I cannot describe the flood of feeling that went over me at that sight!
But in a moment Edmund interrupted my meditation by saying, in a quick,
nervous way:

"_Look at that!_"

The natives had formed themselves in a circle with the two priests
standing alone in the center. All but these two had dropped on their
knees, while the leaders, elevating their long arms toward the zenith,
gazed upward, uttering a kind of chant in their queer, squeaking voices.

"Don't you see what they're about?" demanded Edmund, twitching me
irritably by the sleeve. "They're worshipping the earth!"

It was the truth--the amazing truth! They were worshipping our planet in
the sky! And, indeed, she looked worth worshipping. Never have I seen so
splendid a star. She was twenty times as bright as the most brilliant
planet that any terrestrial astronomer ever beheld; and the moon, glowing
beside her like an attendant, redoubled the beauty of the sight.

"It's just the moment of the conjunction," said Edmund. "This is their
religion; the earth is their goddess, and when she is nearest and
brightest they perform this ceremony in her honor. I wouldn't have missed
this for a world."

Suddenly the two priests began to pirouette, and as they whirled more and
more rapidly, their huge glowing eyes made phosphorescent circles in the
gloom like those that had so alarmed and fascinated us in the cavern.
They gyrated round the ring of worshipers with accelerated speed, and all