“I shall escape him,” Bird-of-Gold said, “and as he followed you and me across the world, so I shall follow him and you, and we shall never be apart.”
They had learnt in their wanderings all ways of guiding themselves, and as they galloped on they were heading for the Western Ocean. Darkness was around them at first. But the sky was wide and clear, and Bird-of-Gold, when she raised her head, could see and name the bright planets. There was Mars with his red pulse. Bird-of-Gold likened this planet to the steed that she bestrode, and as she rode on she sang to herself the song that the shepherd boys in her own country used to sing about another star:
That star, I know, is Betelguise;
Yet, as I walk the hills by day,
I hardly know his splendid name—
That star is far away.
But when at night I travel on,
Or watch across an empty land,
Then Betelguise, my star of stars,