2U8 MORTIMER : STAR-WORSHIP INDICATED BY GROUPING OF BARROWS. 
tumuli in distant countries were looked over. This figure of "Charles' 
Wain," whidi has so often been repeated in the arranging of the 
burial mounds of the dead, has also been in early times sculptured 
on stone. Mr. B. Boynton, of Bridlington Quay, has an artificially 
formed ball of hard clialkstone, about two and a-half inches in dia- 
meter, on which are six cup-cuttings placed so as to form the same 
design, except that the cup, to complete the shaft of the Wain, is 
absent. Probably this stone was a hand weapon, on which this 
symbol was engraved as a charm. We also find this figure among 
the cup-formed sculpturings on our dolmens and on various rocks. 
"Hag's Chair"'- (fig. 1) is a large block from a circle of stones 
which surrounded the base of a cairn at Lough Crew, Ireland. It is 
thickly covered with cup and other incised mystic symbols. 
These were probably meant to represent the appearances of the 
various heavenly bodies, such as the sun, moon, stars, and other 
astronomical objects Certainly the seven stars of "Charles' Wain" 
are unmistakably shown to be mapped in two distinct figures, 
arranged in positions indicating half a revolution round the Pole, 
and almost identically similar to the placing of some of the groups of 
barrows on the diagram. 
That the two groups on " Hag's Chair" of seven cups each were 
intended to form the figure of " Charles' Wain " is clearly shown by 
the cups alone in each figure being distinctly connected by an incised 
line. A little below the two figures of " Charles' Wain " on " Hag's 
Chair" are seven other cups arranged in much the same manner as 
the stars of the Pleiades. The rising and setting sun seem to be 
shown, and the circles within circles, varying in size and number, may 
have been cut to symbolise the Planets, while the nearly vertical zig- 
zag lines were probably meant to indicate flashes of lightning. 
Altogether the symbols on this stone seem to point to fire and star 
worship ; and the grouping of the barrows indicate an adoration of 
the same objects. 
Stones similarly decorated have been noticed in other countries. 
" Prince Putiatin has presented to the Russian Arclireological Society 
a stone slab which was recently found in the course of some excava- 
* Copied from "Rude Stone Monuments," fig. 73. 
