We boiled a number of turtle's eggs, and having salt with us we enjoyed them immensely. If I had had some oil or wild boar's fat, what delicious turtle's-egg omelette we could have made! After breakfast we fished, and were lucky enough to catch some fish, to our great delight. These we broiled on charcoal for our dinner. The day passed rather slowly, for I was anxious for the night to come.
CHAPTER XVIII
APPEARANCE OF THE SOUTHERN HEAVENS AT NIGHT—HOMESICKNESS—I TAKE SEVERAL OBSERVATIONS—ASTONISHMENT OF ROGALA—FIND THAT I AM NINETY MILES SOUTH OF THE EQUATOR
At last the sun set behind the trees. Darkness came on, and the stars made their appearance one by one. Soon the heavens glittered with them. The murmur of the wind passing through the top of the trees and the gentle noise of the river gliding along the shores were all that disturbed the absolute silence of the night. I was happy to see the stars again. How beautiful they were in the blue heavens!
I gazed upon them silently for quite a while, then I said to them: "I love you, dear twinkling stars, for you are my friends and companions of the night. Without you I should be lost in this great forest. You and the moon tell me where I am. I miss you ever so much when I am without you. I feel lonely without you."
But I missed many of the stars that I loved at home. The little ship that had carried me across the ocean to those southern latitudes had taken me away from them. Many stars that were unknown to me had taken their place, and though they were beautiful and I admired them, I did not love them. The stars that twinkle and look down upon the bright glittering snow, the Mississippi, the Rocky Mountains, the Alleghanies, upon our great lakes, prairies, dales, and hills, upon the pine, the oak, the beech, the elm, and the birch, upon the violets, buttercups, and goldenrods, were those I loved the best.
An uncontrollable fit of sadness seized me as I missed them. I thought of home, of friends. Tears filled my eyes, I could not help it. Fortunate was it that Rogala was not near me. He might have thought that the Oguizi was, after all, a human being.
But there were stars that were old friends. The Pleiades were there, the stars of the constellation of the Great Bear. Vega, that I loved so much at home, seemed to be right above me; so were Aldebaran and the stars of the constellation of Orion. Here the position of the stars made the sword perfectly straight.