was furnamed Adamantius, either from his indefatigable application to study, or from the firm. nefs he discovered amidft the torments he fuffered for the faith. Leonidas his father trained him with great care, and made him ftudy the Holy Scriptures from his infancy, in which he made urprifing progrefs; and very early manifefted a rage for expounding the Scriptures allegorically, which he afterwards carried to great excefs. He had afterwards, in philofophy, Ammonius the celebrated Chriftian philofopher, and St Clement of Alexandria, for his inftructors. At 18 years of age he fucceeded that great man in the office of catechift; an important employment, which confifted in teaching divinity, and expounding the fcriptures. Leonidas his father had fuffered martyrdom the year before, during the perfecution of Severus in 102; and Origen had shown fuch eagerness to follow his father to martyrdom, that his mother was obliged to hide his clothes to prevent his going abroad. Origen had a great concourfe of auditors who attended his fchool, fome of whom were of the faithful, and others pagan. He confirmed and ftrengthened the first in their faith, and converted most of the others; and there were fuch a number of martyrs amongft his difciples, that it might be said that he kept rather a fchool of martyrdom than of divinity. He taught the doctrines of Chriftianity to the women as well as to the men; and taking in a too literal fenfe what Chrift fays of becoming voluntary eunuchs, caftrated himself, to prevent his deferving or suffering feandal. He took a voyage to Rome in 211, in the beginning of Caracalla's reign, and under the pontificate of Zepherinus. At his return be published many works, by which he acquired an extraordinary reputation, that drew to him a great number of auditors. But Demetrius, Bp. of Alexandria, conceiving a jealousy of him, endeavoured by various pretences to injure him. At VOL. XVI. PART II. length Origen went to Antioch, whether the entprefs Mammæa had fent for him to hear him difcourfe on the Chriftian religion. He returned to Alexandria, where he continued to teach till the year 228, when he travelled into Achaia and Paieftine, and was ordained by the bishops of that province at 42 years of age. His being ordained by foreign bishops, without the permiffion of De metrius, renewed that prelate's refentment; on which Origen returned to Alexandria, to endea vour to mollify him: but Demetrius drove him thence in 231, and caufed him to be excommunicated, and even depofed in a council held at Egypt. Origen then returned to Cæfarea in Palestine, where he raised a celebrated school, and had St Gregory Thaumaturgus, and a great number of illuftrious perfons, among his difciples. He after wards travelled to Athens; and at the defire of Firmilianus, ftaid fome time at Cæfarea in Cappadocia; whence he was invited into Arabia, Under the 7th perfecution of the Chriftians in the reign of Decius, none were ufed with greater feverity than Origen. He fupported with incre. dible conftancy the dreadful torments which his perfecutors invented against him. He died at Tyre in 254, aged 69. He was the author of a great number of excellent works. The principal of those extant are, 1. A Treatife against Celfus; 2. A great number of Homilies, with Commentaries on the Holy Scriptures. 3. Philocalia, and feveral other treatifes. 4. Fragments of his Hexapla, collected by father Montfaucon, 2 vols. fo lio. Of all Origen's books, the lofs of his Hex. aples is most to be regretted. This work was thus named from its containing fix columns; in the firft of which was the Hebrew text of the Bible; in the ad the fame text in Greek charac. ters; in the 3d the Greek verfion of the Septuagint; in the 4th that of Aquila; in the 5th that of Symmachus; and in the 6th that of Theodo. fian. This admirable book gave the first hint for our Polyglot Bibles. 5. The book of Principles; of which we have only an incorrect Latin verfion, In all his writings he discovers a furprifing degree of modefty, candour, and humility; a noble and fublime genius, profound learning, and vast erudition. His manners were extremely pure, and he had a warm zeal for spreading the gospel. He had quick parts; a ftrong imagination, and a hap py invention; and he wrote with fo much eafe, that he is faid to have dictated to 7 or 8 amanuenfes at a time. He was well acquainted with the sciences. 