When
an Orcadian talked of "saining" it simply referred to
the act of making the sign of the Cross.
Interestingly, however, there are occasions when
the reference did not only mean that the sign of the Cross was made.
Sometimes, "to sain" meant that a circle was first traced
before a cross was made inside it.
It is possible that this may hark back to earlier
traditions - could it be that it stems from the magical protection
offered by circles? For example, to protect yourself against trows
you would scratch a circle around yourself with an iron blade.
In addition, the sign may well have invoked the
protection of Odin - the Norse god to whom oaths were still sworn in Orkney
until the beginning of the 19th century.
In Stenness, until the early 1800s, there existed
the Odin Stone - a
circular-holed monolith - through which these binding oaths were sworn.
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