So called as if the sandy isle, because it abounds with sand, it is about two miles distant from the former: this island is about twelve miles in length, and two in breadth. The English and Germans are very frequently shipwrecked here, in a part towards the east, called the Star of Lopeness.
As I was once passing through the island, and fatigued, I betook myself to a church called Holy-cross, where I saw in a cemetery a number of human heads, above a thousand, greater than any three heads of people now living, and I drew some teeth out of the gums, which were larger than filberts. I was very much surprized, and being desirous of gratifying my curiosity, I had recourse to an old man, from whom I enquired what bones these were, and why they remained unburied? he replied, my son, this island was formerly subject to the people of Stronsay, to whom we paid an annual tribute, that we might live unmolested, as we were an unwarlike nation; at length we were nearly exhausted by the payment; and began to consider how we could free ourselves from it. Then one more prudent than the rest said; ‘the day of payment is at hand; let us all conceal ourselves in the church, and fall upon our enemies unawares, when they come, so that not one of them escape’— to this all assented. On the appointed day, the people of Stronsay, with their wives, sons, daughters, servants, friends, and many others, having weighed anchor and set sail with a favourable breeze, came unarmed to our shores, where, after having disembarked, they spent the greater part of the day in dancing and festivity. In the mean time the people of Sanday, we who live in this island, rushed out, and being provided with suitable weapons, we attacked them, with loud shouts and a dreadful noise, and put them all to death. Thus were we liberated, and we never paid tribute since.
Both old and young, in these two islands are so much afflicted with vermin, that they can never be cured. Rabbits are plenty here in summer, and in winter become so tame as to be caught in the houses. The common people wear shoes made of hides, fastened with a leather strap, called in the language of the country, Rifflings.