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The inscription which is carved on the edge of the Bressay stone has been found difficult of interpretation, as not only are the Ogam characters obscure, but there is uncertainty about the language, which is said to be a mixture of Celtic and Norn. One reading gives for the inscriptions on the edges:

"The cross of Natdod's daughter here.

Benres of the sons of the Druid here.'

It has been pointed out that Naddod was the name of the Viking who discovered Iceland about 861, and that he had a grandson named Benir. If the

Natdod of the Bressay stone is identical with the discoverer of Iceland, the age of the monument would be about a thousand years. It will be remembered that Floki called at Shetland on his voyage to Iceland in 867, and that his daughter Geirhild was drowned in the Loch of Girlsta. would be a curious coincidence if both the discoverer of Iceland and the man who

It

followed him and gave the island its name each lost a daughter in Shetland.

Two other stones have also been found in Shetland inscribed with the same Celtic characters. One of these, a large flat slab from Lunnasting, has the inscription on its face; and another, lettered at the edge, was found at St. Ninian's Churchyard, near Bigtown. These are also probably Celtic Christian memorials, but no satisfactory interpretation of the inscriptions has been made, so far as I am aware.

It is very remarkable that while so much has come down to us from the mysterious people who first inhabited the islands, and of whose race and language we know so little, so few traces have survived of the Vikings, who stamped their impression in the place-names of every hill and dale, every rock and skerry, and whose language still forms the main element in the dialect of the islands. While the ruins of the massive towers built by the early people and the weapons

with which they encountered the Norse invaders in battle still endure, the halls of the sea rovers have disappeared, and the swords and the battle-axes they wielded in many a fierce foray upon the southern

coasts are turned to rust.

Perhaps the reason why only a few fragments of runic inscriptions have been found in Shetland is to be found in the fact that the Vikings were' too actively engaged in the pursuit of fame and fortune to give much heed to letters, and were content when they sat at home in their high seats to listen to the Skaldic lays and stories of famous fights in far distant lands. Two rune-inscribed stones have been found in Cunningsburgh, but they are incomplete. Another runic inscription is mentioned by Low, who visited the islands in 1774, as having been seen by him at Cross Kirk, Braken, Northmavine, but it has disappeared, as has also the slab which Hibbert stated he found built into the wall of the Church of Sandness. Hibbert,

however, was mistaken in describing the stone he found at Sandness as runic, as it was in reality a stone with mirror and crescent symbols carved upon it.

SPEAR HEAD OF BRONZE.

Bronze weapons are reported to have been found in former times, but they have disappeared-either cast aside or given away to visitors from the south, and so as good as lost. That such finds have been made is proved by the following extract from the Diary of a Gentleman specially well informed in all matters relating to the islands.

Under date October 1809, he says: "Mr. Arthur Harrison found the following antiquities at Eastness, Northmavine, in digging for a small office-house. (skoe) he intended to build on a small knoll (1) a Sword and Dagger; (2) a Stone Hone; (3) a curious instrument, the use of which is unknown [a sketch is given]. All these were lying between

three flat stones, along with a human thigh bone. He [Mr. Harrison] says the

[graphic]

FIG. 7.-Spear Head of Bronze.

Sword and Dagger are neither iron nor steel, but of a similar metal and similarly

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