A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs (Ch. 3&4) AUDIOBOOK
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00:00Chapter 3 My Advent on Mars
00:10I opened my eyes upon a strange and weird landscape.
00:14I knew that I was on Mars.
00:16Not once did Twarnce question either my sanity or my wakefulness.
00:20I was not asleep.
00:22No need for pinching here.
00:24My inner consciousness told me as plainly that I was upon Mars, as your conscious mind
00:29tells you that you are upon Earth.
00:32You do not question the fact.
00:35Neither did El.
00:36I found myself lying prone upon a bed of yellowish, moss-like vegetation which stretched around
00:42me in all directions for interminable miles.
00:46I seemed to be lying in a deep, circular basin, along the outer verge of which I could distinguish
00:52the irregularities of low hills.
00:55It was midday.
00:57The sun was shining full upon me and the heat of it was rather intense upon my naked body,
01:03yet no greater than would have been true under similar conditions on an Arizona desert.
01:09Here and there were slight outcroppings of quartz-bearing rock which glistened in the
01:14sunlight, and a little to my left, perhaps a hundred yards, appeared a low, walled enclosure
01:21about four feet in height.
01:23No water and no other vegetation than the moss was in evidence, and as I was somewhat
01:29thirsty, I determined to do a little exploring.
01:34Springing to my feet, I received my first Martian surprise, for the effort, which on
01:40Earth would have brought me standing upright, carried me into the Martian air to the height
01:45of about three yards.
01:47I alighted softly upon the ground, however, without appreciable shock or jar.
01:53Now commenced a series of evolutions which even then seemed ludicrous in the extreme.
01:59I found that I must learn to walk all over again, as the muscular exertion which carried
02:05me easily and safely upon Earth played strange antics with me upon Mars.
02:12Instead of progressing in a sane and dignified manner, my attempts to walk resulted in a
02:16variety of hops, which took me clear of the ground a couple of feet at each step and landed
02:22me sprawling upon my face or back at the end of each second or third hop.
02:28My muscles, perfectly attuned and accustomed to the force of gravity on Earth, played the
02:34mischief with me in attempting for the first time to cope with the lesser gravitation and
02:40lower air pressure on Mars.
02:42I was determined, however, to explore the low structure which was the only evidence
02:47of habitation in sight, and so I hit upon the unique plan of reverting to first principles
02:53in locomotion, creeping.
02:56I did fairly well at this, and in a few moments had reached the low, encircling wall of the
03:02enclosure.
03:04There appeared to be no doors or windows upon the side nearest me, but as the wall was but
03:09about four feet high, I cautiously gained my feet and peered over the top upon the strangest
03:16sight it had ever been given me to see.
03:19The roof of the enclosure was of solid glass about four or five inches in thickness, and
03:25beneath this were several hundred large eggs, perfectly round and snowy white.
03:31The eggs were nearly uniform in size, being about two and a half feet in diameter.
03:37Five or six had already hatched, and the grotesque caricatures which sat blinking in the sunlight
03:43were enough to cause me to doubt my sanity.
03:46They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks, and six legs, or, as I
03:53afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could
03:59be used at will either as arms or legs.
04:03Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads, a trifle above the center, and
04:08protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back, and also
04:14independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction
04:19or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.
04:25The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup-shaped
04:30antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens.
04:36Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between
04:42their mouths and ears.
04:44There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellowish-green color.
04:50In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon, this color deepens to an olive green and is
04:56darker in the male than in the female.
04:59Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of proportion to their bodies as in the
05:04case of the young.
05:06The iris of the eyes is blood-red, as in albinos, while the pupil is dark.
05:13The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth.
05:17These latter add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwise fearsome and terrible countenance,
05:23as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points which end about where the eyes of earthly
05:29human beings are located.
05:32The whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest and most gleaming
05:37of china.
05:39Against the dark background of their olive skins, their tusks stand out in a most striking
05:45manner, making these weapons present a singularly formidable appearance.
05:50Most of these details I noted later, for I was given but little time to speculate on
05:55the wonders of my new discovery.
05:57I had seen that the eggs were in the process of hatching, and as I stood watching the hideous
06:03little monsters break from their shells, I failed to note the approach of a score of
06:08full-grown Martians from behind me.
06:11Coming as they did, over the soft and soundless moss, which covers practically the entire
06:17surface of Mars, with the exception of the frozen areas at the poles and the scattered
06:22cultivated districts, they might have captured me easily, but their intentions were far more
06:28sinister.
06:30It was the rattling of the accoutrements of the foremost warrior which warned me.
06:35On such a little thing my life hung that I often marveled that I escaped so easily.
06:41Had not the rifle of the leader of the party swung from its fastenings beside his saddle
06:46in Suchoway as to strike against the butt of his great metal-shod spear, I should have
06:51snuffed out without ever knowing that death was near me.
