ORISSA ORKNEY ISLANDS. 



345 



went into the sea, and his head alone was visible, 

 Apollo asked Diana to try whether she could hit 

 with her arrows that dark spot visible above the 

 waters. The goddess shot the fatal arrow, which 

 pierced the head of her lover. She was unconscious 

 of her mistake, until the waves bore his body to 

 the shore. The hero, after his death, was placed, 

 with his hounds, as a constellation, in the heavens. 

 It is the brightest in the northern hemisphere, and 

 still bears his name. See Constellations. 



ORISSA ; a province of Hindoostan, belonging 

 to the presidency of Bengal, lying in the eastern 

 part of the peninsula, with the province of Bengal 

 on the north, the Northern Circars on the south, 

 the bay of Bengal on the east, and Gundwana on the 

 west. The length is probably about 500 miles, and 

 the breadth 100 ; but it has never been entirely ex- 

 plored. The western part is an almost impassable 

 wilderness of thick woods and jungles, and rugged 

 hills, infested by leopards and other beasts of prey. 

 A great part of the province is extremely unhealthy. 

 It has a population of about 1,200,000 Hindoos, of 

 different tribes, and Mohammedans. The Moguls 

 conquered it in the beginning of the seventeenth 

 century, and parts of the province afterwards fell 

 into the hands of the Nizam and the Mahrattas. 

 The British acquired possession of it in 1803. See 

 Mahrattas and Hindoostan. 



ORKNEY ISLANDS, or ORCADES ; a group 

 of small islands on the northern coast of Scotland, 

 (from which they are separated by the strait of the 

 sea called the Pentland Firth, here about ten miles 

 wide) forming the southern division of the shire of 

 Orkney and Shetland. They are included between 

 lat. 58 44' and 59 25' N., and Ion. 19' E. and 17' 

 VV. ? being irregularly scattered over a space of about 

 fifty miles in length by thirty in breadth. Their 

 number, including the uninhabited islets or holms, is 

 about sixty-seven ; of these, twenty-nine are inha- 

 bited. The skerries are bare rocks, which are over- 

 flowed at high water. Among the principal islands 

 are, Pomono, or Mainland of Orkney, by far the 

 largest of the group ; Hoy, North and South Ro- 

 naldshay, Sanda, Stronsay, Westray, Eday, Ronsay, 

 Egilshay, Shapinshay, and Walls. The isle of 

 Mainland forms a district containing the parishes of 

 St Andrew's, Birsay, Dearness, Evie, Firth, Harray, 

 Holm, and Paplay united, St Ola, Orphir with Cava 

 island, Rendall, Sandwich, Stenness, and Stromness ; 

 with the royal burgh of Kirkwall (population 3065) 

 and the burgh of barony Stromness. The other 

 districts are those of the North Isles and the South 

 Isles. The former includes the islands of Eday and 

 Pharay, Egilshay, Enhallow, Gairsay, North Ronald- 

 shay, Rousay, Shapinshay, Sanda, in which are the 

 parishes of Burness, Cross and Lady ; Stronsay, in 

 which are the parishes of Lady-Kirk, St Peter's, 

 including Papa-Stronsay island and St Nicholas ; 

 Westray, in which are the parishes of North or 

 Lady-Kirk, East and West ; Papa-Westray, and 

 Wier. The district of South Isles includes the is- 

 lands of Burray, Copinshay, Flotta, South Faira, 

 Greemsay, and Hoy, which last two form the parish 

 of Hoy ; Walls Island, divided into the parishes of 

 North Walls and South Walls ; South Ronaldshay, 

 including the parishes of St Peter's, or North Kirk, 

 and Lady or South Kirk ; Swannay, and Pentland 

 Skerries. Besides these there are a number of islets 

 or holms, which are uninhabited, but ninny of them 

 afford good pasture for sheep. 



