Our journey of to-day embraces a portion of the Irrigating and Waterways System, which is continuous toward the east. I have mentioned that the system is about 1,400 English miles wide, and that at this time it is more than 4,000 miles long. Understand that I now am speaking of the system embracing the equatorial desert lands, and other arid lands adjacent, for, as you will have occasion to observe, irrigation is general all over the arable portions of the planet, and I do not wish to have you confound the general with the _special_ System, which is a most scientific work and quite apart from ordinary methods of irrigation. The waterway which now is beneath us, runs in a straight line to Lois[a:] Taimon, which we are nearing. On its shores are many towns, villages and a not very extensive city, named Gûlnoyas (crescent shaped). There is another city--but of that I shall not now speak. A feature of Ento is that wherever there is a body or stream of fresh water, there the people congregate. Thus, around Taimon there is a dense population, many of whom farm the rich and fertile lands beneath us. Next to death, the Entoans dread isolation and darkness. By a residence in cities, towns and villages they escape both. Gentola--Why is it that to-day we have seen no animals? De L'Ester--For the reason that Ento's orientals seldom, if ever, eat meat. For other purposes they do not require animals. No, there are no positive religious restrictions relating to the eating of meat, but orientals do not seem to care for it, and then nearly all Entoans shrink from taking life, even of animals. Climatic conditions on this, as on other planets, exercise a strong influence in the selection of human foods. In the colder regions an oleaginous diet is necessary. In temperate climes this requirement is less marked, and in oriental countries generally there is a positive aversion for animal food. Aside from climatic influences there is another factor to be recognized. As humans evolve beyond the influence of the animal plane, they grow less inclined to kill that they may eat. This is a universal, though generally unrecognized law. In earlier ages, the Entoans, to a greater extent than now, were meat eaters, and at present, in colder climes, the people consume larger quantities of various fishes, which rather illogically, they scarcely regard as meat. As air transports bear to them the products of all lands, they do so from choice.