A Princess of Mars

orted me to the plaza, where I found the entire community engaged in watching or helping at the harnessing of huge mastodonian animals to great three-wheeled chariots. There were ab

ith jewels and silks and furs, and upon the back of each of the beasts which drew the chariots was perched a young Martian driver. Like the ani

hanged even in long conversations. It is the universal language of Mars, through the medium of which the higher and lower animals of this world of par

ocession toward the point by which I had entered the city the day before. At the head of the caravan rode some two hundred wa

during the entire ten years I spent on Mars. Our way led out across the little valley before the city, through the hills, and down into the dead sea bottom which I had traversed on my journey from the incubator to the plaza.

ous chieftain, and including Tars Tarkas and several other lesser chiefs, dismounted and advanced toward it. I could see Tars Tarkas explaining somet

her to send me to him. I had by this time mastered the intricacies of walking under Martian conditions,

cubator being fairly alive with the hideous little devils. They ranged in height from three

tle satisfaction, I responded quickly, leaping entirely over the parked chariots on the far side of the incubator. As I returned, Lorquas Ptomel grunted something at me, and turning to his warriors gave a few words of command relative to the

n the full length of the aisle, where they were captured one at a time by the women and older children; the last in the line capturing the first little one to reach the end of the gauntlet, her opposite in the line capturing the second, and so on until all the little f

name, was over, and seeking out Sola I found her in our char

gs in which they have lain for five years, the period of incubation, they step forth into the world perfectly developed except in size. Entirely unknown to their mothers, who, in turn, would have difficult

it is common among us. I believe this horrible system which has been carried on for ages is the direct cause of the loss of all the finer feelings and higher humanitarian instincts among these poor creatures. From birth they know no father or mother love, they know not the meaning of the word home; they are ta

ard and pitiless struggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of which have dwindled to a

of each species, and with almost supernatural foresight the

of each yearly supply. At the end of five years about five hundred almost perfect eggs have been chosen from the thousands brought forth. These are then placed in the almost air-tight incubators to be hatched by the sun's rays after a period of another five years. The hatching which we had witnessed today was a fairly representative event of its kind, all but about one per cent of the

discovered by other tribes. The result of such a catastrophe would mean no children in the communit

an enormous tract of arid and semi-arid land between forty and eighty degrees south latitude, and bounded on the east and west by two larg

in a supposedly uninhabited and unfrequented area, we had before u

orning and had not returned until just before darkness fell. As I later learned, they had been to the subterranean vaults in which the eggs were kept and had tra

e visited yearly by the council of twenty chieftains. Why they did not arrange to build their vaults and incubators nearer home h

ell as for me, but neither one of us required much attention, and as we were both about

er the keen rivalry we displayed. The Martian language, as I have said, is extremely simple, and in a week I could make all my wants known and understand nearly everyt

ten when they were not intended for me, no one could read a jot from my mind under any circumstances. At f