The face of the country in the Orkneys is low, 

 presenting, in general, a surface of heath, or coarse 

 pastures, interspersed with spots of cultivated land, 

 destitute of trees, or even of tall shrubs, except in a 

 few gardens. There are some spacious and secure 



harbours on the coasts. Wild fowl are numerous ; 

 the heaths abound with red grouse, plovers, and 

 snipe ; eagles, wild ducks and geese, solan geese or 

 gannets, swans, &c. are numerous. The skerries 

 swarm with seals ; sea otters, whales, cod, gram- 

 puses, oysters, &c., are found. Large seeds are 

 often thrown ashore, which are called Orkney beans ; 

 they are carried thither from America by the gulf 

 stream. The climate is variable. In summer it is 

 light enough to read at midnight, and in midwinter 

 the sun is only four hours above the horizon ; but 

 the northern lights are frequent and splendid. The 

 language spoken in the Orkneys is English, inter- 

 mixed with Danish or Islandic words and idioms, 

 and with but little of the Scottish pronunciation or 

 phraseology. The lower classes of the people were 

 formerly much addicted to superstition, placing great 

 confidence in dreams, charms, and omens ; and be- 

 lieving in the existence of lucky and unlucky days, 

 on the latter of which they carefully avoided going 

 to sea, or commencing any new undertaking. But 

 these vulgar errors have in a great measure been 

 abandoned of late years ; and the inhabitants in ge- 

 neral do not yield in intelligence and sagacity to 

 those of any other part of the British empire. 



The early accounts of these islands are involved 

 in many fables. They are first described by the geo- 

 grapher Melas, whose account is very inaccurate : 

 Pliny the elder also mentions them, and states their 

 number at about forty. They are afterwards de- 

 scribed by Solinus, the supposed cotemporary of 

 Agricola ; who states, that in his time they had not 

 a single inhabitant, and were overgrown with rushy 

 grass : his accounts are by no means to be depended 

 on ; and, upon the whole, it seems generally to be 

 allowed, that Julius Agricola, the Roman general in 

 Britain, was the first Roman who landed on the 

 Orcades, till then unknown, except by report, and 

 subdued them. After that period, however, we 

 know little about them. It is probable that the 

 Picts possessed these islands until the subversion of 

 the Pictish kingdom in Scotland by Kenneth II. 

 They continued annexed to the Scottish monarchy 

 until 1099, when they were assigned by king Donald 

 Bane to the king of Norway, for the assistance 

 which Donald had received from that king in his 

 usurpation. They remained in possession of the 

 Norwegians until the middle of the 13th century, 

 when Magnus king of Norway transferred them to 

 Alexander king of Scotland, who gave the property 

 thereof to a nobleman sirnamed Spiere, an heiress of 

 whose family brought it to the Sinclairs or St Clairs, 

 one of whom was created prince of Orkney and 

 duke of Oldenburgh, upon his marriage with a 

 daughter of the king of Denmark. One of his sue 

 cessors having forfeited, the title and estate fell to 

 the crown ; but the islands were of small advantage 

 to the Scots, being often disturbed in their possession 

 by the Norwegians, who again asserted their right 

 of sovereignty, and often possessed them, until the 

 year 1470, when James III. of Scotland married 

 Margaret, daughter of the king of Norway, with whom 

 they again passed to the crown of Scotland in lieu 

 of dowry ; and, upon the birth of her son, they were 

 finally ceded. Notwithstanding this, however, the 

 Danes still continued to advance claims upon the 

 islands till the marriage of James VI. with the prin- 

 cess Anne of Denmark, when the Danish govern- 

 ment ultimately abandoned all their former preten- 

 sions. The superiority of the Orkneys was dismem- 

 bered from the crown by the union parliament, and 

 granted for a certain annual consideration to the 

 earl of Morton, whom queen Anne also appointed 

 hereditary steward and justiciary. When heritable 

 jurisdictions were abolished in J748, the appointment 



