CHAPTER IV

A Princess of Mars

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER IV, A PRINCESS OF MARS by Edgar R. Burroughs
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A PRISONER


We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to
rise very rapidly. We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the
edge of one of Mars' long-dead seas, in the bottom of which
my encounter with the Martians had taken place.

In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and
after traversing a narrow gorge came to an open valley, at the
far extremity of which was a low table land upon which I
beheld an enormous city. Toward this we galloped, entering it
by what appeared to be a ruined roadway leading out from the
city, but only to the edge of the table land, where it ended
abruptly in a flight of broad steps.

Upon closer observation I saw as we passed them that the
buildings were deserted, and while not greatly decayed had
the appearance of not having been tenanted for years, possibly
for ages. Toward the center of the city was a large plaza, and
upon this and in the buildings immediately surrounding it
were camped some nine or ten hundred creatures of the same
breed as my captors, for such I now considered them despite
the suave manner in which I had been trapped.

With the exception of their ornaments all were naked. The
women varied in appearance but little from the men, except
that their tusks were much larger in proportion to their height,
in some instances curving nearly to their high-set ears. Their
bodies were smaller and lighter in color, and their fingers
and toes bore the rudiments of nails, which were entirely
lacking among the males. The adult females ranged in height
from ten to twelve feet.

The children were light in color, even lighter than the
women, and all looked precisely alike to me, except that some
were taller than others; older, I presumed.

I saw no signs of extreme age among them, nor is there any
appreciable difference in their appearance from the age of
maturity, about forty, until, at about the age of one thousand
years, they go voluntarily upon their last strange pilgrimage
down the river Iss, which leads no living Martian knows
whither and from whose bosom no Martian has ever returned,
or would be allowed to live did he return after once embarking
upon its cold, dark waters.

Only about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or
disease, and possibly about twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage.
The other nine hundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths
in duels, in hunting, in aviation and in war; but perhaps by far
the greatest death loss comes during the age of childhood,
when vast numbers of the little Martians fall victims
to the great white apes of Mars.

The average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of
maturity is about three hundred years, but would be nearer
the one-thousand mark were it not for the various means
leading to violent death. Owing to the waning resources
of the planet it evidently became necessary to counteract
the increasing longevity which their remarkable skill in
therapeutics and surgery produced, and so human life has come
to be considered but lightly on Mars, as is evidenced by their
dangerous sports and the almost continual warfare between
the various communities.

There are other and natural causes tending toward a
diminution of population, but nothing contributes so greatly
to this end as the fact that no male or female Martian is ever
voluntarily without a weapon of destruction.

As we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered we
were immediately surrounded by hundreds of the creatures
who seemed anxious to pluck me from my seat behind my
guard. A word from the leader of the party stilled their
clamor, and we proceeded at a trot across the plaza to the
entrance of as magnificent an edifice as mortal eye has rested
upon.

The building was low, but covered an enormous area. It
was constructed of gleaming white marble inlaid with gold
and brilliant stones which sparkled and scintillated in the
sunlight. The main entrance was some hundred feet in width
and projected from the building proper to form a huge canopy
above the entrance hall. There was no stairway, but a gentle
incline to the first floor of the building opened into an
enormous chamber encircled by galleries.

On the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly
carved wooden desks and chairs, were assembled about forty
or fifty male Martians around the steps of a rostrum. On the
platform proper squatted an enormous warrior heavily loaded
with metal ornaments, gay-colored feathers and beautifully
wrought leather trappings ingeniously set with precious stones.
From his shoulders depended a short cape of white fur lined
with brilliant scarlet silk.

What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage
and the hall in which they were congregated was the fact
that the creatures were entirely out of proportion to the desks,
chairs, and other furnishings; these being of a size adapted to
human beings such as I, whereas the great bulks of the
Martians could scarcely have squeezed into the chairs, nor was
there room beneath the desks for their long legs. Evidently,
then, there were other denizens on Mars than the wild and
grotesque creatures into whose hands I had fallen, but the
evidences of extreme antiquity which showed all around me
indicated that these buildings might have belonged to some
long-extinct and forgotten race in the dim antiquity of Mars.

Our party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at
a sign from the leader I had been lowered to the ground.
Again locking his arm in mine, we had proceeded into the
audience chamber. There were few formalities observed in
approaching the Martian chieftain. My captor merely strode
up to the rostrum, the others making way for him as he
advanced. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name
of my escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of
the ruler followed by his title.

At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered
meant nothing to me, but later I came to know that this was
the customary greeting between green Martians. Had the men
been strangers, and therefore unable to exchange names, they
would have silently exchanged ornaments, had their missions
been peaceful--otherwise they would have exchanged shots,
or have fought out their introduction with some other of their
various weapons.

My captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the
vice-chieftain of the community, and a man of great ability as
a statesman and warrior. He evidently explained briefly the
incidents connected with his expedition, including my capture,
and when he had concluded the chieftain addressed me at
some length.

I replied in our good old English tongue merely to
convince him that neither of us could understand the other;
but I noticed that when I smiled slightly on concluding, he did
likewise. This fact, and the similar occurrence during my first
talk with Tars Tarkas, convinced me that we had at least
something in common; the ability to smile, therefore to laugh;
denoting a sense of humor. But I was to learn that the
Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian
laugh is a thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.

The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are
widely at variance with our conceptions of incitants to
merriment. The death agonies of a fellow being are, to these
strange creatures provocative of the wildest hilarity, while
their chief form of commonest amusement is to inflict death
on their prisoners of war in various ingenious and horrible
ways.

The assembled warriors and chieftains examined me closely,
feeling my muscles and the texture of my skin. The principal
chieftain then evidently signified a desire to see me perform,
and, motioning me to follow, he started with Tars Tarkas for
the open plaza.

Now, I had made no attempt to walk, since my first signal
failure, except while tightly grasping Tars Tarkas' arm, and
so now I went skipping and flitting about among the desks
and chairs like some monstrous grasshopper. After bruising
myself severely, much to the amusement of the Martians, I
again had recourse to creeping, but this did not suit them and
I was roughly jerked to my feet by a towering fellow who had
laughed most heartily at my misfortunes.

As he banged me down upon my feet his face was bent
close to mine and I did the only thing a gentleman might do
under the circumstances of brutality, boorishness, and lack of
consideration for a stranger's rights; I swung my fist squarely
to his jaw and he went down like a felled ox. As he sunk to
the floor I wheeled around with my back toward the nearest
desk, expecting to be overwhelmed by the vengeance of his
fellows, but determined to give them as good a battle as the
unequal odds would permit before I gave up my life.

My fears were groundless, however, as the other Martians,
at first struck dumb with wonderment, finally broke into wild
peals of laughter and applause. I did not recognize the
applause as such, but later, when I had become acquainted
with their customs, I learned that I had won what they seldom
accord, a manifestation of approbation.

The fellow whom I had struck lay where he had fallen, nor
did any of his mates approach him. Tars Tarkas advanced
toward me, holding out one of his arms, and we thus proceeded
to the plaza without further mishap. I did not, of course,
know the reason for which we had come to the open, but I
was not long in being enlightened. They first repeated
the word "sak" a number of times, and then Tars Tarkas made
several jumps, repeating the same word before each leap; then,
turning to me, he said, "sak!" I saw what they were after, and
gathering myself together I "sakked" with such marvelous
success that I cleared a good hundred and fifty feet; nor did I
this time, lose my equilibrium, but landed squarely upon my
feet without falling. I then returned by easy jumps of twenty-
five or thirty feet to the little group of warriors.

My exhibition had been witnessed by several hundred lesser
Martians, and they immediately broke into demands for a
repetition, which the chieftain then ordered me to make; but
I was both hungry and thirsty, and determined on the spot
that my only method of salvation was to demand the
consideration from these creatures which they evidently would
not voluntarily accord. I therefore ignored the repeated
commands to "sak," and each time they were made I motioned
to my mouth and rubbed my stomach.

Tars Tarkas and the chief exchanged a few words, and the
former, calling to a young female among the throng, gave
her some instructions and motioned me to accompany her. I
grasped her proffered arm and together we crossed the plaza
toward a large building on the far side.

My fair companion was about eight feet tall, having just
arrived at maturity, but not yet to her full height. She was of
a light olive-green color, with a smooth, glossy hide. Her
name, as I afterward learned, was Sola, and she belonged to
the retinue of Tars Tarkas. She conducted me to a spacious
chamber in one of the buildings fronting on the plaza, and
which, from the litter of silks and furs upon the floor, I took
to be the sleeping quarters of several of the natives.

The room was well lighted by a number of large windows
and was beautifully decorated with mural paintings and mosaics,
but upon all there seemed to rest that indefinable touch
of the finger of antiquity which convinced me that the
architects and builders of these wondrous creations had nothing
in common with the crude half-brutes which now occupied them.

Sola motioned me to be seated upon a pile of silks near
the center of the room, and, turning, made a peculiar hissing
sound, as though signaling to someone in an adjoining room.
In response to her call I obtained my first sight of a new
Martian wonder. It waddled in on its ten short legs, and
squatted down before the girl like an obedient puppy. The
thing was about the size of a Shetland pony, but its head bore
a slight resemblance to that of a frog, except that the jaws
were equipped with three rows of long, sharp tusks.