The Pirate

Wawl, to look wildly.

Waws, waves.

Weal, well.

Wearifu’, causing pain or trouble.

Weird, fate, destiny.

Wha, who.

“What for,” why.

Whilk, which.

Whomled, turned over.

Wi’, with.

Wittols, cuckolds.

“Win by,” to escape.

Wot, to know.

Wrang, wrong.

Yarfa, yarpha, peat full of fibres and roots; land.

Yelloched, screeched or yelled.

END OF VOL. II

1

See Editor’s Notes at the end of the Volume. Wherever a similar reference occurs, the reader will understand that the same direction applies.

2

The Udallers are the allodial possessors of Zetland, who hold their possessions under the old Norwegian law, instead of the feudal tenures introduced among them from Scotland.

3

Salt-water lake.

4

Patch of ground for vegetables. The liberal custom of the country permits any person, who has occasion for such a convenience, to select out of the unenclosed moorland a small patch, which he surrounds with a drystone wall, and cultivates as a kailyard, till he exhausts the soil with cropping, and then he deserts it, and encloses another. This liberty is so far from inferring an invasion of the right of proprietor and tenant, that the last degree of contempt is inferred of an avaricious man, when a Zetlander says he would not hold a plantie cruive of him.

5

A lispund is about thirty pounds English, and the value is averaged by Dr. Edmonston at ten shillings sterling.

6

i. e. The deep-sea fishing, in distinction to that which is practised along shore.

7

The operation of slicing the blubber from the bones of the whale, is called, technically, flinching.

8

Meaning, probably, Patrick Stewart, Earl of Orkney, executed for tyranny and oppression practised on the inhabitants of those remote islands, in the beginning of the seventeenth century.

9

Finner, small whale.

10

The sagas of the Scalds are full of descriptions of these champions, and do not permit us to doubt that the Berserkars, so called from fighting without armour, used some physical means of working themselves into a frenzy, during which they possessed the strength and energy of madness. The Indian warriors are well known to do the same by dint of opium and bang.

11

Fatal accidents, however, sometimes occur. When I visited the Fair Isle in 1814, a poor lad of fourteen had been killed by a fall from the rocks about a fortnight before our arrival. The accident happened almost within sight of his mother, who was casting peats at no great distance. The body fell into the sea, and was seen no more. But the islanders account this an honourable mode of death; and as the children begin the practice of climbing very early, fewer accidents occur than might be expected.

12

Note I.– Norse Fragments.

13

Note II.– Monsters of the Northern Seas.

14

The cormorant; which may be seen frequently dashing in wild flight along the roosts and tides of Zetland, and yet more often drawn up in ranks on some ledge of rock, like a body of the Black Brunswickers in 181.

15

i. e. Gossips.

16

Quadrupedumque putrem sonitu quatit ungula campum.

17

This is admitted by the English agriculturist: —

“My music since has been the plough,Entangled with some care among;The gain not great, the pain enough,Hath made me sing another song.”

18

Government of Zetland. – At the period supposed, the Earls of Morton held the islands of Orkney and Zetland, originally granted in 1643, confirmed in 1707, and rendered absolute in 1742. This gave the family much property and influence, which they usually exercised by factors, named chamberlains. In 1766 this property was sold by the then Earl of Morton to Sir Lawrence Dundas, by whose son, Lord Dundas, it is now held.

19

When a person changes his condition suddenly, as when a miser becomes liberal, or a churl good-humoured, he is said, in Scotch, to be fey; that is, predestined to speedy death, of which such mutations of humour are received as a sure indication.

20

A pedlar.

21

The beetle with which the Scottish housewives used to perform the office of the modern mangle, by beating newly-washed linen on a smooth stone for the purpose, called the beetling-stone.

22

The chapman’s drouth, that is, the pedlar’s thirst, is proverbial in Scotland, because these pedestrian traders were in the use of modestly asking only for a drink of water, when, in fact, they were desirous of food.

