454 RAMBLES OF A GEOLOGIST 



and often very wickedly ; but matters seem to have been 

 greatly worse when, in an age still more immature, the grimly- 

 bearded, six-feet children of Orkney were laying down their 

 stone-circles on the green. Sir "Walter, in the parting scene 

 between Cleveland and Mina Troil, which he describes as hav- 

 ing taken place amid the lesser group of stones, refers to an 

 immense slab " lying flat and prostrate in the middle of the 

 others, supported by short pillars, of which some relics are 

 still visible," and which is regarded as the sacrificial stone of 

 the erection. " It is a current belief, 1 ' says Dr Hibbert, in 

 an elaborate paper in the " Transactions of the Scottish An- 

 tiquaries," " that upon this stone a victim of royal birth was 

 immolated. Halfdan the Long-legged, the son of Harold the 

 Fair-haired, in punishment for the aggressions of Orkney, had 

 made an unexpected descent upon its coasts, and acquired pos- 

 session of the Jarldom. In the autumn succeeding, Halfdan 

 was retorted upon, and, after an inglorious contest, betook 

 himself to a place of concealment, from which he was the fol- 

 lowing morning unlodged, and instantly doomed to the Asse. 

 Einar, the Jarl of Orkney, with his sword carved the captive's 

 back into the form of an eagle, the spine being longitudinally 

 divided, and the ribs being separated by a transverse cut as 

 far as the loins. He then extracted the lungs, and dedicated 

 them to Odin for a perpetuity of victory, singing a wild song, 

 ' I am revenged for the slaughter of Kogiivalld : this have 

 the Nornse decreed. In my fiordirig the pillar of the people 

 has fallen. Build up the cairn, ye active youths, for victory 

 is with us. From the stones of the sea-shore will I pay the 

 Long-legged a hard seat.' " There is certainly no trace to be 

 detected, in this dark story, of a golden age of the world : 

 the golden age is, I would fain hope, an age yet to come. 

 There at least exists no evidence that it is an age gone by. 

 It will be the full-grown manly age of the world when the 

 race, as such, shall have attained to their years of discretion. 



