s. And you mustn't be frightened at the distance. We think
nothing of long distances here--we have so much to think about and feel.
Time goes all too quickly."

During their conversation they had drawn neat the base of the hills,
which sloped gently, and were not above fifty feet in height. Maskull
now began to see strange specimens of vegetable life. What looked like
a small patch of purple grass, above five feet square, was moving across
the sand in their direction. When it came near enough he perceived that
it was not grass; there were no blades, but only purple roots. The roots
were revolving, for each small plant in the whole patch, like the spokes
of a rimless wheel. They were alternately plunged in the sand, and
withdrawn from it, and by this means the plant proceeded forward. Some
uncanny, semi-intelligent instinct was keeping all the plants together,
moving at one pace, in one direction, like a flock of migrating birds in
flight.

Another remarkable plant was a large, feathery ball, resembling a
dandelion fruit, which they encountered sailing through the air. Joiwind
caught it with an exceedingly graceful movement of her arm, and showed
it to Maskull. It had roots and presumably lived in the air and fed on
the chemical constituents of the atmosphere. But what was peculiar about
it was its colour. It was an entirely new colour--not a new shade or
combination, but a new primary colour, as vivid as blue, red, or yellow,
but quite different. When he inquired, she told him that it was known as
"ulfire." Presently he met with a second new colour. This she designated
"jale." The sense impressions caused in Maskull by these two additional
primary colors can only be vaguely hinted at by analogy. Just as blue is
delicate and mysterious, yellow clear and unsubtle, and red sanguine
and passionate, so he felt ulfire to be wild and painful, and jale
dreamlike, feverish, and voluptuous.

The hills were composed of a rich, dark mould. Small trees, of weird
shapes, all differing from each other, but all purple-coloured, covered
the slopes and top. Maskull and Joiwind climbed up and through. Some
hard fruit, bright blue in colour, of the size of a large apple, and
shaped like an egg, was lying in profusion underneath the trees.

"Is the fruit here poisonous, or why don't you eat it?" asked Maskull.

She looked at him tranquilly. "We don't eat living things. The thought
is horrible to us."

"I have nothing to say against th