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LEFT SHETLAND 394 SHIELD to 1917, professor of English and presi- dent of Oxford (Ohio) College for Women. Besides contributing letters of travel and editorial articles to newspapers, she published "The He of Ladies" (1902). SHETLAND, or ZETLAND ISLANDS (Old Norse, Hialtlandia, "the viking's land"), a group of over 100 islands (of which 30 are inhabited) lying N. N. E. of the Orkney Islands (formerly in- cluded in the same county) ; area, 551 square miles; pop. (1918) 26,300. The principal are the Mainland (60 miles long, but narrow) ; N. E. of it Yell (20 miles by 6), Unst (11 miles by 6) ; Fet- lar, Whalsay, and Bressay. The lonely islands of Foula, 20 miles W. of Main- land, and Fair Island, 25 miles S. of it, are also included in the group. The rocks are chiefly Silurian, highly metamor- phosed, resting on Laurentian gneiss, and covered in the S. by fragments of the Old Red Sandstone which characterizes the Orkneys. The coast line of the islands is rocky and precipitous and much in- dented; their surface is rocky and bare. The highest summit is Rona Hill, 1,590 feet high, in the N. of Mainland; Foula Island attains a height of 1,400 feet. The scenery of the islands is very grand. The climate is humid and mild, but severe storms rage during winter. It seems peculiarly healthy for the natives, who frequently attain a great age. The chief occupation of the Shetlanders is fishing. Cod, ling, tusk, saithe or coal fish, and herring are caught in great num- bers. The bottle-nosed whale and seal are also hunted. Most of the fishermen possess also small crofts of land, on which they raise oats, bere, turnips, and pota- toes. The group produces peculiar di- minutive breeds of horses, cattle, and sheep. The ponies, called "shelties," are remarkably sure-footed. They were for- merly regarded as common property and ran wild on the moors. Many are ex- ported for use in coal mines. The women spend much of their time in knitting, and Shetland hosiery has long been famous. Though a variety of minerals are found in small quantities, chromate of iron is the only one obtainable in quantities worth exporting. The chief town is Ler- wick, 100 miles N. of Kirkwall. The only other towns are Hillswick and Scalloway. The chief antiquities are the ruins of ^Scalloway Castle and of numerous so- called "Pictish" towers, the chief being Mousa, 12 miles from Lerwick. The Shetland Islands were early peopled by Northmen, and along with the Orkneys were attached to the kingdom of Denmark. Robert St. Clair, Earl of Orkney, held them under the kings of Denmark. In 1469 they were attached to Scotland as dowry of Margaret of Den- mark, James III.'s bride. After passing through the hands of various noblemen they were sold in 1766 to Sir Lawrence Dundas, in whose family (the Earls of Zetland) they still remain. Old Norse customs long survived, and are not yet quite extinct, but the English language is now universal. A rich though little- wrought vein of folklore is indicated by the survival of many curious incantations or spell songs, which bear the impress of Odinic origin. A transfigured relic of an Eddie lay — a fragment of Odin's Rune song in a Christianized version — from the lips of an inhabitant of Unst, was received by Karl Blind in 1877. SHETLAND PONY, a very small variety of the horse, with flowing manes and tails, peculiar to Shetland. SHIBBOLETH (properly Shibbo'leth, Hebrew, "ear or corn," or "stream"), the test word used by the Gileadites under Jephthah after their victory over the Ephraimites, recorded in Judges xii. 6. The latter could not pronounce the sh, and, by saying sibboleth, betrayed them- selves, and were slaughtered at the ford. All those Hebrew names in the Old Testa- ment which commence with the sh have now, through the inability of the Septua- gint to render this sound in Greek, be- come familiar to us, through the versions that flowed from it, as beginning with the simple s — e. g., Simon, Samaria, Solomon, Saul, etc. The word shibboleth is still used to mean a test of opinions and man- ners. SHIEL, LOCH, a fresh-water lake in Scotland, on the boundary between Inver- ness-shire and Argyleshire. It is about 15 miles long, but extremely narrow. It discharges by the river Shiel, which flows 3 miles N. W. to the sea at Loch Moidart. SHIELD, a portion of defensive armor held by the left hand or worn on the left arm to ward off sword strokes or missiles. The earliest known shields date from the close of the Bronze Age. They are circu- lar and flat, or but slightly convex, with a central boss, under and across which the handle is fixed. The Greek shield of the Homeric period was also of bronze, circular, convex, and often ornamented with devices. The Etruscan shield of bronze, of which there is a fine specimen in the British Museum, is also circular and ornamented in concentric bands of embossed work round the central boss. The Roman infantry used a light round shield about three feet in diameter, and the cavalry carried a smaller buckler also of a round form covered with hide,