FOLK-LORE FROM UNST. 185 



" In the twilight, as I was stealing over the stile into 

 the road, I found a ragged young pony struggling with 

 a straw net around his foot. I was going a distance 

 with the grandchild's journeying food in a little basket 

 in the one hand, and a small basket of meal in the 

 other, but I leant my peat basket upon the mound of 

 sods, and set the bjodie and the taueg beside it, and 

 then I snatched poor Snewgie " (means» ill-favoured, and 

 is a common name for a pony) " out of his difficulty. 

 Then I went my way, leaving him looking as tired 

 and downcast as if the giant's wives had been using 

 him for carrying peats all night." 



When talking of some Unst words to an antiquarian 

 friend I chanced to mention " hiimeen " (twilight), and 

 the scholar, wise in such matters, delighted my soul by 

 pointing out the origin of the word. In ancient Norse 

 " hiim " meant dusk or dark, and there was supposed to 

 be a sort of Hades or Shadowland, named " hiim." It 

 was customary to put the article " en " (the) as an 

 affix when the noun was desired to be very emphatic. 

 Thus " hiimeen " is simply " the twilight," and is as 

 familiar a term in Unst to-day as " gloamin " is in 

 Scotland. I have no doubt that a little scholarly 

 research would bring to light in Unst many words as 

 purely Norse as " hiimeen." Indeed, I feel sure that 

 all Shetland furnishes a most interesting field for the 

 student of northern antiquities, and may even be termed 

 a terra incognita in some respects, and there the savant 

 may find valuable relics of ancient times. I do not 

 mean such antiquities and relics as rusty swords, arrow- 



