STONEHENGE AND THE STARS 247 



an eye, passing through a circle and weaves quite 

 a thread of folk-lore around his mythical design. 



The sagacious and experienced reader will 

 scarcely fail to expect that, in the midst of so 

 much misdirected ingenuity, there will be found 

 some attempt to connect Stonehenge with the 

 " number of the beast." 



Oddly enough, I can find no such effort, though 

 it can hardly be supposed that it has not been 

 made. Certainly, within the last few years one of 

 the Scotch Stone Circles has been so associated, 

 and the writer of the paper in question goes so far 

 as to say that " it is obvious that had it not been 

 for the * number of the beast, six hundred three- 

 score and six,' in the Apocalypse," the distance 

 and numbers which he has worked out in con- 

 nexion with this circle " would have been without 

 meaning." And he asks, " Cannot we go back, in 

 imagination, 1,850 years, to the island of Patmos, 

 and see a converted Phoenician High Priest laying 

 at the feet of the beloved Disciple his once most 

 cherished possession, the Secret Number of the 

 Sun God ? " 



At the end of this list of explanations and it 

 might have been made longer the reader will 

 perhaps find himself inclined to exclaim with 

 Pepys, " God knows what their use was ! they are 

 hard to tell, but yet may be told." 



It now remains to be seen whether recent re- 

 searches have thrown any light upon the date and 

 purpose of stone circles in general and of Stone- 

 henge in particular. 



On the last day of the last century two of the 



