134 THE SHETLANDS IN THE 



Broch, not many degrees removed from the bee-hive 

 huts, of which the outlines, and in more than one case 

 the stone foundation walls, clustering round the castle, 

 were still to be seen. 



We leant against a corn tub with a roughly chipped 

 disk of stone for lid, which might have passed muster 

 in a museum as a relic of prehistoric days, and chatted 

 with a kindly old lady, wearing 'revlins,' the most 

 primitive form of shoe known, made of untanned 

 cow-hide with the hair on, fitted to the foot while 

 ' green,' to the use of which, writes Professor Mitchell, 

 'John Elder referred in his famous letters to 

 Henry vm. of England (1542-43), when he wished 

 to show the extent of barbarism of the "Wilde 

 Scotes." ' 



We had surprised her by expressing a wish to see 

 a quern in working order, and she took us through a 

 gate, swinging on a stone socket, into an outhouse to 

 see one belonging to her uncle and herself. The door 

 was so low and the walls so thick that we had to stoop 

 almost to 'all fours' to get in; and having done so, 

 found ourselves in the dark until our hostess had 

 found her stick a precious possession where there is 

 no native-grown wood and opened the shutter by 

 knocking off a sod which covered the only window, a 

 slit in the turf roof. The sun at the moment being 

 clouded, and the light, even when the shutter was 

 down, not very brilliant, our friend left us to fetch a 

 lamp. We were quite prepared to see her return 

 with a Shetland 'Collie' the double iron pan with 



