along shore.

[11]

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

[12]

[13] 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.

[13]

[14] Finner, small whale.

[14]

[15] 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.

[15]

[16] 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.

[16]

[17] Note I.—Norse Fragments.

[17]

[18] Note II.—Monsters of the Northern Seas.

[18]

[Pg 27]

[Pg 27]

CHAPTER III.

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