CHAPTER IX

A Princess of Mars

by Edgar R. Burroughs

CHAPTER IX, A PRINCESS OF MARS by Edgar R. Burroughs
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I LEARN THE LANGUAGE


As I came back to myself I glanced at Sola, who had
witnessed this encounter and I was surprised to note a
strange expression upon her usually expressionless
countenance. What her thoughts were I did not know,
for as yet I had learned but little of the Martian tongue;
enough only to suffice for my daily needs.

As I reached the doorway of our building a strange surprise
awaited me. A warrior approached bearing the arms,
ornaments, and full accouterments of his kind. These he
presented to me with a few unintelligible words, and a
bearing at once respectful and menacing.

Later, Sola, with the aid of several of the other women,
remodeled the trappings to fit my lesser proportions, and
after they completed the work I went about garbed in all the
panoply of war.

From then on Sola instructed me in the mysteries of the
various weapons, and with the Martian young I spent several
hours each day practicing upon the plaza. I was not yet
proficient with all the weapons, but my great familiarity
with similar earthly weapons made me an unusually apt
pupil, and I progressed in a very satisfactory manner.

The training of myself and the young Martians was
conducted solely by the women, who not only attend to the
education of the young in the arts of individual defense
and offense, but are also the artisans who produce every
manufactured article wrought by the green Martians. They make
the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything
of value is produced by the females. In time of actual warfare
they form a part of the reserves, and when the necessity
arises fight with even greater intelligence and ferocity
than the men.

The men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war;
in strategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops.
They make the laws as they are needed; a new law for
each emergency. They are unfettered by precedent in
the administration of justice. Customs have been handed
down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring
a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of
the culprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom
misses fire, but seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to
the ascendency of law. In one respect at least the Martians
are a happy people; they have no lawyers.

I did not see the prisoner again for several days subsequent
to our first encounter, and then only to catch a fleeting
glimpse of her as she was being conducted to the great
audience chamber where I had had my first meeting with
Lorquas Ptomel. I could not but note the unnecessary
harshness and brutality with which her guards treated her;
so different from the almost maternal kindliness which Sola
manifested toward me, and the respectful attitude of the few
green Martians who took the trouble to notice me at all.

I had observed on the two occasions when I had seen her
that the prisoner exchanged words with her guards, and this
convinced me that they spoke, or at least could make
themselves understood by a common language. With this added
incentive I nearly drove Sola distracted by my importunities
to hasten on my education and within a few more days
I had mastered the Martian tongue sufficiently well to enable
me to carry on a passable conversation and to fully understand
practically all that I heard.

At this time our sleeping quarters were occupied by three
or four females and a couple of the recently hatched young,
beside Sola and her youthful ward, myself, and Woola the
hound. After they had retired for the night it was customary
for the adults to carry on a desultory conversation for a
short time before lapsing into sleep, and now that I could
understand their language I was always a keen listener,
although I never proffered any remarks myself.

On the night following the prisoner's visit to the audience
chamber the conversation finally fell upon this subject, and
I was all ears on the instant. I had feared to question Sola
relative to the beautiful captive, as I could not but recall the
strange expression I had noted upon her face after my first
encounter with the prisoner. That it denoted jealousy I could
not say, and yet, judging all things by mundane standards
as I still did, I felt it safer to affect indifference in the matter
until I learned more surely Sola's attitude toward the object
of my solicitude.

Sarkoja, one of the older women who shared our domicile,
had been present at the audience as one of the captive's
guards, and it was toward her the question turned.

"When," asked one of the women, "will we enjoy the
death throes of the red one? or does Lorquas Ptomel, Jed,
intend holding her for ransom?"

"They have decided to carry her with us back to Thark,
and exhibit her last agonies at the great games before Tal
Hajus," replied Sarkoja.

"What will be the manner of her going out?" inquired
Sola. "She is very small and very beautiful; I had hoped that
they would hold her for ransom."

Sarkoja and the other women grunted angrily at this evidence
of weakness on the part of Sola.

"It is sad, Sola, that you were not born a million years
ago," snapped Sarkoja, "when all the hollows of the land
were filled with water, and the peoples were as soft as the
stuff they sailed upon. In our day we have progressed to a
point where such sentiments mark weakness and atavism. It
will not be well for you to permit Tars Tarkas to learn
that you hold such degenerate sentiments, as I doubt
that he would care to entrust such as you with the
grave responsibilities of maternity."

"I see nothing wrong with my expression of interest in
this red woman," retorted Sola. "She has never harmed us,
nor would she should we have fallen into her hands. it is
only the men of her kind who war upon us, and I have ever
thought that their attitude toward us is but the reflection
of ours toward them. They live at peace with all their fellows,
except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we
are at peace with none; forever warring among our own
kind as well as upon the red men, and even in our own
communities the individuals fight amongst themselves.
Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from the
time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the bosom of
the river of mystery, the dark and ancient Iss which carries us
to an unknown, but at least no more frightful and terrible
existence! Fortunate indeed is he who meets his end in an
early death. Say what you please to Tars Tarkas, he can mete
out no worse fate to me than a continuation of the horrible
existence we are forced to lead in this life."

This wild outbreak on the part of Sola so greatly surprised
and shocked the other women, that, after a few words of
general reprimand, they all lapsed into silence and were
soon asleep. One thing the episode had accomplished was
to assure me of Sola's friendliness toward the poor girl, and
also to convince me that I had been extremely fortunate in
falling into her hands rather than those of some of the other
females. I knew that she was fond of me, and now that I
had discovered that she hated cruelty and barbarity I was
confident that I could depend upon her to aid me and the
girl captive to escape, provided of course that such a thing
was within the range of possibilities.

I did not even know that there were any better conditions
to escape to, but I was more than willing to take my chances
among people fashioned after my own mold rather than
to remain longer among the hideous and bloodthirsty green
men of Mars. But where to go, and how, was as much of a
puzzle to me as the age-old search for the spring of eternal
life has been to earthly men since the beginning of time.

I decided that at the first opportunity I would take Sola
into my confidence and openly ask her to aid me, and with
this resolution strong upon me I turned among my silks and
furs and slept the dreamless and refreshing sleep of Mars.