2. ORIGEN, a Platonic philofopher, and the difciple and friend of Porphyry, who ftudied philofophy under Ammonius: fuppofed to have been the founder of the ORIGENIANS. ORIGENIANI, ancient heretics, who even ORIGENIANS, furpaffed the abominations of the Gnoftics. Epiphanius fpeaks of them as fubfifting in his time; but their numbers, he says, were inconfiderable. He fixes their rife about the time of the great Origen; but diftinguishes them from the ORIGENISTS, whom he derives from Origen Adamantius. And St Auguftine expressly afferts, that it was another Origen. Their doctrines were fhameful: they rejected marriage; they used feveral apocryphal books, as the acts of St Andrew, &c. and endeavoured to excuse their open vices by faying, that the catholics did the fame in private. ORIGENISTS, in church hiftory, a Chriftian fect in the 4th century, so called from their draw.. ing their opinions from the writings of Origen. The Origenifts maintained, that the fouls of men had a pre-exiftent ftate; that they were holy intelligences, and had finned in heaven before the body was created; that Chrift is only the Son of God by adoption; that he has been fucceflively united with all the angelical natures, and has been a cherub, a feraph, and all the celestial virtues one after another; that, in future ages, he will be crucified for the falvation of the devils, as he has already been for that of men; and that their punish. ment, and that of the damned, will continue only for a certain limited time. * ORIGIN. * n. f. [origine, origo, (1.) ORIGINAL. Lat.) Beginning; it existence. The facred hiftorian only treats of the origins of terrestrial animals. Bentley's Sermons. 2. Fountain; fource; that which gives beginning or exiftence. Nature, which contemns its origin, Cannot be border'd certain in itself. Shak. -Their posterity have no reason to blush at the memory of fuch an original. Atterbury-Some philofophers have placed the original of power in admiration. Davenant. Original of beings! pow'r divine! Prior. Prior. Primitive founts, and origins of light. 3. First copy; archetype; that from which any thing is tranfcribed or tranflated. In this fenfe origin is not used.-Compare this tranflation with the original. Addison.-External material things, as the objects of fenfation; and the operations of our minds within, as the object of reflection, are the only originals from whence all our ideas take their beginnings. Locke. 4. Derivation; descent. An impious, arrogant, and cruel brood, Expreffing their original from blood. Dryden. 2. *ORIGINAL. adj. [originel, Fr. originalis, Latin.] Primitive; priftine; firft.-The original queftion was, whether God hath forbidden the giving any worship to himself by an image? Stil ling feet. Had Adam obeyed God, his original perfection, the knowledge and ability God at firft gave him, would still have continued. Wake. Kind nature forming them, the pattern took From heav'n's first work, and Eve's original look. Prior. (3) ORIGINAL SIN. See THEOLOGY. * ORIGINALLY. adv. [from original.] 1. Primarily; with regard to the firft caufe; from the beginning. A very great difference between a Ming that holdeth his crown by a willing act of eftates, and one that holdeth it originally by the law of nature and descent of blood. Bacon.-God is originally holy in himself. Pearfon.-A prefent blefling upon our fafts is neither originally due from God's juftice, nor becomes due to us from his veracity. Smallridge. 2. At firft.-The metallic and mineral matter, found in the perpendicular intervals of the ftrata, was originally, and at the time of the deluge, lodged in the bodies of thofe ftrata. Woodward. 3. As the first author. For what originally others writ, * ORIGINALNESS. n.f. [from original.] The quality or ftate of being original. * ORIGINARY. adj. [originaire, Fr. from origin.] 1. Productive; caufing existence.—The production of animals in the originary way, requires a certain degree, of warmth. Chyne. 2. Primi tive; that which was the first ftate. Remember, Iam built of clay, and must Refolve to my originary duft. Sandys. (1.) * To ORIGINATE. v.a. [from origin.] To bring into exiftence. (2.) To ORIGINATE. v. n. To take exiftence. * ORIGINATION. n.f. [originatio, Lat. from originate.] 1. The act or mode of bringing into existence; firft production. The tradition of the origination of mankind seems to be universal, but the methods of that origination, excogitated by the heathen, were particular. Hale.