214 CRANIA BRITANNICA. [CHAP. VI I .
Lerwick, informs us that he has frequently seen Shetlandmen whom it was difficult to distinguish,
by the eye, from Norwegians ; until they spoke, he could not tell which they were *.
Dr. Beddoe says of these people, " The Shetlanders come nearer to the English than to the
Scotch in figure and features, and eyen in the colour of their hair, which is rarely either black
or violently red, and most commonly of a brownish yellow. Eyes more often grey than blue,
but not unfrequently brown " +. The former remark is confirmed by other witnesses. Dr.
Beddoe's index of nigrescence in 257 Shetlanders observed amounts to I'. Among these 72'3
had light eyes, 7'3 intermediate, and 20-3 dark.
The " Norn " or Norse language long remained in the islands. Worsaae gives a specimen
•written down in 1774, and remarks further, that Norwegian is said to have been spoken during
the last century by some few old persons in the most remote islands i. Gaelic was always
strange to them. The present dialect contains hundreds of vocables of Norse origin. The
vocalization does not resemble broad Scotch, and Dr. Spence affirms the accent to be more
musical and modulated than that of either the Scotch or English §.
The inhabitants of Caithness, both physically and morally, are an unusually fine race
of people. They are notoriously of a somewhat mixed Pictish and Norse blood; yet the
Norsemen nowhere on the mainlaid of Scotland retained a more lasting and secure hold than in
the level dales of Caithness, and it is in these districts that theii- purest descendants still live.
They consider themselves as totally distinct from the Highlanders, who are their contermiaous
neighbours—the upland peasantry of Pictish origia. Dr. Beddoe found in 300 inhabitants of
the town of "Wick, in whom there was a great absence of black, hair, that his index of nigrescence
was only 8-1; the percentage of the coloiu-s of the eyes being 61'9 light, 15-8 intermediate,
and 22-3 dark. He speaks of them as " a tall, robust, and handsome people " ||, which is
quite in accord with the opinions of others.
Of four fine regular crania of adult men from Caithness, there is a great agi-eement among
three. They are capacious, ovoid, dolichocephalic, having expanded foreheads, long faces, and
elevated slender noses. The fourth is equal in size, but more oblong in form. These four skulls
afford the following averages :—
Proportions.
Capacity.
77-6
Circumference.
21-07
Length.
7-32
Breadth.
5-7
Height.
5-35
Length.
100
Breadth.
78
Height.
73.
eyes that in some aspects have a green glance may not be quite
so apocryphal as Dr. Hihbert presumes. A competent witness
confirms this, a Shetlandman, too, of a family more than 300
years resident in the islands, which reckons Sir Patrick Spens,
so famous in ballad lore, among their ancestors, of whom it
has been recited
Sir Patrick Spens is the best sailor
That sails upon the se.
The witness to whom we allude testifies thus :—" "When my
eves are carefully examined with a magnifying mirror, twothirds
of the radiating fibres of the iris are seen to be of a lightblue
colour, and intimately intermingled with these are others
of which nearly half are hazel and the rest a light yellowish
brown; round the pupil are a few concentric fibres, none of
which are blue. The general effect is to present an iris of a
greenish-blue colour, in which the grey or blue predominates
in different lights; and, in some positions, the blue assumes a
slightly greenish tinge, although not in the least like seagreen,
or grass-green (oculi herbei of Plautus), or like the
familar green eye of the cat."
* To this intelligent and experienced observer we owe the
greatest attention to our inquiries. He introduced a chapter
upon the physical characters of the inhabitants of Shetland into
his unpublished inaugural thesis, "On the Medical Topography
of the Shetland Islands," in 1848, and has never since lost
sight of the subject. We regret not being able to avail ourselves
of more of the information he has collected for us.
t Contribution, p. 23.
J Danes and Norwegians, p. 226-7.
§ There is much other information respecting the Shetlanders
in Worsaae's two interesting Sections V. and VI., but
he passes over their physical and moral characters almost entirely
eicco pede. II Contribution, p. 23.
^ We are indebted to the friendly and active efforts of,
alas! now, the late Mr. A. Henry Ehiud, F.S.A.L. & S., for
these and other specimens of crania.
CHAP. VII.] ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS OP THE PRESENT POPULATION. 215
In the Hebrides, it has been before shown, there is a great admixture of aboriginal and
Scotic blood, probably most of the latter. This mingling prevails generally, but is so unequal
in the numerous different isles and districts as to prevent a very exact ethnic estimation of the
population.
These seas behold.
Round twice a hundred islands roll'd.
From Hirt, that hears their northern roar.
To the green Islay's fertile shore.
In a former section we sought an exposition of the more Celtic divisions, although these
were found to be by no means marked by clear outlines. Still, there arc other portions of the
territory of the ancient Lords of the Isles, in which the Norse strain is quite uneradicated.
The testimony of the Danish antiquary "Worsaae, concerning the northern extremity of Lewis, is
given in this passage. " Throughout Harris and Lewis the Gaelic iahabitants are smaU, darkhaii
ed, and in general very ugly. Bat no sooner do we arrive at Ness, than we meet with a
people of entirely different appearance. Both the men and women have in general lighter hair,
taller figures, and far handsomer features. I visited several of their cabins, and found myself
surrounded by physiognomies so Norwegian, that I could have fancied myself in Scandinavia
itself " *. "We have previously mentioned, on the authority of a well-informed witness, the singular
absence of that poetic temperament among the Ness people, which is so interesting a characteristic
of every Celtic race.
The populations of Cumberland and "Westmoreland, of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire exhibit
unequivocal signs of a Scandinavian strain. Those of the first county are a tall, light-complexioned,
long-faced, handsome, and n every sense powerful people, whether they may claim
Danish or Norse descent—most probably the latter. The Cumberland peasantry, like their
neighbours of "Westmoreland, are remarkable for their stature. The average has been estimated,
without measurement, by a close observer to amount to 5 ft. 9 in. for the men, and 5 ft. 5 in.
for the women. The average stature of the rm-al police is 5 ft. 11 in., whilst that of the "Westmoreland
portion exceeds 6 feet t- The bones of the Cumbrian people are large, the skeleton
strong, and the limbs decidedly long. They are not a very bulky people, nor yet very fleshy;
still they are athletic, and they are free in their movements. They are famous for feats of
wrestling, or " russling;" and men noted for their dexterity in this sport have been observed to
have long ape-lilie arms. The countenance is fair and handsome. The face is long and orthognathous
; the forehead of good height and breadth, indicating fvilly developed anterior lobes of
the cerebrum. The nose is straight on the dorsum or slightly sinuous, long, rather slender, and
prominent, often rising high at the root between the eyes, and having the tip standing out over
the Up. The chin is not narrow or receding, but rather the contrary. The hau- is generally
of a light shade of brown, or fair ; very seldom red, rarely dark, mt h an absence of black, and
not curly. The body is marked by an inferior degree of hairiness. Grey and blue eyes vastly
preponderate, the darker colom-s being quite rare.
The following Table exliibits the results of the observations of Dr. Beddoe in Cumberland and
Westmoreland, which entirely concm- with our own:—
* Danes and Norwegians, p. 2C8.
t A gentleman able to trace his family inheritance, near
Carlisle, in a direct line from father to son, for 300 years, its
owners always bearing the same baptismal name of Thomas, is
6 feet 1| inch in height, of fair complexion, has light hair
and eyes, a long slender nose, and a high head, the circumference
of which is 22-7 inches.
23? 2