XIII. The Norse Territory in Scotland still cxi-cxxiii. distinguished by its Norse Place-names—Notices of the Norse Language in Orkney and Shetland—Norse Ballads—The Ballad of Hiluge and Hildina recovered by Low in Foula: Outline of its Story; its Dialect and Date—Runic Monuments in Orkney and Shetland—Actual Relics of the Northmen—Burial Customs of the Pagan Northmen in Orkney and Shetland—Narrative of an Eye-witness of the Incremation of the Body of a Norse Chief of the 10th century—Description of the Funeral Rites—“The Dead Man’s Angel”—Sacrifice of Oxen, Horses, etc.—Slaughter of a Female Slave to accompany the Chief—Burning of the Bodies and erection of the Grave-Mound—Diversity of the Burial Usages—Burial in Stone Urns and Cooking Pots—Brooches of a peculiar Scandinavian type found with Norse Burials in Scotland—Group of Norse Graves in Westray, Orkney ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Illustration: SKOTLAND EDMONSTON & DOUGLAS, EDINBURGH.] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION. I. EARLIEST HISTORICAL NOTICES OF THE ORKNEYS. The historical notices of the Orkneys previous to the Norse occupation are few in number, and exceedingly obscure. We learn little more from the allusions of the Roman writers than that scarcely anything was known to them with certainty of these remote localities. It may be inferred, however, that the first wave of Celtic population that overspread the northern mainland of Britain must have gradually extended northward to the outlying Isles. The correspondence of the early remains found in the Islands with those of northern Scotland is of itself a striking testimony to the connection of their early population with the Celtic stock of the northern mainland of Scotland. We gather from these remains that the earliest population of the Islands, of which we have any reliable evidence, lived in the same manner as the natives of the northern mainland, fought with the same varieties of weapons of stone and bronze, erected the same forms of defensive structures, practised the same funereal rites, and constructed similar forms of sepulchral chambers, over which they piled the great mounds which are among the most striking features of an Orkney landscape.[1] The number and magnitude of these monuments and structural remains bear witness in a most remarkable manner to the activity, intelligence, and social organisation of the times that have no other record.