Shetland Folk-Lore
in order to prevent the inhabitants fleeing to it for concealment, is quite in keeping with the customs of the marauding bands of the time, and probably is a tradition of an event which actually occurred. That the Norsemen introduced the art of peat-cutting when wood became scarce is probable, and the bold Jarl Einar likely merited the eke-name he received—Torf Einar. Although the trees growing in Shetland may not have been of very large size, they would have afforded material for agricultural and domestic implements and utensils, for roofs of huts, and for building the frames of coracles or skin boats. The brushwood would also furnish fuel for the inhabitants, and the stone hatchet must have been of as much importance to the Stone Age Shetlander as the tusker (spade for cutting peats) is to the crofter of our own day.
The beautiful specimen of a polished axe shown in Fig. 1 (Frontispiece) is from a group of three found lying together in
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