THE NORSE OCCUPATION. 53 



the peculiar outlook upon life, so frequently observed in 

 the Outer Hebrides, are not attributable to "Celtic 

 gloom," but to the Norse strain in the blood, is probably 

 as true as the assertion that many of the prevalent super- 

 stitions are traceable to the same origin. The hard condi- 

 tions of life ; the joyless existence of a grinding poverty ; 

 the melancholy sough of the restless sea which dashes 

 against their rock-bound coast ; these are influences which, 

 acting upon a temperament naturally prone to moodiness, 

 have accentuated the inherited tendency, and produced the 

 " gloom " which is as little akin to the Celtic nature, as is 

 the light-hearted Irishman to the grave Hebridean. Dr. 

 Beddoe, a careful observer, states that " it is curious that 

 wherever in the North of Scotland Scandinavian blood 

 abounds, hypochondriasis, hysteria, and other nervous dis- 

 orders are remarkably frequent," and he mentions an 

 account of a hysterical epidemic in Shetland (quoted in 

 Hecker's Epidemics of the Middle Ages). Whatever effect 

 the Norse blood may have upon the temperament of the 

 Long Islanders, it is at least certain that their love of 

 the sea ; their unsurpassed qualities unlike those of the 

 Celts as sailors and fishermen ; their contempt for the 

 dangers of their calling ; are largely attributable to their 

 descent from those warriors who, a thousand years ago, 

 were the undisputed monarchs and the fear-inspiring 

 scourges of the Atlantic Ocean.* 



* The principal works consulted in connexion with the foregoing sections 

 are : Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, Wilson's Pre- 

 historic Annals, Dr. Anderson's Pagan Scotland, Nilsson's Primitive 

 Inhabitants of Scandinavia, Worsa^'s Primitive Antiguitic* of Denmark, 

 Johnstone's Antiquitates, Bunbury's History of Ancient Geography, the Irish 

 Annals (Ulster and Four Masters], the Irish historians (Keating, Todd, 

 O'Curry, D' Alton, and Haliday), Adamnan's Columba, Skene's Celtic Scot- 

 land, Pinkerton's History of Scotland, Robertson's Early Kings, Chalmers' 

 Caledonia, Chronicles of Man (Camden and Munch), Torfceus, the Histories 

 of the Isle of Man by Sacheverell, Train and Moore, the Norse Sagas relating 

 to the British Islands, and Du Chaillu's Viking Age. 



