Scousburgh , with its lovely Loch of Spiggie , its geos and its picturesque ghyll , its cliffs and islets , is one of the most beautiful of Shetland's beauty spots .sx One of the little isles close by is perforated by wonderful caves whose walls are painted by nature in the most interesting and charming manner .sx A little boat can row in one of the caves , which winds under the isle over a clear sea , until you lose the light of day .sx Then you light torches , and a scene of matchless loveliness is disclosed .sx No sound is heard but the murmur of the waves around your boat , and the low sigh of a wandering breeze that has stolen into the far chambers of that stately hall .sx You cannot go as far as the breeze goes , but you know that some sheltered nook in the far interior is the Hadd of mother seals .sx In quiet and security the sealkies are born and nursed .sx You may be told by your guide , if he chances to be a true Shetlander , that seals are fallen angels are women's spirits being punished for sins of the flesh , and he will smile as he relates some marvellous tales of that most beautiful Hadd .sx You listen and you wish you could believe , for the spell of the place is upon you .sx Nor is the spell removed when you emerge from the Hadd into the light of prosaic day .sx This cave like so many others served in ancient times to shelter men when fleeing from the Pressgang .sx Once , when two young fellows were hiding there , a great storm came on very suddenly , and the poor fugitives could not be rescued .sx After that doleful accident the cave was never used for such a purpose again .sx On the day I visited the Hadd we were entertained to stories of the locality by a genial , and indeed fascinating guide , the late Mr Thomas Henderson of Scousburgh .sx In the evening he took us for a sail in his pretty little yacht upon the placid waters of the Loch of Spiggie .sx That voyage up and down the enchanted lake is fixed in memory with all the mystic charm that pertains to such a scene , and also the charm of our host , who was a true Shetland gentleman .sx Of all our hundred isles , big and little , Fetlar is perhaps the most eerie , as it certainly is where the folk-lore has been most carefully preserved .sx I got a wonderful supply of old tales from Hannah-Kitty , a native of Fetlar .sx She had stories of Trows , giants , witches , mermaids on her tongue for ever .sx Many of these legends , however , were familiar to the folk of Unst and Yell and ascribed to localities in those isles , though Hannah-Kitty vowed they belonged to places in Fetlar .sx Be that as it may .sx I give her story of the giant Fluker .sx He was a peaceable and friendly giant , but very .sx ugly , and though he sometimes came from his Hadd in the high east cliff the women objected to his visits .sx This , after a time , enraged Fluker and he stole a little boy he found playing by the shore .sx He carried the child to his Hadd , but no one saw him do so , because he was a wizard as well as a giant , and cast a thick mist over Fetlar so that nothing could be seen .sx It was supposed that the bairn had dropped into the sea , and the mother went wailing along the crags crying , " Less !sx Less !sx my peerie boy !sx " So pitiful were her cries that Fluker's heart was melted and he hastened to his Hadd with the intention of letting the boy go .sx But the boy had vanished !sx A mermaid who frequented the coasts near Fluker's Hadd had spied the child and carried him to the ruins of the Broch , which she was in the habit of using as a Hoiden-holl .sx The ruin was a long way from the east cliffs , and there were no dwellings near it .sx But it happened that a boat passed by Broch and one of the men spied a child sleeping among the ruins .sx The boat was run inshore , and Merren's child was carried home to his sorrowing mother .sx Meanwhile Fluker knowing the mermaid's character had suspected her of interfering in his affairs .sx " When thieves fall out honest men get their own , " it is said .sx The giant and the mermaid .sx had a great quarrel .sx He threw rocks at her , and she tossed waves into his cave smothering him in a short time .sx But one of the rocks he flung struck her on the tail , and she sank dead in the sea .sx Thus they both perished .sx The rock which Fluker flung was known as " The Mermaid's Baa .sx " I think the most eerie place of all the natural wonders of our Isles must be " The Holls-o'-Skraada , " which , it is said , means " the devil's hiding-place .sx " I wish it had a nicer meaning , for there is very much wondrous beauty of a wild fantastic kind about it .sx The story is that " The Mukle Maister " had caused a number of ships to be cast away upon the Vee Skerries ; and , as a punishment , he was set to bore a huge hole through the rocks till the sea could rush through .sx After an eternity of time the devil completed his task , but so painful was the job that he could not refrain from groaning and sobbing .sx The echoes of his sobs and groans still haunt the Holls-o'-Skraada , and can be heard as you pass through Mavis Grinnd or the Devil's Gateway ( literally , the narrow way) .sx That place is a belt of rock covered by sand and boulders , and is all the solid ground which unites two portions of the mainland of Shetland , and at the same time divides the Atlantic from the North Sea .sx It is such a narrow bit of earth ( or sand ) that .sx a stone thrown from the Atlantic shore can drown itself in the North Sea !sx There is a splendid cave in the rocks of Bressay known , of old , as