Page 23 Macbeath

 



From:- The Orkneys in Early Celtic Times, Two Lectures, by James M. Macbeath, published by William Peace and Son, in 1892.

Page 23

The use of the bow by savages seems to have been almost universal in Europe, and may have suggested itself to man by instinct. It's use gave additional power and value to the arrow, and these , to an expert, were a great increase to maintenance. 

The swift bird fled, and the fleet animal ran, and bow and arrow materially aided in their capture, and secured the coveted prey.

Universal as the arrow was during the later stone age, and all through these early centuries of savage life, their real use has been so little known during recent times , that up to the present century they were popularly believed to be "Elf arrows" or "fairy darts", and there are numerous incidents in which they were so regarded. Many of them have been for ages safely guarded and kept inviolate, from a deeply rooted conviction that, if parted with, or lost "good luck" would not longer be the heritage of those through whom the heirloom changed hands.

It is not yet two decades since a friend got for me a fine specimen of a "fairy dart", from a young woman who received it from her grandmother with the strict injunction, "that she was not topart with it; that if age did the fairies would take herself, and her luck would be gone for life".

Some years ago I learned incidentally an instance which occurred towards the end of the last century, where one of these arrow heads was believed by its owner to have been the handiwork of the "elves" or "fairies". It was owned by an Orcadian who wore it night and day for the greater portion of a long life. The old man resided in what would then have been considered an isolated district of the group. It had come to him as an heirloom, and he had worn it from youth to extreme old age, suspended by a cord around the neck, superstitiously as a charm. On no account would he part with the heirloom, affirming that if he did the fairies would come and take him bodily away, so that he would never be seen heard of again. When he believed himself dying, he left strict instructions that his heirloom be buried with him, he leaving no descendants. 

More about the migration of neolithic people to Orkney, in the Orkney Riddle 

#neolithic #prehistory #archaeology #Orkney #Scotland #Brodgar #skarabrae

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