Between the last-named islands and Mainland are the small isles Enhallow (“Eyin helga,” the holy isle) and Wire (“Vigr”). On the latter Kolbein Ruga had, in the twelfth century, a castle, the site of whose ramparts can still be clearly distinguished. But Mainland itself is naturally the island with which the most numerous and remarkable memorials of the Norwegian dominion are associated. For centuries numberless Vikings’ fleets constantly rode at anchor in its bays and in the adjacent straits; and almost every spot on the island is famous in the Orkneyinga Saga as having been the residence of some distinguished man, or the scene of some important historical event. The numerous Norwegian names of places ending in _wall_ (vágr), _wick_, _firth_, _ness_, _buster_, _toft_, _holm_, and so forth, which are everywhere met with in the island, do not, however, merit particular consideration, since they resemble those in the rest of the Orkneys and Shetland Isles; yet they serve to establish that the Norwegians must have superseded here, no less than in the other islands, the older Celtic population. We soon discover that the vicinity of the Orkneys to Scotland, and their brisk intercourse with that kingdom, as well as with England, have contributed, both in Mainland and in the surrounding islands, to do away with many of those names of places which are still found in Shetland as witnesses of the old Norwegian judicial institutions. Thus we should look in vain in Mainland for that “Þingavöllr,” or Tingvalla, which anciently was the chief _Thing_ place of the island, as is expressly mentioned in old records. We should be just as unsuccessful in finding traces of the lesser _Things_, which, in Shetland, as we have seen, can almost all be still pointed out in the names of places; and this notwithstanding we know for a certainty that the Orkneys had a court of justice in common with Shetland, till the year 1196 at least; from which time Shetland was governed by its own laws. The same powerful Scottish influence has likewise effaced in the Orkneys most of the few Norwegian words, customs, and manners which still sustain a feeble existence in the remote islands of Shetland. The Norwegian language, some vestiges of which might be traced, in the last century, in the parish of Haray (Herað), has left behind it only a peculiar singing pronunciation, and some few characteristics in the English language now in use there; thus, for instance, in addressing a person, the nominative and accusative _thou_ and _thee_ are used, instead of _you_. The present language of the Orkneys is almost a purer English than that of the Scotch Lowlands; which is a natural consequence of English having begun at a later period to be the ruling language in the islands. The present population of Mainland, together with the other inhabitants of the Orkneys, has undeniably preserved a certain Scandinavian appearance; and English