If the present originally Norwegian population in the Orkneys and Shetland Islands possessed, on the whole, any strongly-marked Scandinavian characteristics, they would naturally occur most in the islands farthest towards the north. But the oppressions and political changes that have occurred there have done their work so thoroughly, that even the Shetlanders no longer bear in their character and natural disposition any strongly-marked feature of their Norwegian origin. The only ones remaining are, perhaps, their love of the sea, and their skill in contending with its dangers. Even their bodily frame has, through many years of want and debasement, lost much of its strength and nobleness. In the parish of Coningsburgh, in Mainland, precisely where the largest and strongest-built people are to be found, the Scandinavian population are said to have kept themselves most free from mixture. The inclination for disputes and fighting amongst the people of Coningsburgh is well known in Shetland. This trait is, at all events, more Scandinavian than moroseness and want of hospitality to strangers, which are almost unknown in the North, but which in the last century were alleged to be vices of these same men of Coningsburgh. It was said that they would not willingly give a traveller a night’s lodging, and that directly at day-break they awoke him, saying:—“_Myrkin i livra; lurein i liunga; timin i guestin i geungna_;” that is, “It is dark in the smoke-hole, but it is light on the heath, and for the guest it is now time to depart.” That this sentence, which was written down in the year 1774, consists of old Norwegian words, though in a corrupted form, is quite evident.