Page:Shetland Folk-Lore - Spence - 1899.pdf/95

 had witnessed. Next morning men came with the tidings that Thorstein had been drowned at the fishing.

The guardian spirits of the ancient heroes, which in the olden days protected their graves from defilement, in later times have been replaced by the fairies, who should not be angered by the folk contaminating their dwelling places. It is not considered right to drive a stake into one of these mounds, in order to tether an animal; and the same reason has prevented many a howe from being removed, lest the fairies might wreak their revenge by taking the lives of the cattle.

A common belief exists that in these mounds there are hidden “pots of money,” and in many cases avarice must have been stronger than superstition, for many of the grave mounds have been already explored. Whatever treasures were discovered were only such as might have enriched the antiquary, but could never repay the searcher after wealth.