Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/15

 who had gathered from the neighbouring houses felt afraid to venture back alone. These traditionary tales formed virtually the only current literature the people had. In those times information was conveyed by tale and story, and not by books as now. To save the relics of the past and interest the rising generation in them, one must use the printed page. The young folk do not listen now; they read.

For nearly forty years the writer has been gathering from the lips of the old folk the sayings and superstitions handed down to them. This volume is the outcome of his gleanings in that field. Though it does not profess to be exhaustive, it is placed before the public as the first book specially devoted to the subject. It thus contains the fullest collection of Shetland folk-lore available to students of the subject and to natives of the Islands at home and abroad. The book may chance to have, as well, some value for philologists. The dialect of the