CHAPTER ELEVEN.
THE LANOONS.
Certainly the most nutritious of all things eatable or drinkable is the substance, or fluid, called milk.

It becomes blood almost immediately, and then flesh, or muscle, as was designed by the Creator.

Hence it is the first food given to all animated creatures--not alone to the _mammalia_, but to the oviparous animals--even to the infantile forms of the vegetable itself.

To the first it is presented in the form of simple milk, or "lacteal fluid;" to the second in the "white" of the egg; while the young tree or plant, springing from its embryo, finds it in the farina, or succulent matter, with which it is surrounded, and in which it has hitherto lain embedded and apparently lifeless, till the nursing sun calls it into a growing existence.

It is albumen, gluten, and other substances combined, all existing in the udder, in the egg-shell, in the seed, root, or fruit; from which springs the progeny, whether it be man or beast, flying bird or swimming fish, creeping reptile or fast-rooted forest tree.
The meal of oyster-meat had restored to healthy action the long-fasting stomachs of the castaways; the durion fruit, coming like a _dessert_, had no doubt acted with an exceedingly beneficial effect; but not till they had partaken of the true "staff of life"-- represented in one of its elementary forms, the egg--did they feel their blood running in its right channels, alike restoring their vigour and strength.
Murtagh was one of the first to feel revivified, and declare himself ready for anything.