THE STONES OF STENNIS.
Mrs. Morelle and her party remained many days at the Orkney Islands,
and during this time they made a number of excursions, some in a
carriage and some on foot. The only carriage, however, which they
could obtain was a dog-cart, which was anything but a comfortable
vehicle for ladies going out upon an excursion for pleasure. Indeed
Florence expressed the opinion, that however well adapted it might be
for the conveyance of dogs, it was the worst contrived vehicle for
human beings that she ever saw. The only redeeming quality which it
possessed was that in case it rained one umbrella would cover the whole
company—after a fashion.
In this dog-cart they went to visit the Stones of Stennis. The road
was most excellent all the way, being macadamized in a most perfect
manner, so that it was as smooth as a gravel walk in a gentleman’s
park. The country, however, through which it passed, after a few miles
from Kirkwall, was an almost boundless expanse of moorland, wild and
desolate. After going on for some miles through this dreary country,
the carriage left the main road and passed by a sort of cart track
through the fields and over a long causeway between two lakes, till it
came to the place where the stones were situated.
The stones could be seen for a distance of many miles, standing like so
many gigantic posts on a vast plain. When the party came to the spot,
they found that each stone was from twelve to twenty feet high, and
about five feet wide and one thick. They were of a somewhat irregular
form, being evidently slabs taken from the natural strata in the
neighborhood, and set up just as they came from the quarry. They were
arranged in an immense circle with the remains of an embankment and
ditch all around the circumference. The circle was not complete, the
stones being wanting in many places. In some cases they had fallen
and still remained upon the ground. In other places where it would
seem stones must have stood, the fragments had been taken away, it was
supposed, after they had fallen, to be used for buildings or walls, by
generations that lived in ages subsequent to that in which the stones
were set up, but which have still in their turn long since passed away.
A great many conjectures have been made in respect to these stones,
and to the nature of the structure of which they formed a part, but
all is uncertainty in respect to them. At the very earliest periods of
which there is any account of the country, they stood as they stand
now, solitary and in ruin—an inexplicable wonder to all who saw them.
The party went also to Stromness, a town at the western side of the
island on which Kirkwall stands, and here, while Mrs. Morelle and
Florence remained at the inn, Grimkie and John engaged a sail boat and
a man to manage it, and made a cruise of four or five hours along the
neighboring shores. There they saw some stupendous cliffs, called the
Black Craigs, and great numbers of birds flying about them, and among
other birds they saw an eagle perched upon a lofty summit, where he
stood silent and solitary, looking far and wide over the sea. Grimkie
and John had an excellent view of him through their opera glass.
[Illustration: THE BLACK CRAIGS.]
At one time while the party remained at Kirkwall, they were imprisoned
nearly a whole day by a pouring rain. Mrs. Morelle, when she found,
as she did after breakfast, that there was no prospect that any of
them could go out, asked the waiter if they had any books in the hotel
relating to the Orkney Islands. The waiter said he would inquire,
and pretty soon he came in bringing a number of books of different
sizes, some old and some new; some with pictures in them and some
without. Mrs. Morelle directed that a good fire should be made, and the
table cleared, and then placed these books upon the table and said that
she was going to have a school.
“We will begin at ten o’clock,” said she. “You can take your seats at
the table, or at the windows, or where you please, and for two hours
we will all look over these books and see how much we can learn about
the Orkneys. Then we will have a luncheon. After luncheon we will each
of us take a sheet of paper and a pen and ink and write down the most
interesting thing that we have learned.”
This plan was entered into by all the children very cordially. They
spent two hours in studying the books and looking at the pictures.
Then came the luncheon which consisted of some slices of cold roast
mutton very tender and nice, with some flat rolls of bread, sweet fresh
butter, strawberry preserves and cold coffee.
After the luncheon all spent an hour in writing, and by that time
it had stopped raining. So it was concluded to postpone reading the
compositions until the evening.
In the evening they were read. Florence’s was as follows:
“THE POISONED SHIRT.”
“In former times there was an earl of Orkney, named Hacon. He married
a wife and had a son named Paul. After this his wife died, and then he
married a princess of Caithness, named Helga.
“Caithness is the northern part of Scotland. It was a kingdom in those
days, now it is a county.
“After his second marriage Hacon had another son named Harold.
“Harold and his mother hated Paul because he was the oldest son,
and was entitled to the succession, and they did all in their power
to supplant him in his father’s affections. They succeeded so far
that the old king finally agreed that Paul should not have the whole
kingdom, but should share it with Harold. Accordingly, when the old
king died the two sons were joined in the government of the islands.
