Shetland Folk-Lore
as an adze. Though the axe form is probably the most common, distinctly adze-shaped specimens are frequently met with.
Another example of a stone axe, shown in Fig. 5, is thus described by Dr. Anderson in his valuable work, “Scotland in Pagan Times”: It “is of greyish porphyritic stone, 10 inches in length, and 3 inches across the centre where it is widest, oval in section, tapering both ways from the middle, upwards to a pointed butt, and downwards to an oval cutting edge. It was found under six feet of peat on the hill above Grimister, called Mount Braa, about two miles from Lerwick.”
Another type known as perforated stone battle-axes have occasionally been found. They are hammer shaped, and unlike the ordinary form of stone axes, which were secured in an opening made in the wooden handle, they are pierced with a shaft hole to receive a haft. This variety is, however, rare. Two examples are in the pos-
74
