interpreted by Dr. Graves, Bishop of Limerick: "Bentire, or the Son
of the Druid, lies here." "The Cross of Nordred's daughter is here
placed." This stone was found by a labourer about 1851, while digging
in a piece of waste ground near the ruinous church of Culbinsgarth at
Bressay, Shetland. The design is said to be thoroughly Irish, and the
inscription a mixture of Irish and Icelandic. The stone measures 4 ft.
by 1 ft. 4-1/2 in. by 2 in. It is attributed to the ninth century.

The stone 101a is a slab of brownish sandstone, 44 in. by 13 in. by
11/2 in., from Lunnasting, also in Shetland. It was found five
feet below the surface in 1876, and, having probably lain there for
centuries, was in excellent preservation. The authorities, however,
are unable to make a satisfactory translation. The cross or dagger is
also of doubtful explanation; and Mr. Gilbert Goudie thinks it is
a mere mason's mark. It is, however, admitted on all hands that
the stone is of Christian origin, and probably of the period just
subsequent to the termination of the Roman rule in Britain. It has
been suggested that most of these ancient gravestones were carved and
set up by the Irish missionary monks not earlier than A.D. 580. The
Ogam inscription on the Lumasting stone has been made by one expert to
read:

EATTUICHEATTS MAHEADTTANNN
HCCFFSTFF NCDTONS.

A strange and inexplicable aggregation of consonants.

The stone represented below, 101 _b_, bears an inscription in Runic
characters. Runic is a term applied to any mysterious writing; but
there were three leading classes of "runes"--Scandinavian, German,
and Anglo-Saxon--all agreeing in certain features, and all ascribed
by some authorities to the Phoenicians. The stone 101 _b_ was found in
1865, at Kilbar, Barra, a remote island of the outer Hebrides, off the
north-west coast of Scotland. It measures 6 ft. 5-1/2 in. in
height, and its greatest width is 15-1/2 inches. Mr. Carmichael has
conjectured that it was probably brought from Iona about the beginning
of the seventeenth century, and erected in Barra at the head of a
grave made by a son of McNeil for himself. But it is believed to
have been in any case a Norse memorial in the first instance, though
certainly Christian, for it reads:

"Ur and Thur Gared set up the stones of Riskar.[18] May Christ guard
his soul."

[Footnote 18: Riskar, or Raskar, is a surname of the Norwegians, who
were early settled in the Western Islands and ado