23

Test upon it, i. e., leave it in my will; a mode of bestowing charity, to which many are partial as well as the good dame in the text.

24

Although the Zetlanders were early reconciled to the reformed faith, some ancient practices of Catholic superstition survived long among them. In very stormy weather a fisher would vow an oramus to Saint Ronald, and acquitted himself of the obligation by throwing a small piece of money in at the window of a ruinous chapel.

25

Note III.– Sale of Winds.

26

Note IV.– Reluctance to Save Drowning Men.

27

Note V.– Mair Wrecks ere Winter.

28

This was literally true.

29

These are weights of Norwegian origin, still used in Zetland.

30

Barter.

31

The Drows, or Trows, the legitimate successors of the northern duergar, and somewhat allied to the fairies, reside, like them, in the interior of green hills and caverns, and are most powerful at midnight. They are curious artificers in iron, as well as in the precious metals, and are sometimes propitious to mortals, but more frequently capricious and malevolent. Among the common people of Zetland, their existence still forms an article of universal belief. In the neighbouring isles of Feroe, they are called Foddenskencand, or subterranean people; and Lucas Jacobson Debes, well acquainted with their nature, assures us that they inhabit those places which are polluted with the effusion of blood, or the practice of any crying sin. They have a government, which seems to be monarchical.

32

The larger seal, or sea-calf, which seeks the most solitary recesses for its abode. See Dr. Edmonstone’s Zetland, vol. ii., p. 294.

33

Note VI.– Zetland Corn-mills.

34

What is eat by way of relish to dry bread is called kitchen in Scotland, as cheese, dried fish, or the like relishing morsels.

35

See Hibbert’s Description of the Zetland Islands, p. 470.

36

See Note I.– Norse Fragments.

37

Montrose, in his last and ill-advised attempt to invade Scotland, augmented his small army of Danes and Scottish Royalists, by some bands of raw troops, hastily levied, or rather pressed into his service, in the Orkney and Zetland Isles, who, having little heart either to the cause or manner of service, behaved but indifferently when they came into action.

38

Here, as afterwards remarked in the text, the Zetlander’s memory deceived him grossly. Sir John Urry, a brave soldier of fortune, was at that time in Montrose’s army, and made prisoner along with him. He had changed so often that the mistake is pardonable. After the action, he was executed by the Covenanters; and

“Wind-changing Warwick then could change no more”

Strachan commanded the body by which Montrose was routed.

39

Note VII.– The Sword-Dance.

40

See some admirable discussion on this passage, in the Variorum Shakspeare.

41

The contest about the whale will remind the poetical reader of Waller’s Battle of the Summer Islands.

42

The Lawting was the Comitia, or Supreme Court, of the country, being retained both in Orkney and Zetland, and presenting, in its constitution, the rude origin of a parliament.

43

And from which hill of Hoy, at midsummer, the sun may be seen, it is said, at midnight. So says the geographer Bleau, although, according to Dr. Wallace, it cannot be the true body of the sun which is visible, but only its image refracted through some watery cloud upon the horizon.

44

Note VIII.– The Dwarfie Stone.

45

Note IX.– Carbuncle on the Ward-hill.

46

Or consecrated mountain, used by the Scandinavian priests for the purposes of their idol-worship.

47

Stack. A precipitous rock, rising out of the sea.

48

Skerry. A flat insulated rock, not subject to the overflowing of the sea.

49

Noup. A round-headed eminence.

50

Voe. A creek, or inlet of the sea.

51

Air. An open sea-beach.

52

Wick. An open bay.

53

Helyer. A cavern into which the tide flows.

54

Gio. A deep ravine which admits the sea.

55

This cruelty is practised by some fishers, out of a vindictive hatred to these ravenous fishes.

56

So placed in the old MS.

57

Boor– so spelt, to accord with the vulgar pronunciation of the word bower.