-This eruca is propagated by animal parents, to wit, butterflies, after the common origination of all caterpillars. Ray-Defcartes first introduced the fancy of making a world, and deducing the origination of the universe from mechanical principles. Keil, 2. Descent from a primitive, The Greek word used by the apostles to exprefs the church, fignifieth, a calling forth, if we look upon the origination. Pearson. (1.) ORIGNY, Peter Adam, a late French foldier, hiftorian and chronologift; who published a hiftory of ancient Egypt, and a Syftem of Egypti an Chronology. He died in 1774. (2.) ORIGNY, a town of France, in the department of the Aifne, 7 miles E. of St Quentin. ORIGUELA, or a town of Spain, in Valentia, (1.) ORIHUELA, feated between the mountains on the banks of the Segura, in a place forti. fied by nature, and in a very fertile plain, abounding in all things, especially corn. It is furrounded with pleasant gardens, and has a univerfity and a bishop's fee. It is defended by an old caftle; and is the capital of a government, independent of Valentia, whose jurisdiction extends 30 miles in length, and 15 in breadth. It is Lon. 40. 56. W. Lat. 38. 22. N. (2.) ORIHUELA, a town of Spain, in Arragon. ORIJIVA, a town of Spain, in Grenada. ORILLON, in fortification, is a fmail rounding of earth, faced with a wall; raised on the fhoulder of those bastions that have cafemates, to cover the cannon in the retired flank, and prevent their being difmounted by the enemy. See FORTIFICATION, Part I. Sect. IV. ORING, a lake of Thibet, 63 miles in circumference, Lon. 115. 15. E. Ferro. Lat. 34, 47, N. ORINGA, a fea-port of Japan, in Niphon. ORINSAY, one of the HEBRIDES, between Boreray and N. Uift, feparated from the latter by a narrow found, which is dry at low water. The foil is fandy but fertile. ORINUS, a river of ancient Sicily. ORINXA, a town of Perfia, in Irac. (1.) ORIO, a town of Spain, in Guipufcoa. (2.) ORIO, a town of Spain, in Guipulcoa, at the 4 the mouth of the Orio, 8 miles SW. of St Sebaf-white-backed, the bastard, the black, the brown- ̈ tian. Lon. 2. 19. W. Lat. 43. 23. N... headed, the rufty, the white-headed, the Hudfo(3.) ORIO, a town of Negropont, 44 miles N. nian white-headed, the olive, the yellow-throated, of Negropont. the Unalaschka, and the red-wing. This laft fpecies, in America, is named the red-svinged farling, and the fwamp black-bird. Although they appear at New York only from April to October, they probably continue through the whole year in the fouthern parts. They are feen at times in fuch prodigious flocks, as even to obfcure the sky. They were efteemed the peft of the colonies, makI ing moft dreadful havock among the maize and o ORIOLE, in ornithology, a genus belonging ORIOLUS, to the order of picæ. The bill in this genus is ftrait, conic, very fharp-pointed; edges cultrated, inclining inwards; mandibles of equal length. Noftrils fmall, placed at the bafe of the bill, and partly covered: Tongue divided at the end: Toes, 3 forward, one backward; the middle joined near the bafe to the utmoft one. These birds are mostly inhabitants of America;ther grain, both when new fown and when ripe. are a noisy, gregarious, frugivorous, granivorous, and voracious race, very numerous, and often have penfilé nefts. The feveral fpecies (which are very numerous, for Mr Latham enumerates and defcribes 45), are chiefly diftinguished by their colour. See Plate XXII. They are very bold, and not to be terrified by a gun; for after the sportsman makes slaughter in a flock, the remainder will take a short flight, and settle again in the fame field. The farmers fometimes attempt their deftruction, by steeping the maize, before they fow it, in a decoction of white hellebore. This potion is particularly aimed at the purple jackdaws, which confort in myriads with this fpecies. But these feemingly destructive birds are not formed in vain. Notwithstanding they caufe fuch havock among the grain, they make ample recompence, by clearing the ground of the noxious worms with which it abounds; I. ORIOLUS ACUTA CAUDA, the harp-tailed oriole, is about the fize of a lark: The bill is dufky; the crown is brown and cinereous: the cheeks are brown, bounded above and below with deep dull yellow. The throat is white; the breaft, fides, thighs, and vent, are a dull pale yellow, fpotted with brown; the belly is white; the back is va ried with ash-colour, black and white; the wing-particularly the Bruchus Pifi, or Peafe Beetle. (See coverts are dusky, with ferruginous edges. The quills are alfo dufky; the tail confifts of narrow fharp-pointed feathers, of a dufky colour, tinged with olive, and obfcurely barred; and the legs are pale brown. 