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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Charles S. Olcott 



THE SOUTH AISLE OE ST. MAGNUS CATHEDRAL, KIRKWALL, ORKNEY ISLANDS 



The arched opening on the left is said to have led to an underground passage which 

 connected the Cathedral with the Bishop's Palace across the street — a fact which may have 

 given to Sir Walter Scott the suggestion of the mysterious disappearance of Noma, as told 

 in ''The Pirate." 



chambers within the walls; could accom- 

 modate his sheep or cattle in the circular 

 inclosure, and could repel an assault 

 from the parapet some fifty or sixty feet 

 above the ground. 



LOVE IN A TOWER A THOUSAND YEARS AGO 



It is related in the Saga that Erland 

 Ungi, having obtained from the King of 

 Scotland a grant of one-half the earl- 

 dom of Caithness, which he was to hold 

 jointly with Earl Harold, the "Orkahaug" 

 carouser, suddenly took a notion to elope 

 with Margaret of A thole, Harold's 

 mother, who was still a beautiful woman 

 though of doubtful character. They 

 fortified themselves in the tower of 

 Mousa, and, though attacked by Harold, 

 successfully resisted first an assault and 

 then a siege. 



It is curious that Mousa had been 

 occupied by another runaway couple 

 more than two centuries earlier, or about 

 900 A. I). One of the sagas tells of the 

 elopement of a certain Norseman with 

 a girl whom his father would not permit 



him to marry. They were wrecked on 

 the island of Mousa, but, like Robinson 

 Crusoe, managed to carry their cargo 

 ashore and, finding a ready-made dwell- 

 ing handy, lived there all the winter. 



Some excavations made within the past 

 twenty years seem to indicate that these 

 brochs were built in groups in such a way 

 as to furnish a place of refuge and means 

 of defense for a large population. 



scene oe the shipwreck in scott's 

 "the pirate" 



On the southern extremity of the main- 

 land of Shetland is a high, rocky promon- 

 tory called Sumbttrgh. A lighthouse 

 marks the point and serves as a warning 

 to navigators, for the tides from two 

 oceans meet in the "Roost" of Sumburgh 

 and make a dangerous current. 



It was here that Scott placed the scene 

 of the shipwreck in "The Pirate." On 

 the rocky coast stands an old ruined castle 

 called jarlshof, which Scott makes the 

 residence of Basil Mertoun and his son. 

 It was occupied in the sixteenth century 



