The Scottish kings, it is true, now promised the islanders that they should have relief in their need, and that no vassal of the crown should be placed over them. But this promise was not kept; and so far from the islanders again recovering their lost freedom, the feudal system of England and Scotland continued to take firmer root in the islands. Oppression stalked on with regular and steady step until it arrived at such a pitch that not only did the Norwegian laws and liberties disappear, but the islands themselves, with some few exceptions, became the private property of a few individuals. The successors of the mighty Vikings, descended from kings and jarls of Norway and the North, who in winter dwelt as chiefs, or at least as freemen, in roomy mansions, whilst in the summer they gained glory and booty in their long ships, are now in general obliged to content themselves with inhabiting as leaseholders, or rather as annual tenants, a poor cottage on a small piece of land, where, by hard labour, they are able to gain, at best, a very frugal subsistence. Their dwellings, particularly in Shetland, are of the most wretched description. The walls are formed of small unhewn stones, with turf and sea-weed thrust into the interstices, and, instead of a chimney, the smoke escapes by a hole in the roof. Within the house there are generally sleeping-places in the thick stone wall; but men and cattle live together in friendly harmony in the same apartment. The fire burns freely on the floor, and envelopes all in a dense smoke. If the people seek their living on the sea by fishing, it is usually in boats belonging to the proprietor of the estate, who consequently receives a large share of their profits. The condition of the common people in the Orkneys, and in the Shetland Isles, is certainly not at all enviable, even in comparison with that of their Scandinavian kinsmen on the poor and more remote Faroe Islands and Iceland; although commerce is still limited and oppressed there by a monopoly which was soon abolished in the Orkneys and Shetland Isles after their separation from the united Norwegian-Danish kingdoms. But in spite of all their calamities, the inhabitants of the Faroe Isles and Iceland have for the most part preserved to our times that freedom of landed property which they inherited from their forefathers. ---------- SECTION VI. Shetland.—The People.—Songs.—Sword-Dance.—Language.—Names of Places.—Tingwall.—Burg of Mousa.—Tumuli.—Bauta Stones.[9] Footnote 9: Partly from S. Hibbert, P. A. Munch, and Chr. Plöyen.