Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/15

 old. Natural gates of solid rock often guard the narrow waterways that lead to some voe where a native town is located.

The country also abounds with strange tales of the Picts and the old Vikings, of the haunts of fairies and witches, so it is altogether an eerie place.

Twenty-seven of the islands of this group are inhabited, while there are about seventy which are used only for grazing the diminutive horses, cattle, and sheep, for all the domestic animals on these islands are very small, like the Shetland pony, so well known to us.

From very ancient times these little horses have existed on the Shetland Islands, just as the little cows and sheep have, but it is only within the last seventy years that they have been exported in large numbers. But not all Shetland ponies are so fortunate as those which find their way to America and England, to become the much-adored companions of children, for many of them find their way