Note 7 — II. STRABO, MELA, PLINY, PTOLEMY.

These are the Acmodæ of Pliny (iv. 30), which can only be the Shetlands. Salmasius identifies the Acmodæ, Hæmodæ, and Hebrides. Camden makes them different, and refers the Acmodæ to the Baltic. Parisot informs us that off the West Cape of Skye and the isle of North Uist (the nearest of the Hebrides to the Shetlands) there is a great gulf, which, being full of islands, is still called Mamaddy or Maddy—hence, possibly, the Greek Άι Μαδδάι, and the Latin Memodæ. According to Dr Charnock, the name in Keltic may be translated the “black head or hill,” or the “hill of God.”