“But they did not agree together at all. Helga was continually
maneuvering with her son Harold to gain for him more than his share of
the power. At length the two brothers came to open war, and the whole
country was desolated by their dreadful fights.
“At last, after becoming weary of this, they agreed to make a treaty,
and become reconciled, and as a pledge of the reconciliation, it was
agreed that after the ratification of the treaty, each brother should
invite the other to a grand feast, about the time of Christmas.
“When it came to Paul’s turn to be invited to Harold’s feast, Helga,
the mother, determined to poison him. Her plan was to make a beautiful
embroidered garment for him, as a present, in token of her entire
reconciliation to him, and then before giving him the garment to
poison it, so that it should kill him when he put it on. She kept this
plan a profound secret from all but a sister who was living with her,
named Franquart, to whom she confided her design. Franquart aided her
in embroidering the garment, and in applying the poison.
“At length, on the morning of the feast, Harold, happening to come
into his mother’s room, saw the beautiful garment lying there, all
ready to be given to Paul when he should arrive, and asked what it
was. His mother told him that it was a present that she and Franquart
had been making for Paul. Harold was much enraged to hear this,
and said that he would not allow of their offering Paul handsomer
presents than they made for him. So he seized the garment and declared
that he would keep it for himself. His mother and Franquart were
dreadfully alarmed. They begged and implored him to put the garment
down. But they could not tell him that it was poisoned without
betraying their own guilt. In the end Harold went away with the
garment, leaving his mother and Franquart, in the utmost distress and
terror.
“Harold immediately put on the garment, and he died that very night in
great agony.
“The consequence was that Paul regained his whole kingdom, and when he
discovered the treachery which Helga and Franquart had attempted to
practice upon him, he drove them out of the islands.”
Grimkie’s composition was as follows:
“THE EAGLE AND THE BABY.”
“In one of the Orkney Islands named Hoy, where there are a great
many high mountains and lofty precipices near the sea, there lived a
fisherman named Halco. He had a small hut on the rocks, and a boat.
There was a little green spot near his hut where he used to dry his
nets, and where his little child, whose name was Halco too, used to
lie sometimes, and roll in the grass, and play.
“There are a great many eagles among the rocks of Hoy, and they often
carried off the farmers’ lambs, but as Halco had no sheep or lambs he
did not pay much attention to the eagles.
“One day when Halco was coming home in his boat, just before he
reached the shore he saw a monstrous eagle hovering over his hut, and
after wheeling round and round several times in the air, he made a
fell swoop toward the ground, and disappeared behind the hut. A moment
afterward Halco saw him come up again, and to his amazement and horror
he saw that he had little Halco in his claws.
“The eagle rose slowly with the child, and passing directly over
Halco’s head soared to a great height, and then sailed away to his
nest on the summit of a cliff.
“Halco was almost stupefied by the terrible shock which he had
received. He pulled like a madman to get to the shore. When he entered
his hut he found his wife in a swoon. He paid no attention to her but
seized his gun and rushed out of the hut. He climbed up the mountain
side, and after great labor he came near enough to the nest to see the
eagle perched upon the edge of it. He crept up a little nearer, and
then took aim and fired. The eagle, after balancing and tottering a
moment on his perch, fell heavily over, down the face of the cliff,
and disappeared. Halco climbed out to the place of the nest, and there
he found his little child, safe and sound, and playing with the young
eagles.”
“Why, Grimkie!” said John, as soon as Grimkie had finished reading his
narrative, “I found a story a little like that, about an eagle carrying
off a child, but there was not half as much in it as you have told.”
“I thought I would embellish it a little,” said Grimkie. “I presume it
is just as true after I embellished it, as it was before.”
* * * * *
John’s composition was very short. It was as follows:
“THE HOLE IN THE STONE.”
“In one of the stones of Stennis, is a round hole passing directly
through the stone, not far from the edge. Nobody knows what this hole
was made for by the people who set up the stone, but for a great many
ages past it has been considered sacred for engagements. Whenever two
persons wish to make any solemn agreement they go to Stennis and
put their hands through this hole, and clasp them together in the
center of it and then make the promise. If they do this they consider
themselves solemnly bound.
“Lovers used to do this when they engaged themselves to each other.
And it is said they do so now sometimes. Grimkie and I wanted to try
it, but we could not think of anything to promise each other.”
Instead of a composition Mrs. Morelle wrote a letter to America, giving
an account of the journey and voyage to the Orkney Islands. She read
this letter to the children after they had finished reading their
compositions, and then, though it was yet very light, they all went to
bed.