The non-Finnish Shetlanders who overheard the captive woman talking with her friends "could not understand a single word of the conversation." It is not necessary to assume that this denoted more than a mere dialectic difference; accent being a wonderfully important consideration in cases of this sort. That Finn settlements were often conterminous with districts occupied by those who regarded the Finns as enemies is suggested by the existence of a "Finns' Town" in Orkney, and a "Finn Town" in Donegal.[36]
Of course, those Finns must have one or many historical names. It is probable that they constituted a large proportion of the population of the Outer Hebrides. One of the stories relating to such people is of a mer-woman who "fell in love with a young shepherd, who kept his flocks beside a creek much frequented by these marine people"—the locality being somewhere on the Manx coast. "She frequently caressed him" (the account continues—somewhat superfluously), "and brought him presents of coral, fine pearls, and every valuable production of the ocean."[37] Now, this woman may easily have been one of those "marine people" who inhabited various parts of the Hebrides, and who used the skin-skiff of the Esquimaux "even long after the art of building boats of wood was introduced." The coral and "fine pearls" which this mer-woman brought to her Manx lover may have come from no greater distance than the Island of Skye: since Martin tells us that the people of that island used to adorn their garments with "fine stones" and "pieces of red coral"—the latter article being found in "great quantity" on the shores of the Lewis. At that time the islanders of Jura dwelt in turf-covered wigwams identical with those used by modern Lapps; as may be seen from the illustration here copied from Pennant's second "Tour." And the people of Harris were described in the following terms, in the early part of this century[38]:—"In general the natives are of small stature,... Scarcely any attain the height of 6 feet, and many of the males are not higher than 5 feet 3 or 4 inches." "The Harrisian physiognomy" is thus detailed: "The cheek bones are rather prominent, and the nose is invariably short, the space between it and the chin being disproportionately long. The complexion is of all tints. Many individuals are as dark as mulattoes...." The population thus described was greatly mingled at the period when these latter observations were made; but there is nevertheless strong evidence of the possession of Ugrian blood in the people thus portrayed. And their boats and dwellings do nothing to contradict this theoretical connection with the races we now know by such names as Lapp, Finn, Samoyed, and Eskimo.
WIGWAMS OF THE JURA ISLANDERS IN 1772.
(From Pennant's Second Tour.)
The author of the "Gallovidian Encyclopædia" gives also a hint of the existence of such a population in Galloway: when (under the name "cutty glies") he refers to "a class of females," whom he describes as "little" and "squat-made," and to whom he assigns (without exception) the amorous nature of the Manx mer-woman just spoken of. And, as the Gallovidian chronicler lived near the inlet known as "the Manxman's Lake," it is not improbable that this also was "a creek much frequented by these marine people"; and that, in short, Mactaggart's "little, squat-made females" were of the same stock as the Mer-women of the Isle of Man and the Hebrides, and the Finn-women of the Northern Isles.
Note.—For additional information on the subject of skin-boats, and the races connected with them, see pp. [174], [178]-[9], post, and [Appendix B].