Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Description of the Orkney Islands (Author: Joseph Ben)

section 29

Hoy, 29.

Here is a very lofty mountain, three miles in height, to the top of which there is no means of ascending, also another not so lofty. Between these is a stone worthy of notice; it is very large and high, and is said to have been shaped by a giant and his wife. One stone is a chamber, in which is a bed, very ingeniously made in the stone, by the man and woman; during the time of their sleeping here the woman was pregnant, as the stone testifies, for

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that part of the bed where she lay, retains the shape of a pregnant woman. If it may be credited, birch grows in in this island, but not in the others; for they are all without trees. Here are white hares, which are hunted with dogs. In it is also abundance of birds called Leris, also of fish and other kinds of fowl.

It contains likewise mines of gold, lead and iron, and many other valuable things.