Northern constellations which encircle Polaris, Beyond 

 Ursa Major and Ursa Minor, the two 'swift- tne Blue 

 wandering' Bears, 'guard the Atlantean Pole,' Septen- 

 till a poet of our own time wrote the less 

 majestic but not less lovely line relating to 

 these constellations which gives the title to 

 this paper. In all ages, too, the dreaming 

 mind of man has imagined here the Throne of 

 the Gods, the Seat of the Mighty, the last 

 Portal of the Unknown. It is the Flatheansas 

 of our Gaelic ancestors, the ultimate goal of 

 the heroic spirit : the Himinbiorg, or Hill of 

 Heaven, of the Norsemen of old, and the abode 

 of Heimdallr, the guardian of the bridge 

 Bifrost (the Rainbow) which unites Asgard the 

 Everlasting with that brief whirling phantom, 

 the Earth. It is Albordy, 'the dazzling 

 mountain on which was held the Assembly of 

 the Gods ' of the ancient Teutonic peoples : 

 the mysterious Mount Meru, the seat of the 

 gods, of the Aryan dreamers of old, and the 

 Hindu sages of later time : ' the holy mountain 

 of God ' alluded to in Ezekiel — so, at least, it 

 has been surmised. 



'The blue Septentrions ' . . . Bootes with 

 Arcturus, the Great Bear, the Lesser Bear, 

 the Pointers or the Northern Hounds, the 

 North Star . . . what legend, what poetry, 

 what romance, what wonder belongs to these 



3*3 