2. ORIOLUS BALTIMORUS, of Linnæus, the Baltimore bird of Catesby and Latham, le Baltimore of Buffon, and the Baltimore oriole of Pennant, is an inhabitant of North America; which it quits before winter, and probably retires to Mexico, the XOCHITOLL of Fernandez feeming to be of the fame fpecies. The head, throat, neck, and up. per part of the back of the male, is black; the leffer coverts of the wings orange; the greater black, tipt with white; the breaft, belly, lower part of the back, and coverts of the tail, of a bright orange; the primaries dufky, edged with white; the two middle feathers of the tail black; the lower part of the fame colour, the remaining part orange; and the legs black. The head and back of the female is orange, edged with pale brown; the coverts of the wings of the fame colour, marked with a fiugle bar of white; the under fide of the body and coverts of the tail yellow; the tail dufky, edged with yellow. The length both of the male and female is 7 inches. This fpecies fufpend their nefts to the horizontal forks of the tulip and poplar trees, formed of the filaments of fome tough plants curiously woven, mixed with wool, and lined with hairs. The neft is of a pear shape, open at top, with a hole on the fide through which the young difcharge their excre ments, and are fed. In fome parts of North America, this fpecies, from its brilliant colour, is called the fiery barg-neft. It is named the Balti more Bird from its colours, refembling thofe in the arms of Lord Baltimore, whose family were proprietors of Maryland. There are feveral other pecies of orioles, all inhabitants of North America. Theie, according to Mr Pennant, are the BRUCHUS, N° 5; and GRACULA, N° 3.) There is another variety of this fpecies, called the baftard Baltimore: Its fize is that of the true Baltimore, but it measures somewhat lefs in length: the bill >is lead-coloured; the forehead and cheeks black mixed with yellow: the hind head and nape are olive grey, marked with a few spots of black; the upper part of the back is the fame, but fomewhat duller; the lower part of the back, the rump, fore part of the neck, breaft, belly, fides, thighs, upper and lower tail-coverts, and under the wings, are orange yellow, but brightest on the breaft and tail-coverts; the leffer wing coverts are deep brown; the greater are the fame, tipped with dirty yellowish white: the quills are brown, bordered on both edges with white; the two middle tail feathers are olive, then blackish, marked at the end with a longitudinal yellowish fpot; the next -* on each fide are olive and black, confufedly mixed; and the four outer ones are of a yellowish olive the legs and claws are bluish. They inhabit North America. There feems to be great confufion and uncertainty as to the true and baftard Baltimores and their females; perhaps they are only varieties of one fpecies referable to one or other fex of the true Baltimore, in the different ftages of life. See Mr Latham's Synopfis of Birds, where the whole genus is minutely and accurately described. (1.) ORION, in aftronomy, one of the conftellations of the fouthern hemifphere. The ancients placed it near the feet of the bull. It was compofed of 17 ftars in the form of a man holding a fword; for which reason the poets often speak of Orion's fword. As the constellation of Orion, which rifes about the 9th day of March, and fets about the 21st of June, is generally supposed to be accompanied at its rifing with great rains and ftorms, it has the epithet of aquofus given it by Virgil. The name is formed from the Greek guv Sss 2 to to make water: the ancients fuppofing that it oc cafioned floods at its rising and fetting. See As TRONOMY, Index; and § 548. (2.) ORION, in mythology, wasthe fon of Jupiter, Neptune, and Mercury. For as thefe gods were viliting the earth, they entered the house of Hy RIEUS, a native of Tanagra, in Boeotia, as benighted travellers, he being famed for hofpitality to fran gers. Hyrieus treated them generously, and even killed an ox, the only one he had, for their entertainment. At which the gods, were fo pleased, that they offered the old man whatever he would afk; who faid he defired nothing fo much as a fon. Upon this they canted the ox's hide to be brought before them, in which, having depofited their urine, they bade him keep it under ground for 9 months. He then dug for the fkin, and found in it a beautiful child whom he called Urion from, urina; afterwards changed into Orion Orion foon became