A KUX THROUGH KATI1IAWAK. 213 



glorious night was this, in the perfectly clear air of 

 Kathiawar. Towards morning Venus was rising as 

 Jupiter was setting, and near the latter planet were 

 all the splendours of Orion, the great white light of 

 Sirius, Procyon's more modest brilliance, the dazzling 

 Capella, and the milder radiance of Castor and Pollux. 

 Towards the zenith, the most prominent objects Avere 

 Regulus and the stars of the Sickle, followed by the 

 great triangle of Denebola, Arcturus, and Spica. The 

 baleful red fire of the rising Antares contrasted with 

 the soft blue light of the Northern Vega ; and a little 

 above the horizon, nearly on the meridian, there shone 

 the Southern Cross, followed by the two most brilliant 

 piercing stars Alpha and Beta Centauri, and all the 

 galaxy of Argo Xavis. Watching such a sky, one 

 begins to understand the fixed position of the stars 

 to feel and see that it is the earth which is slowly 

 moving round amid the vast concave of heaven ; and 

 we also realise most vividly that this earth, with all 

 its endless variety of self-destroying sentient life, 

 with its mighty burden of joy and agony, is but a re- 

 volving grain of sand in the midst of a boundless 

 universe of stars. 



On this journey I was always accompanied by a 

 mounted trooper or two; and at my next halting- 

 place, Kussodi, there were a number of these men 

 about, and other police of the !Xawab. They and 

 the Foujdar occupied a large square court, in which 

 were various buildings. I was again allotted the room 



