These water dwellers relish certain land animals more than we do fish.

Of course the land strips are not inhabited by human beings, but vegetation is abundant, similar to that found in our tropical regions.  Many kinds of fruit, growing on the land, are sought after by the masters of the water.  In the season when certain fruits are ripe whole expeditions go out to gather them.  But how can they live away from the great body of water while plucking these fruits?  Let me tell you how they manage it.  They have what we would call water-wagons, very wide and short, and equipped with buckets.  At the rear of one of these strangely shaped carriages stand four or six men abreast immersing their heads in the water of the wagon for a fresh breath as often as necessity requires.  Thus they are enabled to travel over land to any desired locality, always being careful to keep near enough the water to cover any emergency.

When they arrive at the fruit each man takes his bucket of water and proceeds to work.  He plucks fruit or berries for about thirty seconds and then ducks his head into his bucket of water for a fresh breath.  Then he proceeds as before.  When the water is no longer fit for breathing, he carries his fruit and water bucket to the wagon.  Here he unloads his fruit and refills his bucket from the wagon, proceeding as before.  At intervals the wagon must be refilled with water.  During a day a few men can gather a large quantity of fruit in this manner, and it can be preserved for over four seasons.

On Stazza there has been developed a fine variety of water flowers, and no gardens are more beautiful than those that can be seen there.  The higher classes of these people live a very refined life and have their homes surrounded with an endless variety of water grasses and flowers.  You would scarcely believe your eyes if you could direct your gaze to a few of these homes.

In their religious life these Stazzans are eminently devoted.  They have no bunch of creeds from which to take their choice, but follow the teachings of “The Great Interpreter,” a man who once lived and reigned amongst them and who wrote his laws in what we would call, by interpretation, “The Book of Gold.”  The leaves of this book are made from an element costly and rare, more precious to them than gold is to us.  From this book all their sacred books are copied.  The civil powers also accept this book as their authority, and enforce its teachings.

Sin there, as here, is the withering blast of the planet, the destroyer of the harvest fields of purity and truth.  An invisible spirit of evil holds his force in disciplined command, and the man who wishes to have a pure heart on Stazza must reach it through conflicts long and sharp.  The path to moral and spiritual purity is quite the same throughout the whole universe.

CHAPTER VIII.

Tor-tu.

After I had finished my interesting tour of Stazza I visited in quick succession a score or more of worlds that also revolve around Polaris at varying distances.  I found the majority of these planets barren of all life, owing principally to their molten condition.