confpicuous; and Diana took him among her attendants, and even became deeply enamoured of him. His gigantic ftature, however, difpleafed NOPLON king of Chios, whofe daugh ter Hero or Merope he requested in marriage. The king, not willing to deny him openly, promifed to make him his fon-in-law as foon as he delivered his ifland from wild beafts. This task, which Œnopton fuppofed to be impracticable, was foon performed by Orion, who demanded his reward. Enopion, on pretence of complying, intoxicated his illuftrious gueft, and put out his eyes on the fea-fhore, where he had laid himself down to fleep. Orion found himself blind when he awoke. He went, directed by the found, to an neighbouring forge, where he placed one of the workmen on his back, and by his directions went to a place where the rifing fun was feen with the greatest advantage. Here he turned his face to wards the luminary, recovered his eye-fight, and haftened to punish the perfidious cruelty of Eno pion. Orion was an excellent workman in iron, and fabricated a fubterraneous palace for Vulcan. Aush rora, whom Venus had inspired with love, carried him away into the ifland of Delos, that the might enjoy his company; but Diana, who was jealous of this, killed him with her arrows. Some say, that Orion had provoked Diana's resentment,by offering violence to Opis, one of her female attendants; or, as others fay, becaufe he had attempted the virtue of the goddess herfeif. Perhaps.the fable means, that Orion was an aftronomer, who loft his fight, and at laft, his life by studying the moon and stars in cold nights. According to O. vid, Orion died of the bite of a fcorpion, which Terra produced to punish his vanity, in boating that no animal in earth could conquer him.. Some fay that Orion was son of Neptune and Euryale, and that he received from his father the privilege and power of walking over the fea without wetting his feet. Others affert that he was a fon of Terra, like the reft of the giants. He had married a nymph called SIDA, before his connec tion with the family of Gnopion; but Sida was the cause of her own death, by boafting herself fairer than Juno. Diodorus fays, that Orion was a celebrated hunter, fuperior to the rest of man. kind, by his ftrength and uncommon ftature. He built the port of Zancle, and fortified the coaft of Sicily against the inundations of the sea, by heaping a mountain of earth called PELORUM, on which he built a temple to the gods of the fea. After death Orion was placed in heaven, and changed into a conftellation. Orion was buried in the island of Delos; and the monument which the people of Tanagra in Boeotia showed, as containing his remains, was a Cenotaph. The daughters of Orion diftinguished themfelvesas much as their father; and when the oracle had declared that Boeotia fhould not be delivered from a dreadful peftilence before two of Jupiter's children were immolated on the altars, they voluntarily sacrificed themselves for the good of their country. Their names were Menippe and Metioche. They had been carefully educated by Diana; and Ve nus and Minerva had made them very rich and valuable prefents. The infernal deities were struck at the patriotifm of thefe two females; and inftantly two ftars arofe from the earth, which ftill fmoked with their blood, and they were placed in the heavens in the form of a crown. According to Ovid, their bodies were burned by the Thebans, and from their afhes arose two perfous, whom the gods foon after changed into conftellations. (1.) * ORISONS. n. f. [oraison, French. This word is varioufly accented; Shakespeare has the accent both on the first and fecond fyllables; Milton and Crashaw on the firft, others on the fecond.] A prayer; a fupplication. Nymph, in thy orifons Be all thy fins remember'd. Shak. Hamlet. At th' oriental gates, and duly mock Crashaw. Cotton. Here, at dead of night, Dyer. The rifing fun my orifons declares. Harte. (2.) ORISONS. See ORAISON. Dr Johnson has furely made a mistake in this article. Orifon is used in the fingular number as well as ORAISON. ORISSA, or ORIXA. See ORIXA, N° 1. ORISTAGNI, or an ancient town of Sardi ORISTANO, ornia, with an archbishop's fec. It is pretty large and well fortified; but thinly inhabited, on account of the unhealthy air; it is feated on the W. coast, in a bay of the fame name. Lon, 8. 58. E. Lat. 39. 