the " Orkney Man's Cave , " called now the " Cave of the Bard " ( a bard in our tongue does not mean a singer of songs , but a bold head-land) .sx The story goes that a native of Orkney , escaping from the Pressgang and being hotly pursued , found refuge in the recesses of the vast Helyer .sx It is seldom that a boat dare venture into that cave , but in his desperate case the poor , brave man , alone , in a small skiff he had borrowed from a Lerwick boat-noost , rowed into the vast , winding , sea-tormented cavern .sx The King's men did not dare to follow , for the waves were heaving and foaming around the coast .sx Indeed these men believed that the Orcadian had been lost there , and the pursuit was given up .sx There are twists and turns in that cave .sx Its walls are finely coloured by the hand of nature .sx There are little nooks and ledges where an otter might find a place to rest upon .sx There are one or two sheltered sand-strewn bits where a mother-seal might cradle her baby .sx There was a shelf of rock high up to which an agile man might climb and be safe from drowning .sx It is told that the Orkney man lived and was rescued when the storm subsided .sx Pitying islanders who had every reasonto hate the Pressgang and British tyrannical law may be able to tell how the Orkney man got out of the cave .sx The cliffs of Burrafiord , Unst , are hollowed and carved into magnificent arched water-ways and stately caves .sx One of the largest of these Helyers is named " The Will-Helyer .sx " To " will " is to lose your way , and that can be very easily done if you row your boat into that cavern which is like a darkened room in a vast castle .sx The sea is heaving your boat about , and you hasten to return to the light of day .sx But in turning you take what you believe is the way to the outer entrance .sx It is not .sx It is another room .sx You go on , and well , you get wilt ( lost ) among the dark apartments of the Will-Helyer .sx The waves make mournful music as you vainly strive to find the way out , and the glittering roof of rock seems to come nearer and nearer to you till you can touch its cold and clammy surface with your trembling hand !sx A boat with a gay party of young men is said to have ventured thus into the depths of the Will-Helyer , and that party was never seen again !sx But the broken bits of their boat , with the oars , were found along the shores of Norwick .sx The high crest of Saxavord , with undulating .sx broad lands spreading from it till they terminate on the rocky coast of Norwick , is far away from Burrafiord , and the long Ness of Skaw divides the fiord of Burra from the North Vik .sx How came the fragments of that boat to where they were found ?sx Tradition has it that the ocean has made a way for itself from the Will-Helyer to Saxie's Kettle , which is an opening among the cliffs of Norwick , miles away from Burrafiord .sx The giant Saxie dwelt in a Broch upon the hilltop , and he cooked his food in the kettle which at certain stages of the tide bubbles and hisses and tosses the water out and in the kettle " for a' the world like a mukle pot at the boil .sx " I have stood on the brink of the cliff and looked down to the kettle boiling below , and the good man who told the story assured me that the water was hot !sx There was no way of proving that ; but ( like the wise minister who dared to contradict King James who was gravely telling a tale which he asserted was true ) " I doot the fact .sx " There was a gruesome Hoiden-holl on the summit of Vaalafiel , a short way from the track leading from Baltasound to the Westing .sx Its opening is on a level bit of the hill , and there was nothing to mark its dark mouth which was not conspicuous , being surrounded by long grass .sx About two hundred years ago some enterprising strangers went down into that darksome pit .sx They were lowered by ropes .sx They found themselves in a large hole which had evidently been occupied at some period long gone by .sx There were ashes , scraps of wood and stones , also a few bones , but it was never stated whether these were human or not .sx There was nothing to tell who had occupied it .sx One can only conjecture that the hole was used by some persons hiding from foes , or by the peerie hill-men of prehistoric times .sx About one hundred years ago , a man crossing the hill from Baliastae to the Westing in a " lockit " mist lost the track , and fell into the hole .sx It was a fall of quite ten feet and there was no projection by which he could climb out .sx Nor was there any material with which he could build a mound .sx All was darkness and desolation .sx His feet sank into the earth which was almost mud .sx The place was dismal indeed , and there was little hope of rescue .sx When he did not return to his home being a steady decent man not likely to absent himself from the joys of his own fireside his wife became alarmed and a search began .sx The near-by cliffs were searched , and the peat mires .sx Then it chanced that someone , tramping past the neighbourhood of the hole , heard a curious sound " like the brule o' a hungry coo .sx " He paused , .sx left the track , and going near the hole , he heard a melancholy moan and a voice he recognised saying :sx " Gude be naur me and me bairns if I die here .sx " That was enough , help was soon on the spot .sx Of course , the dangerous hole should have been filled in and closed , but it was not , and , not so long ago , it gave shelter to a native of the Isle who had in Edinburgh " lifted " what did not belong to him .sx