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.
Some unthinkable types of human existence are occupying the worlds that can be inhabited. I marveled aloud as I viewed a few more links of the endless chain of intelligent creation. On one of these worlds, which I have christened Tor-tu, I found human beings that resemble us more than any others in the entire solar bounds of Polaris.
Tor-tu dashes along in its unceasing course at a distance of eight hundred millions of miles from Polaris. It is much larger than our world, and is accompanied by three moons and a set of rings which faintly suggested our picturesque Saturn.