408 BAUBLES OP A GEOLOGIST. 



Christianity, in even a purer form than that in which it first 

 found its way among the ancient Scandinavians, and when at 

 least as generally recognised nationally as it ever was by the 

 subjects of Haco, has failed to put down the trade of aggres- 

 sive war. It did not prevent honest, obstinate George the 

 Third from warring with the Americans or the French : it 

 only led him to enjoin a day of thanksgiving when his troops 

 had slaughtered a great many of the enemy, and to ordain a 

 fast when the enemy had slaughtered, in turn, a great many 

 of his troops. And Haco, who, though he preferred the lives 

 of the saints, and even of his ancestors, who could not have 

 been very great saints, to the Scriptures, seems, for a king, 

 to have been a not undevout man in his way, and yet appears 

 to have had as few compunctious visitings on the score of his 

 Scottish war as George the Third on that of the French or 

 the American one. Christianity, too, ere his invasion of 

 Scotland, had been for a considerable time established in his 

 dominions, and ought, were the theory a true one, to have 

 operated sooner. The Cathedral of St Magnus, when he 

 walked round the shrine of its patron saint, was at least a 

 century old. The true secret of the cessation of Norwegian 

 invasion seems to have been the consolidation, under vigo- 

 rous princes, of the countries which had lain open to it, a 

 circumstance which, in all the later attempts of the invaders, 

 led to results similar to those which broke the heart of tough 

 old Haco in the bishop's palace at Kirkwall. 



From the ruins I passed to the town, and spent a not un- 

 instructive half-hour in sauntering along the streets in the 

 quiet of the evening, acquainting myself with the general as- 

 pect of the people. I marked, as one of the peculiar features 

 of the place, groupes of tidily-dressed young women, engaged 

 at the close-heads with their straw plait, the prevailing 

 manufacture of the town, and enjoying at the same time the 

 fresh air and an easy chat The special contribution made 



