Morning journal and courier., 1890-12-13
MIR. wAKEMAN,s JOURNEYINGs

ments, as the bags are intended for the safe keeping of small buttons only.
 HILARY. MIR. wAKENIAN's JOURNEYINGs. At Shetland IsIands-IIercantfIe In-
 terests - Intermarriage - Dialect of
 the Natives-Scandinayia Words
 and Idioms-Industry of the Is-
 lands.
 SHETLAND ISLANDS, Oct. 13. To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
 Although these far-away islands belong to Scotland, and though mercantile inter ests and intermarriage for four hundred years show marked Scottish, and espe- cially Highland Scottish, influence and similarity of customs and manners, the Shetlanders refuse to consider themselves, or be called, "Scotch." They have always been "Shetlanders. Those from the mainland are Scotch" Thus it has al- ways stood, and stands to this day with resolute obstinacy. Both the Shetland Is- lands, and the Orkneys lying between the Shetlands and Scotland, originally be- longed to the old Scandinavian kingdom of Norway and Denmark. In point of fact they still do. That is, they were nev- CT formally transferred to Scotland. When, in 146S, James III. of Scotland took for his bride Margaret, daughter of Christian I. of Denmark, both groups of islands were merely assigned in "wadset, /" or as a pledge for Margaret's dowry. This form of mortgage has never been re- deemed, nor has it ever been foreclosed, | unless time may be said to have done so; and if at any time the thirty-two thousand people of the Orkneys, who derive their | name, Orcadians, from the islands ancient | name, the Roman Orcades, and the twen- | ty-nine thousand souls of Shetland, Zet- land (ancient Morse, Hjaltland, or high land) should at any time desire to renew their allegiance either to Denmark, or to Norway and Sweden, nothing existing in international comity could justly oppose | their doing so. There are fifty-six islands, | islets and holms in the Orkney group, | twenty-nine of which are inhabited; and the Shetland group comprise one hundred islands and islets. of which twenty-eighi are peopled.
 | In remote parts of both the Orkneys and Shetlands much of the dialect of the na | tives is so impregnated with Scandinavia | words and idioms as to be very difficult for even Highland Scotchmen, between whom and these folk there are strong af initles in speech and customs, to under stand. At the time these islands were pledged to James III. for the payment oi Margaret's dowry it was distinctly provi ded that Morse government should be con tinued and that the Flaw of St. Olaf that good saint who is not dead but only sleeping, and biding his time to return with all power and greatness for Norwa, should prevail. A relic of this ancient system is found in the "peerie lairds," ol little lords, who still hold and may trans fer their lands by word of mouth, nc written document being required. Thes, are to-day the only absolute freeholders o land in both island groups. The regior about Harray, on the northeast shore O the Loch of Stenness, in the 0rkneys, ant the township of Fladdabister, about tel miles south of the city of Lerwick, in tn, Shetland mainland, are still peopled b. these 'tpeerie lairds." They are wondrou I and are poor, proud and insolent. Tn herring fishing industry has within a fev years given both the orkneys and Shet lands unusual prosperity, and as the tota catch of all fish on the Shetland coast now equals one-third of the entire annus catch for Scotland, it would seem that tn Scotch were destined to reap as great re wards from this source as formerly did tn Dutch. Previous to the British imposition of salt duties in 1712 the fisheries of Shet land were in the hands of the Dutch, wh it is said derived an annual profit of fiji teen million dollars from the same, or tn enormous profit during their entire con trol of one billion dollarsl More than tw thousand "busses" or fishing-vessels migh then have been seen in Lerwick harbor 6 one time; while few miles from Lerwicl , towards Scalloway, the ancient capital c
 Shetland, is still seen the "Hollander , Knowe," or hillock, where in the old time
 when the Dutch fishers and merchant l were in the ascendant, was held O gres
 annual fair, where the simple islander 3 bartered their fish and woolens for toba,
 co, spirits and other luxuries from An sterdam.
 Other industries of the islands are yer t noted hosiery and various knit-fabrics ( V marvellous pattern and delicacy of textur
 sheep raising, regarding which most inte | esting tales are told of the carrying u sheep for summer grazing to almost ina r cessible and uninhabited islands; and tl
 native cattle have been improved by e cross with the southern shorthorns an
 the Scottish boiled Angus. In the Orl 0 neys there are of late years many extel
 sive and excellently cultivated farms; ar If during 1886 over twenty million eggs we
 exported. The salubrity of the climate } both these island groups is remarkabl Though so far north that in the longe t. day of the year the sun rises at two mi ', utes past three, setting at twenty minut
 past nine, newspaper can be read at mi
 night and the lark begins singing at ol re o'clock in the morning, and in the shorte h day there are only six hours and sey,
 minutes between the rising and setting
 the sun, the mean temperature is as hil
 as forty-six degrees This is undoubted ,s owing to the influence of the Gulf strear k, Spring being in April; summer terminal y about the middle of September; and tn, as after a few weeks of clustering weath a there is a month of the most beautiful al to genial weather, answering to our ov th ''Indian summer" and called here Ut tn peerie summer;" "peerie" in Orkney, She d, iaHd and Fifshire, Scotland, meanil ell "wee," tiny, little or brief
 al It was not very long ago that the Or of neys, and especially the Shetland island te were regarned as wholly remote from al
 inaccessible to. the civilized world. T Id revolution of November, 1888, was n ou known of in Shetland until the followi e- May. As late as 1894 the British ma he for three or four months time would ng rive at the same hour. The frst steam mt appeared off the Shetland coast in IS; k. the peasantry believing it to be ship 4ss fire; and it was not until 1S47 that 0 1t was seen in the ports of the North Isl nd They still have many anecdotes here of on effect of its arrival at Lerwick. A saml nd one is that on the occasion of the CT ne blowing off steam with great noise, t In- simple islanders engaged in gathering Ii he pets off the rocks, nearly went mad w 1e- fright At length, surveying the "f ,n- ship" monster with desperate dismay, on stronger minded of the two handed nd snuff-horn to his companion with the de hortation: N
 ,he ooh, Jamie, Jamie, take doc snuff, red doo1 snuff nae mair wi me till we SD nd thegither in gloryi' He thought his eGreat Day" had come and that the an