Nor is this all; the so-called tumuli within the vallum (Fig. 10) may have been observation mounds, for the lines passing from the northern tumulus over the N.W. stone and from the southern tumulus over the S.E. one are parallel to the avenue, and therefore represent the solstitial orientation. So much, then, for the stones. We see that, dealing only with the untrimmed sarsens that remain, the places of the May sunset and June and November sunrises were marked from the same central point. Statements have been made that there was the stump of another stone near the vallum to the S.W., in the line of the Friar’s Heel and Slaughter Stone, produced backwards, at the same distance from the old centre as the N.W. and S.E. stones. This stone was _not_ found in an exploration by Sir Edmund Antrobus, Mr. Penrose and Mr. Howard Payn by means of a sword and an auger. But the question will not be settled until surface digging is permitted, as a “road” about which there is a present contention passes near the spot. [Illustration: FIG. 25.--The rod on the recumbent stone is placed in and along the common axis of the present circle and avenue. It is seen that the Friar’s Heel, the top of which is shown in the distance, would hide the sunrise place if the axis were a little further to the S.E.] But even this is not the only evidence we have for the May worship in early times. There is an old tradition of the slaughter of Britons by the Saxons at Stonehenge, known as “The Treachery of the Long Knives”; according to some accounts, 460 British chieftains were killed while attending a banquet and conference. Now at what time of the year did this take place? Was it at the summer solstice on June 21? I have gathered from Guest’s “Mabinogion,” vol. ii. p. 433, and Davies’s “Mythology of the British Druids,” p. 333, that _the banquet took place on May eve_ “_Meinvethydd_.” Is it likely that this date would have been chosen in a solar temple dedicated exclusively to the solstice? Now the theory to which my work and thought have led me is that the megalithic structures at Stonehenge--the worked sarsens with their mortices and lintels, and above all the trilithons of the magnificent naos--represent a re-dedication and a reconstruction, on a more imposing plan and scale, of a much older temple, which was originally used for worship in connection with the May year. [17] Plans and photographs of Stonehenge, &c., by Colonel Sir Henry James, R.E., F.R.S., Director-General of the Ordnance Survey, 1867. CHAPTER X THE MAY AND JUNE WORSHIPS IN BRITTANY I purpose next to inquire whether in the wonderful series of Megalithic remains in Brittany, remains more extensive than any in Britain, any light is thrown on the suggestion I have made that the May Worship preceded the Solstitial Worship at Stonehenge.