58

Porte– so spelt in the original. The word is known as indicating a piece of music on the bagpipe, to which ancient instrument, which is of Scandinavian origin, the sword-dance may have been originally composed.

59

Stour, great.

60

Muckle tinte, much loss or harm; so in MS.

61

Something is evidently amiss or omitted here. David probably exhibited some feat of archery.

62

Lout– to bend or bow down, pronounced loot, as doubt is doot in Scotland.

63

Figuir– so spelt in MS.

64

Agast– so spelt in MS.

65

The garland is an artificial coronet, composed of ribbons by those young women who take an interest in a whaling vessel or her crew: it is always displayed from the rigging, and preserved with great care during the voyage.

66

The best oil exudes from the jaw-bones of the whale, which, for the purpose of collecting it, are suspended to the masts of the vessel.

67

There is established among whalers a sort of telegraphic signal, in which a certain number of motions, made with a broom, express to any other vessel the number of fish which they have caught.

68

The Admiral of the Spanish Armada was wrecked on the Fair Isle, half-way betwixt the Orkney and Zetland Archipelago. The Duke of Medina Sidonia landed, with some of his people, and pillaged the islanders of their winter stores. These strangers are remembered as having remained on the island by force, and on bad terms with the inhabitants, till spring returned, when they effected their escape.

69

Galdra-Kinna– the Norse for a sorceress.

70

Note I.– Fortune-telling Rhymes.

71

See Editor’s Notes at the end of the Volume. Wherever a similar reference occurs, the reader will understand that the same direction applies.

72

Dr. Edmonston, the ingenious author of a View of the Ancient and Present State of the Zetland Islands, has placed this part of the subject in an interesting light. “It is truly painful to witness the anxiety and distress which the wives of these poor men suffer on the approach of a storm. Regardless of fatigue, they leave their homes, and fly to the spot where they expect their husbands to land, or ascend the summit of a rock, to look out for them on the bosom of the deep. Should they get the glimpse of a sail, they watch, with trembling solicitude, its alternate rise and disappearance on the waves; and though often tranquillized by the safe arrival of the objects of their search, yet it sometimes is their lot ‘to hail the bark that never can return.’ Subject to the influence of a variable climate, and engaged on a sea naturally tempestuous, with rapid currents, scarcely a season passes over without the occurrence of some fatal accident or hairbreadth escape.” —View, &c. of the Zetland Islands, vol. i. p. 238. Many interesting particulars respecting the fisheries and agriculture of Zetland, as well as its antiquities, may be found in the work we have quoted.

73

Note II.– Promise of Odin.

74

To maroon a seaman, signified to abandon him on a desolate coast or island – a piece of cruelty often practised by Pirates and Buccaniers.

75

An elder brother, now no more, who was educated in the navy, and had been a midshipman in Rodney’s squadron in the West Indies, used to astonish the author’s boyhood with tales of those haunted islets. On one of them, called, I believe, Coffin-key, the seamen positively refused to pass the night, and came off every evening while they were engaged in completing the watering of the vessel, returning the following sunrise.

76

I cannot suppress the pride of saying, that these lines have been beautifully set to original music, by Mrs. Arkwright, of Derbyshire.

77

The celebrated Sortes Virgilianæ were resorted to by Charles I. and his courtiers, as a mode of prying into futurity.

78

It is worth while saying, that this motto, and the ascription of the beautiful ballad from which it is taken to the Right Honourable Lady Ann Lindsay, occasioned the ingenious authoress’s acknowledgment of the ballad, of which the Editor, by her permission, published a small impression, inscribed to the Bannatyne Club.

79

A light-armed vessel of the seventeenth century, adapted for privateering, and much used by the Dutch.

80

The Frawa-Stack or Maiden-Rock, an inaccessible cliff, divided by a narrow gulf from the Island of Papa, has on the summit some ruins, concerning which there is a legend similar to that of Danaë.

