Sea-Anemones, 378 Part IV.—Legend and Lay. The Old Gods, 383 A Vanishing Island, 391 Helen Waters: a Legend of Sule Skerry, 396 A Legend of Boray Island, 403 Songs of the Gods: The Challenge of Thor, 408 Tegner’s Drapa, 409 The Song of Harold Harfager, 412 King Hacon’s Last Battle, 414 The Death of Haco, 416 The Old Man of Hoy, 420 Orkney, 422 Scenes from “The Buccaneer”: Night; Morning, 430 To Orkney, 432 The Temple of Nature, 433 Appendices. Appendix I.—Chronology of Orcadian History to the End of the Earldom, with Related Contemporary Events, 435 Appendix II.—Norse Words in Orkney Place-Names, 439 Appendix III.—List of Birds found in Orkney, 441 Appendix IV.—Books for Further Study, 443 THE ORKNEY BOOK. Part I.—The Story of the Past. PREHISTORIC ORKNEY. At what period of the world’s history were our islands first inhabited, and who were their first inhabitants? These are questions which we cannot now answer. History is always made before it is written, and long ages must have passed in the history of these islands before any written records began to be kept. Yet there are some records of that dim, forgotten past, which patient research has gathered together, and which can be made to tell us a few fragments of our Island story. If we look into one of the museums where relics of the past are preserved, we may find such things as flint arrow-heads and knives, stone axes and hammers, bronze spear-heads, and other tools and weapons of the early inhabitants of our islands. These silent witnesses tell us a little about what manner of men they were, and how they lived their long-forgotten lives. The use of stone implements marks a very primitive stage of life, yet one which may not be entirely savage. There are tribes now living which are still in their Stone Age. A recent traveller tells of having seen an inhabitant of the South American Andes skin a hare very neatly with a small flint knife. This knife is now in Kirkwall, and is precisely similar to many which have been dug up in Orkney.