55.N. ORISTOWN, a town of Ireland, in Meath. -ORITÆ, a nation of India, who fubmitted to Alexander. Strabo 13. ORITHYIA, in fabulous hiftory, the daughter of of Erechthens, K. of Athens, wife of Boreas, and mother of Calais and Zetes, &c. See BOREAS, N° 3, and CALAIS, N° 2. ORIUNDUS, a river of Illyricum. Liv. 44. (1.) ORIXA, or ORISSA, a kingdom of Indoftan, lying on the Gulph of Bengal. It is divided from the ancient kingdom of Golconda, by a ridge of mountains, the end of which runs a little way into the Sea. It is fertile in corn and cattle, and they have feveral good towns and barbours, on the coaft; there are alfo manufactures of different kinds carried on throughout the kingdom. The prince, is a Gentoo, who pays to the Great Mogul a tribute of about 12,000 yearly.. (2.) ORDNA, in botany, a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the tetrandria clafs of plants; and in the natural method ranking, with thofe that are doubtful. The calyx is quadripartite; the petals are four, plain and lanceolated; the Bigma globular; the capfule and feeds un known. Of this there are two species, vizu L ORIXA FRUTESCENS, and 2. Orixa JapoNICA, both natives of Japan. * ORK. n. f. [orca, Latin.] A fort of great fish. ORKEDAL, a town of Norway, in Drontheim, 18 miles SW; of Drontheim. " ORKEL, a river of Norway, in Drontheim. ORKENED, a town of Sweden, in Schonen. (1.) ORKNEY ISLANDS, called ORCADES by the ancients, a cluster of islands on the north of Scotland, from which they are feparated by a frith 30 miles long, and 10 broad. They are fituated between Lon. d. 2. and 1.0. W of Edinburgh; and between Lat. 58. 37, and 59. 16. Nu bringing even fruit trees to maturity; but in the (2.) ORKNEY ISLANDS, ANGESNT ACCOUNTS OF THE. The NORTHERN ISLES of Scotland have been often mentioned by ancient authors, and called by different names from thofe they now go by; fo that it is fometimes difficult to (4.) ORKNEY ISLANDS, FIRST SETTLEMENT know which of them are meant. The ancient OF THE It has been afferted, that the Orkneys, name, however, of the islands, which are the fub as well as the bills of Shetland, were originally, ject of this article, viz. ORCADES, has never been peopled from Norway, in the 9th, roth, or 11th difputed. The geographer Mela, Pliny the El- century. Others imagine, that the PICTS were der, and Solinus, the fuppofed cotemporary with the original inhabitants, and call Orkney the anAgricola, all give accounts of the Orcades, more cient kingdom of the Picts. Certain fingular or lefs juft. According to the latter, thefe iflands houfes, now overgrown with earth, are called had not a fingle inhabitant, and were overgrown Pids Houses; and the Pentland frith (formerly with rufhy grafe. It feems on the whole to be PIGHTLAND, or PICTLAND,) evidently retains pretty generally allowed, that Julius Agricola, their name. Claudian's line, cited by Mr Camwho firft failed round Britain, difcovered the Orden, prove, that the Picts with fome other Ger cades, till then unknown, and fubdued them, Claudius was fo far from reducing them, (as is afferted by Jerom in his Chronicle), that Juvenal mentions them, as not fubdued, in Hadrian's time. (Sat. II. 160.) Tacitus informs us, that, before the completion of the first century, the Roman fleets failed round Scotland, and landed in the Orcades to refresh. The Romans never again visited thefe iflands but onee. (3.) ORKNEY ISLANDS, CLIMATE, SOIL, PRODUCE, MINERALS, &C. OF THE. The air of these iflands is moist, on account of the neighbourhood of the fea; and froft and foow do not continue long. In fome places the foil is bare and mountainous, and in others fandy and barren; but many of the iflands produce large crops of barley and oats. The gardens, when duly cultivated, produce all kinds of kitchen herbs and roots, man colony, particularly the Saxons, were then in poffeffion of thefe ifles; and fo Ninnius exprefsly fays. Many of the prefent inhabitants ufe the Norfe language, which differs but little from the Teutonic or Pictish language, and was in general ufe till the 17th century; but except in Foula, where a few words are till known by the aged people, it is quite loft. The English tongue, with a Norwegian accent, is that of thefe iflands; but the appearance of the people, in their manners and genius, evidently fhow their northern origin. Ninnius, c. 5. puts their arrival at Orkney not lefs than goo years after the coming of Brutus into 8. Britain, which, he fays, was in the time of Eli the Jewith high-prieft. The ancient furnames are of German original. Some date the first fettlement of the Picts here A. M. 4867; when, omigrating from their native country, they planted a |