81

Lowe, flame.

82

Note III.– The Pictish Burgh.

83

Jarto, my dear.

84

The MacRaws were followers of the MacKenzies, whose chief has the name of Caberfae, or Buckshead, from the cognisance borne on his standards. Unquestionably the worthy piper trained the seal on the same principle of respect to the clan-term which I have heard has been taught to dogs, who, unused to any other air, dance after their fashion to the tune of Caberfae.

85

The spells described in this chapter are not altogether imaginary. By this mode of pouring lead into water, and selecting the part which chances to assume a resemblance to the human heart, which must be worn by the patient around her or his neck, the sage persons of Zetland pretend to cure the fatal disorder called the loss of a heart.

86

So at least says an Orkney proverb.

87

Jokul, yes, sir; a Norse expression, still in common use.

88

The Bicker of Saint Magnus, a vessel of enormous dimensions, was preserved at Kirkwall, and presented to each bishop of the Orkneys. If the new incumbent was able to quaff it out at one draught, which was a task for Hercules or Rorie Mhor of Dunvegan, the omen boded a crop of unusual fertility.

89

Luggie, a famous conjurer, was wont, when storms prevented him from going to his usual employment of fishing, to angle over a steep rock, at the place called, from his name, Luggie’s Knoll. At other times he drew up dressed food while they were out at sea, of which his comrades partook boldly from natural courage, without caring who stood cook. The poor man was finally condemned and burnt at Scalloway.

90

Note IV.– Antique Coins found in Zetland.

91

Young unbroke horse.

92

In Gaelic, there.

93

It is very curious that the grouse, plenty in Orkney as the text declares, should be totally unknown in the neighbouring archipelago of Zetland, which is only about sixty miles distance, with the Fair Isle as a step between.

94

The pirates gave this name to the black flag, which, with many horrible devices to enhance its terrors, was their favourite ensign.

95

It was anciently a custom at Saint Olla’s Fair at Kirkwall, that the young people of the lower class, and of either sex, associated in pairs for the period of the Fair, during which the couple were termed Lambmas brother and sister. It is easy to conceive that the exclusive familiarity arising out of this custom was liable to abuse, the rather that it is said little scandal was attached to the indiscretions which it occasioned.

96

See an explanation of this promise, Note II. of this volume.

97

Note V.– Character of Norna.

98

Note VI.– Birds of Prey.

99

This was really an exploit of the celebrated Avery the pirate, who suddenly, and without provocation, fired his pistols under the table where he sat drinking with his messmates, wounded one man severely, and thought the matter a good jest. What is still more extraordinary, his crew regarded it in the same light.

100

A ship going fast through the sea is said to cut a feather, alluding to the ripple which she throws off from her bows.

101

Commonly called by landsmen, Spanish dollars.

102

Liquor brewed for a Christmas treat.

103

A well, in the language of those seas, denotes one of the whirlpools, or circular eddies, which wheel and boil with astonishing strength, and are very dangerous. Hence the distinction, in old English, betwixt wells and waves, the latter signifying the direct onward course of the tide, and the former the smooth, glassy, oily-looking whirlpools, whose strength seems to the eye almost irresistible.

104

Note VII.– The Standing Stones of Stennis.

105

We have been able to learn nothing with certainty of Bunce’s fate; but our friend, Dr Dryasdust, believes he may be identified with an old gentleman, who, in the beginning of the reign of George I., attended the Rose Coffee-house regularly, went to the theatre every night, told mercilessly long stories about the Spanish Main, controlled reckonings, bullied waiters, and was generally known by the name of Captain Bounce.

106

We may suppose the beads to have been of the potent adderstone, to which so many virtues were ascribed.

107

Like those anciently borne by porters at the gates of distinguished persons, as a badge of office.

108

See the Eyrbiggia Saga.

109

See Torfæi Orcadus, p. 131.