The Gods of Mars

like the grey and silent spectre of a dead river below me, I felt again the strange, compelling influence of the mighty god of w

a cave in which my still and lifeless body lay wrapped in the similitude of ea

that strange power which twice had drawn me through the immensity of space, praying as I h

wam, my knees gave beneath me and I pitched headlong

here upon the banks of the placid Hudson, I could hear the awful moans and rustling of the fearsome thing which had lurked and threatened me from the dark recesses of the cave, I made the same mighty and superhuman effort to break the bonds of

my eyes again toward Mars, lifted my h

the same instant of unthinkable cold and utter darkness that I had experienced twenty years before, and then I opened my eyes in ano

ng to my throat as the sudden fear swept through me that I had

lanetary space? What assurance that I might not as well be hurt

and beautiful trees, covered with huge and gorgeous blossoms and filled with brilliant, voiceless bird

e trees and birds were unlike anything that I had ever seen upon Mars, and then through the further trees I

ction of this smaller planet and the reduced air pressure of its greatly rarefied atmosphere, afforded so little resistance to my earthly muscles that the ordi

eed be in some, to me, unknown corner of Mars, and this was very possible since during my ten ye

d soon had mastered once more the art of attuni

s close-cropped and carpet-like as some old English lawn and the trees themselves showed evidence of careful pruning to a uniform height of about fifteen

entry into Mars on this second occasion through the domain of a civilized people and that when I should find them I

ome of them fully a hundred feet in diameter, attested their prodigious height, which I could only guess

ade pianos. The wood of some of the trees was as black as ebony, while their nearest neighbours might perhaps gleam in the sub

while the blooms that clustered thick upon them may not be described in

broad expanse of meadow land, and as I was about to emerge from the shadows of the trees a sight met

dim line indicated its further shore, while at my right a mighty river, broad, plac

hty perpendicular bluffs, from the very ba

took my immediate attention from the beauties of the forest. It was the sight of

most manlike in appearance. The larger specimens appeared to be about ten or twelve feet in height when

e manner of an elephant's trunk, in that they moved in sinuous and snakelike undulations, as though e

engaged in the occupation that seemed to be the principal business of each of them, and which consisted

d, I may say that that single cursory examination of this awful travesty on Nature would have proved quite sufficient to my desires had

r a broad band of white which encircled its protruding, sing

nk face; a hole that resembled more closely nothing that I could think

was quite blank to the chin, for the t

ch hair was about the bigness of a large angleworm, and as the thing moved the muscles of its scalp this awful head-covering see

ed them, and the feet, too, were human in shape, but of monstrous proportions.

, were the result of its peculiar method of feeding, which consists in cropping off the tender vegetation with its razor

a massive tail about six feet in length, quite round where it joined the body, but tap

ch about six inches in length, which dangled, one on either side, from its armpits. They were suspended by a small

or merely portions of a compo

imens dangling from them, not all were thus equipped, and I further noted that the little ones varied in size from what appeared to be but tiny unopen

rger than those which remained attached to their parents, and fro

d I was on the point of stepping from my hiding-place and revealing myself to them to note the effect upon them of the sight of a man when my rash

rom which the sound seemed to come, and at the same instant every particular snake-like hair upon their heads rose stiffly perpendicular as if each had been a sentient organism looking or listening for the source or meaning of the wail. And inde

s the leader. A strange purring sound issued from the mouth in the palm of one of his han

kable, springing as they did in great leaps of twent

ang across the meadow in their wake with leaps and bounds even more prodigious than their own, for the muscles of

he cliffs, and as I neared this point I found the meadow dotted with huge boulde

broke upon my horrified gaze. As I topped a great boulder I saw the herd of plant

re were members of the wild hordes that people the dea

near the centre of their foreheads, the laterally placed, protruding eyes with which they could look forward or backward, or to either side without turning their heads

e tribes to which they belonged, I would have known them on the instant for

om are eternally at deadly war with one another, and never, except on that single historic instance when the great Tars Tarkas of Thark gathered a hundred and fifty thousand green warriors from several hor

in wide-eyed amazement, the very evidentl

gers, but no firearms were in evidence, else it had be

ts very strangeness was the more potent, since in the science of the green warriors there was no defence for this singular manner of att

ectly above their heads. His powerful tail was raised high to one side, and as he passed close above them he

d the shrill, screeching purr of their uncanny mouths were well calculated to confuse and terrorize their prey, so that as two of them leaped simu

and it seemed that it could be but a matter of seco

experiences of the past few minutes, swung his mighty long-sword aloft and met th

with his cruel tail that laid both of th

as charging him in a body, he rushed boldly to meet them, swinging his long-sword in the terrific manner that I h

the advancing plant men, and then commenced a mad race for the forest, in

the cliffs, and thus the mad race was taking the entire part

ation for him, and acting as I am wont to do, more upon impulse than after mature deliberation, I instantly sprang from my s

dly gaining on the fleeing warrior, but this time I grasped a mighty long-sword in my hand and in my heart was the old blood lust of the fighting man,

e he had made half the distance to the forest, and now he stood with his back t

eir prey, they did not note my soundless approach, so that I was upon them with

to the right and left of him as I had never seen but one other warrior do, with great circling strokes that formed a figure eight about him and that

called the herd to the attack upon their victims. Again and again it rose, but we were too much engaged with the

oozes from a crushed caterpillar, smeared us from head to foot, for every cut and thrust of our longswords brought spurts of th

en talons sank into my flesh I experienced the frightful sensation of mois

vouring to reach my throat from in front, while two more, one

longer when the huge fellow discovered my plight, and tearing himself from those that surrounded him, he raked the

s to deliver their deadly blows, and as we were easily their match while they remained upon the ground, we were making great head

range figure of a man shrieking out his shrill signal, the while he waved one hand in the direction of the

ng in from all directions across the meadow, from out of the forest, and from the far distance of the flat land across the river, I could see converging upon us a hundred diffe

death," I said to

ance in the direction

g and as great warriors shou

te antagonists as he spoke, and I turned in

green men of Barsoom; their shrewdest statesman, their mighties