222 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



could not discard from her canine appearance. Seizing 

 the tongs, the worthy patriarch brought them down 

 upon the black dog's back with might and main. 

 " Tak doo yon, Minnie Merran " (the witch's name), 

 he cried, " an bear doo da weight o' dis auld airm as 

 lang as doo leeves." 



The dog ran howling and limping out of the house, 

 and when next the witch was seen, she who hitherto 

 had walked upright and with the dignity of a Noma, 

 leant upon a stick, and had a hump upon her back. 

 She said she had fallen from a height, and was afraid 

 her spine was broken ; but folk called it " the mark o' 

 auld Jockie's taings." 



Notwithstanding the proud boast which Shetlanders 

 make of having sprung from the fair-haired Norsemen, 

 there is a tradition of a race existing in the islands 

 before the sea-kings made their appearance there. 

 " The first folks that ever were in our isles were the 

 Picts, and they were said to come from a place in 

 France called Picardy"(!). "They had quarrelled 

 there among themselves, and some fled hy Scotland, 

 and some spoored up as far north as Wick. They 

 had no ships, only small boats, and they resolved to 

 go on from shore to shore, till they got to the end of 

 all land. When they reached the north of Shetland 

 they said, ' Yit-land, y it-land,' meaning outermost, or last 

 land, and that was the way the isles came to be called 

 Shetland. These Picts were not a seafaring folk at 

 all. They were very small, but strong and ingenious. 

 They were very peaceable, kindly folk, but lazy. They 



