298 Dr Hibbert's Observations on Vitrified Forts. 



habitants of Albyn, namely, by the Caledonians and Picts ; 

 and hence their occasional or very partial vitrification would 

 merely indicate the later use to which the eminences upon 

 which they were situated had been applied, when the Scots, 

 who succeeded to far earlier inhabitants, were called upon to 

 repel new invaders from the sea. 



Again, it may be remarked, that after the Northmen had 

 gradually acquired a permanent settlement in Scotland and 

 elsewhere, they themselves became liable to sudden piratical 

 descents from their own coutrymen ; to guard against which, 

 ancient Sagas inform us, they instituted, in every country 

 where their arms prevailed, still more perfect systems of 

 beacon-fires, the wardenship of which was enforced by the most 

 rigorous laws. Edicts on this subject appear in many early 

 codes of the north of Europe, particularly in the Leges Gula- 

 Thingenses of King Magnus of Norway, where, in the Land- 

 varnar Bolkr, we find that the bonds were plighted during 

 time of war to be prepared with watch-fires in places where the 

 same had been lighted up from old time. (Magnus Konongs 

 Laga-B(jctcrs Gida-things-Laug. Havniae, edition, a. d. 1817, 

 page 85.) Martin also states of the ancient beacons of the 

 isle of Harris, which the Norwegians colonized, that " there 

 are several heaps of stones, commonly called karnes, on the 

 tops of hills and rising grounds on the coast, upon which they 

 used to burn heath as a signal of an approaching enemy. 

 There was always a sentinel at each karne to observe the sea- 

 coast; the steward of the isle made frequent rounds to take 

 notice of the sentinels, and if he found any of them asleep, he 

 stripped them of their clothes and deferred their personal pu- 

 nishments to the proprietor of the place. 1 ' Still more informa- 

 tion on this subject, yet of a general kind, may be found in 

 the " Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus^ by Olaus Mag- 

 nus, whose narrative, " De Ignibus Montanis Tempore Hos- 

 tili? is accompanied with a rude drawing of mountain-fires.* 



The explanation which Olaus Magnus gives of this drawing 

 is as follows : " Ex hac imagine duo veniunt consideranda : 

 quorum alterum in vertice montium, fumi scilicet congestis 



* A fac simile of the early wood-cut of Olaus Magnus is given in the 

 fourth volume of the Archwologid Scoiica. 



