to deliver, in the name of their idols, to
the tribes that assembled at the _Helgafels_.... I answered him in
nearly the same strain, for the spirit of the ancient Scalds of our race
was upon me; and far from fearing the phantom with whom I sat cooped
within so narrow a space, I felt the impulse of that high courage which
thrust the ancient champions and Druidesses upon contests with the
invisible world, when they thought that the earth no longer contained
enemies worthy to be subdued by them.... The Demon scowled at me as if
at once incensed and overawed; and then, coiling himself up in a thick
and sulphurous vapor, he disappeared from his place. I did not till that
moment feel the influence of fright, but then it seized me. I rushed
into the open air, where the tempest had passed away, and all was pure
and serene." Shall I dare confess, that I could fain have passed some
stormy night all alone in this solitary cell, were it but to enjoy the
luxury of listening, amid the darkness, to the clashing rain and the
roar of the wind high among the cliffs, or to detect the brushing sound
of hasty footsteps in the wild rustle of the heath, or the moan of
unhappy spirits in the low roar of the distant sea. Or, mayhap,--again
to borrow from the poet,--as midnight was passing into morning,

"To ponder o'er some mystic lay,
Till the wild tale had all its sway;
And in the bittern's distant shriek
I heard unearthly voices speak,
Or thought the wizard priest was come
To claim again his ancient home!
And bade my busy fancy range
To frame him fitting shape and strange;
Till from the dream my brow I cleared,
And smiled to think that I had feared."

The Dwarfie Stone has been a good deal undervalued by some writers, such
as the historian of Orkney, Mr. Barry; and, considered simply as a work
of art or labor, it certainly does not stand high. When tracing, as I
lay a-bed, the marks of the tool, which, in the harder portions of the
stone, are still distinctly visible, I just thought how that, armed with
pick and chisel, and working as I was once accustomed to work, I could
complete such another excavation to order in some three weeks or a
month. But then, I could not make my excavation a thousand years old,
nor envelop its origin in the sun-gilt vapors of a poetic obscurity, nor
connect it with the supernatural, through the influences of wild ancient
traditions, nor yet encircle it with a classic halo, borrowed from the
undy