Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/82

 of Mrs. Tulloch, of Leog, Lerwick. The smaller of the two answers closely to the description given by Dr. Anderson, in his “Scotland in Pagan Times,” of one found in a barrow in Shetland. It is of a finely mottled stone, beautifully polished, and having a shaft hole ¾ inch in diameter, drilled through the parallel sides. It measures 4½ inches in length, by 1½ inches in width, and in the cross section is a slightly flattened oval. The other axe seems to be composed of finely grained sandstone, and is smoothly finished. It is 5 inches in length, and differs from the smaller specimen in that it tapers slightly from 1½ inches across the face at one end to 1¾ inches at the other. The shaft holes are drilled through the centre of the stone, but nearer one end than the other. These perforated axes also differ from the unperforated, in that the ends are not sharpened. Evidently they were not intended to cut, but they may have been used as war weapons. It is