Scandinavian-Britain

244 SCANDINAVIAN BRITAIN6. THE EARLDOM OF ORKNEY.That the earliest Norse settlers in Orkney andShetland found Irish priests in the islands, is knownfrom the names of Papa Stour, Papa Little and Papain Scalloway, Papal in Unst and Yell, and Papil inBurra (Shetland),also Papa in Westray and Stronsay,Paplay in South Ronaldsay and in Holm, and Papdalenear Kirkwall (Orkney). It has been remarked (p. 241)that the word Papar for "priests" must have beenbrought by the Norse ;it shows that, contrary toDasent's opinion, the Shetlands were not uninhabited,and that the heathen invaders recognised the priestsfrom the first. The persistence of the names Rinansey(St. Ninian's Isle), Enhallow (Holy Isle),and Damsey(St. Adamnan's Isle) in Orkney, and St. Ninian's Isle inShetland, together with the preservation of chapels ofearly Celtic type, suggests that the priests were notexterminated, in spite of a local tradition in Unst(quoted by the Rev. A Sandison, Saga-book of theViking Club, i. 244) that the Picts fought until onlya priest and his son were left, and they perishedrefusing to tell the secret of the heather-ale, as in theNiel MunroHighland story picturesquely retold byin The Lost Pibroch. Early dedications to Ninian,Columba, Brigit and Triduana may have survived theinvasion ;and it is possible that some of the sculpturedstones with ogams may be pre-Norse. On the otherhand, in the ogams of the Bressay stone (Shetland)