The Sheep, Also - A Pretty Creature, I Might Call
It - From The Fine Wool Of Which The Shetland Women Knot The Thin Webs
Known By The Name Of Shetland Shawls, Is Much Smaller Than Any Breed I
Have Ever Seen.
Whether the cause be the perpetual chilliness of the
atmosphere, or the insufficiency of nourishment - for, though the long
Zetland winters are temperate, and snow never lies long on the ground,
there is scarce any growth of herbage in that season - I will not undertake
to say, but the people of the islands ascribe it to the insufficiency of
nourishment. It is, at all events, remarkable, that the traditions of the
country should ascribe to the Picts, the early inhabitants of Shetland,
the same dwarfish stature, and that the numerous remains of their
habitations which still exist, should seem to confirm the tradition. The
race which at present possesses the Shetlands is, however, of what the
French call "an advantageous stature," and well limbed. If it be the want
of a proper and genial warmth, which prevents the due growth of the
domestic animals, it is a want to which the Zetlanders are not subject.
Their hills afford the man apparently inexhaustible supply of peat, which
costs the poorest man nothing but the trouble of cutting it and bringing
it home; and their cottages, I was told, are always well warmed in winter.
In crossing the narrow strait which separates the Noss from Bressay, I
observed on the Bressay side, overlooking the water, a round hillock, of
very regular shape, in which the green turf was intermixed with stones.
"That," said the ferryman, "is what we call a Pictish castle.
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