MORTIMER : STAR-WORSHIP INDICATED BY GROUPING OF BARROWS. 209 
tions at Boulogne Station, on the St. Petersburg and Moscow Railway, 
along with some weapons and utensils. A representation of the 
Constellation of the Great Bear was, though rudely, yet carefully, 
drawn on the slab.* It may be remembered that some yenrs ago a 
similar slab was found near Weiraar."t This same symbol was also 
adopted by the ancient Greeks. We are told by Homer that on Achilles' 
shield was figured " Charles' Wain," the sun, moon, and all the 
signs that crown the vault of heaven. Probably many of these 
figures were but slightly dissimilar to the symbols on " Hag's 
Chair." 
The object of arranging the barrows and cup-markings after the 
figure of " Charles' Wain " can only have one explanation, that object 
being evidently a religious one. The stars of this Constellation, 
swinging diurnally round the Pole star, were, to primitive man, an 
unerring as well as a perpetual timepiece, and would be revered as a 
something divine. 
* These slabs had most probably been taken from dolmens. 
fThe "English Mechanic," Sept. 24th, 1886. 
Note. — " On the capstone of a dolman, near the village of Runusto, are several 
cup-markings resembling somewhat the Constellation of Ursa 
Major." Guide to Chambered Barrows of Brittany, p. 23, by 
W. C. Lukas. 
