Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/34

 islands, either as an independent people, prior to the Norse invasion, or accompanying the Norse warriors at a later date.

But to return to the Picts. Whoever they were, they are gone, leaving nothing behind them but the numerous brochs, burial mounds, and standing stones; and as we gaze on these mouldering remains of a byegone age, we can only soliloquise in the words of the poet:

The Picts probably occupied the islands for a thousand years. They have been a numerous, industrious, and intelligent