I tion, for, Minna, my heart was as bold, and my hand was as innocent, as yours. In my childish courage, I was even but too presumptuous, and the thirst after things unattainable led me, like our primitive mother, to desire increase of knowledge, even by prohibited means. longed to possess the power of the Voluspa and divining women of our ancient race; to wield, like them, command over the elements; and to summon the ghosts of deceased heroes from their caverns, that they might recite their daring deeds, and impart to me their hidden treasures. Often when watching by the Dwarfie Stone, with mine eyes fixed on the Ward-hill, which rises above that gloomy valley, I have distinguished, among the dark rocks, that wonderful carbuncle, which gleams ruddy as a furnace to them who view it from beneath, but has ever become invisible to him whose daring foot has scaled the precipices from eighteen feet broad, nine feet thick, hollowed within by the hands of some mason (for the prints of the irons are to be seen on it to this day), with a square hole of about two feet high for the entry, and a stone proportionable standing before it for a door. Within, at one end, is a bed, excellently cut out of the stone, wherein two men may lie together, at their full length; at the other end is a couch, and in the middle, a hearth for a fire, with a hole cut above for the chimney. It stands in a desolate melancholy place, more than a mile from any inhabited house, and all the ground about is nothing but high heath and heather. It is thought to have been the residence of some melancholy hermit.-Description of the Islands of Orkney, 12mo. 1700. p. 51. 1 which it darts its splendour. My vain and youthful bosom burned to investigate these and an hundred other mysteries, which the Sagas that I perused, or learned from Erlend, rather indicated than explained; and in my daring mood, I called on the Lord of the Dwarfie Stone to aid me in attaining knowledge inaccessible to mere mortals.>> « And the evil spirit heard your summons?» said Minna, her blood curdling as she listened. « Hush," said Norna, lowering her voice, << vex him not with reproach-he is with ushe hears us even now." Brenda started from her seat,—« I will to Euphane Fea's chamber," she said, «< and leave you, Minna and Norna, to finish your stories of hobgoblins and of dwarfs at your own leisure; I care not for them at any time, but I will not endure them at midnight, and by this pale lamp-light."> It At the west end of this stone (i. e. the Dwarfie Stone), stands an exceeding high mountain of a steep ascent, called the WartHill of Hoy, near the top of which, in the months of May, June, and July, about midnight, seen something that shines and sparkles admirably, and which is often seen a great way off. hath shined more brightly before than it does now; and though many have climbed up the hill, and attempted to search for it, yet they could find nothing. The vulgar talk of it as some enchanted carbuncle, but I take it rather to be some water sliding down the face of a smooth rock, which, when the sun, at such a time, shines the reflection causeth that admirable splendour.»Description of Orkney, p. 52. upon, She was accordingly in the act of leaving the room, when her sister detained her. * a Is this the courage,» she said, « of her that disbelieves whatever the history of our fathers tells us of supernatural prodigy? What Norna has to tell concerns the fate, perhaps, of our father and his house;-if I can listen to it, trusting that God and my innocence will protect me from all that is of malign influence, you, Brenda, who believe not in such influence, have surely no cause to tremble. Credit me, that for the guiltless there is no fear.>> « There may be no danger," said Brenda, unable to suppress her natural turn for humour, «but, as the old jest book says, there is much fear. However, Minna, I will stay with you, the rather," she added, in a whisper, « that I am loth to leave you alone with this frightful woman, and that I have a dark staircase and long passage betwixt and Euphane Fea, else I would have her here ere I were five minutes older.» « Call no one hither, maiden, upon peril of thy life," said Norna; «and interrupt not my tale again, for it cannot and must not be told after that charmed light has ceased to burn.» And I thank Heaven," said Brenda to herself, « that the oil burns low in the cruise; I am sorely tempted to lend it a puff, but then Norna would be alone with us in the dark, and that would be worse." So saying, she submitted to her fate, and sat down, determined to listen with all the equanimity which she could command to the remaining part of Norna's tale, which went on as follows: << It happened on a hot summer day, and just about the hour of noon,» continued Norna, « as I sat by the Dwarfie Stone, with my eyes fixed on the Ward-hill, whence the mysterious and ever-burning carbuncle shed its rays more brightly than usual, and repined in my heart at the restricted bounds of human knowledge, that at length I could not help exclaiming, in the words of an ancient Saga, « Dwellers of the mountain, rise, Float on the air like thistle's beard? » << I had scarce uttered these words,» continued Norna, «ere the sky, which had been till then unusually clear. grew so suddenly dark around me, that it seemed more like midnight than noon. A single flash of lightning showed me at once the desolate landscape of heath, morass, mountain, and precipice, which lay around; a single clap of thunder wakened all the echoes of the Wardhill, which continued so long to repeat the sound, that it seemed some rock, rent by the thunderbolt from the summit, was rolling over cliff and precipice into the valley. Immediately after, fell a burst of rain so precipitous, that I was fain to shun its pelting, by creeping into the interior of the mysterious stone. « I seated myself on the larger stone couch, which is cut at the farther end of the cavity, and, with my eyes fixed on the smaller bed, wearied myself with conjectures respecting the origin and purpose of my singular place of refuge. Had it been really the work of that powerful Trolld, to whom the poetry of the Scalds referred it? Or was it the tomb of some Scandinavian chief, interred, with his arms and his wealth, perhaps also with his immolated wife, that what he loved best in life might not in death be divided from him? Or was it the abode of penance, chosen by some devoted anchorite of later days? Or the idle work of some wandering mechanic, whom chance, and whim, and leisure, had thrust upon such an undertaking? I tell you the thoughts that then floated through my brain, |