06:55But the little sound caused me to turn, and there upon me, not ten feet from my breast,
07:02was the point of that huge spear, a spear forty feet long, tipped with gleaming metal,
07:09and held low at the side of a mounted replica of the little devils I had been watching.
07:14But how puny and harmless they now looked beside this huge and terrific incarnation
07:20of hate, of vengeance, and of death!
07:24The man himself, for such I may call him, was fully fifteen feet in height and, on earth,
07:32would have weighed some four hundred pounds.
07:35He sat his mount as we sit a horse, grasping the animal's barrel with his lower limbs,
07:41while the hands of his two right arms held his immense spear low at the side of his mount.
07:47His two left arms were outstretched laterally to help preserve his balance, the thing he
07:53rode having neither bridle or reins of any description for guidance.
07:58And his mount!
08:00How can earthly words describe it?
08:03It towered ten feet at the shoulder, had four legs on either side, a broad flat tail, larger
08:11at the tip than at the root, and which it held straight out behind while running, a
08:17gaping mouth which split its head from its snout to its long, massive neck.
08:23Like its master, it was entirely devoid of hair, but was of a dark slate color and exceeding
08:30smooth and glossy.
08:32Its belly was white, and its legs shaded from the slate of its shoulders and hips to a vivid
08:38yellow at the feet.
08:40The feet themselves were heavily padded and nail-less, which fact had also contributed
08:46to the noiselessness of their approach, and, in common with a multiplicity of legs, is
08:52a characteristic feature of the fauna of Mars.
08:56The highest type of man and one other animal, the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have
09:02well-formed nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in existence there.
09:09Beyond this first charging demon trailed nineteen others, similar in all respects,
09:14but, as I learned later, bearing individual characteristics peculiar to themselves, precisely
09:21as no two of us are identical, although we are all castina-similar mold.
09:27This picture, or rather materialized nightmare, which I have described at length, made but
09:33one terrible and swift impression on me as I turned to meet it.
09:39Dressed and naked as I was, the first law of nature manifested itself in the only possible
09:44solution of my immediate problem, and that was to get out of the vicinity of the point
09:51of the charging spear.
09:53Consequently, I gave a very earthly and at the same time superhuman leap to reach the
09:58top of the Martian incubator, for such I had determined it must be.
10:04My effort was crowned with a success which appalled me no less than it seemed to surprise
10:09the Martian warriors, for it carried me fully thirty feet into the air and landed me a hundred
10:16feet from my pursuers and on the opposite side of the enclosure.
10:21I alighted upon the soft moss easily and without mishap, and turning saw my enemies lined up
10:28along the further wall.
10:30Some were surveying me with expressions which I afterward discovered marked extreme astonishment,
10:36and the others were evidently satisfying themselves that I had not molested their young.
10:42They were conversing together in low tones and gesticulating and pointing toward me.
10:48Their discovery that I had not harmed the little Martians and that I was unarmed must
10:53have caused them to look upon me with less ferocity, but, as I was to learn later, the
11:00thing which weighed most in my favor was my exhibition of hurtling.
11:05While the Martians are immense, their bones are very large, and they are muscled only
11:10in proportion to the gravitation which they must overcome.
11:14The result is that they are infinitely less agile and less powerful in proportion to their
11:20weight than an earthman, and doubt that were one of them suddenly to be transported to
11:25earth he could lift his own weight from the ground.
11:29In fact, I am convinced that he could not do so.
11:33My feat then was as marvelous upon Mars as it would have been upon earth, and from desiring
11:39to annihilate me they suddenly looked upon me as a wonderful discovery to be captured
11:44and exhibited among their fellows.
11:47The respite my unexpected agility had given me permitted me to formulate plans for the
11:53immediate future, and to note more closely the appearance of the warriors, for could
12:00not disassociate these people in my mind from those other warriors who, only the day before,
12:07had been pursuing me.
12:09Noted that each was armed with several other weapons, in addition to the huge spear which
12:14I have described, the weapon which caused me to decide against an attempt at escape
12:19by flight, was what was evidently a rifle of some description, and which, felt, for
12:26some reason, they were peculiarly efficient in handling.
12:31These rifles were of a white metal stocked with wood, which I learned later was a very
12:35light and intensely hard growth much prized on Mars and entirely unknown to us denizens
12:42of earth.
12:44The metal of the barrel is an alloy composed principally of aluminum and steel which they
12:49have learned to temper to a hardness far exceeding that of the steel with which we are familiar.
12:56The weight of these rifles is comparatively little, and with the small caliber, explosive
13:02radium projectiles which they use, and the great length of the barrel, they are deadly
13:07in the extreme and at ranges which would be unthinkable on earth.
13:13The theoretic effective radius of this rifle is three hundred miles, but the best they
13:18can do in actual service, when equipped with their wireless finders and sighters, is but
13:24a trifle over two hundred miles.
13:27This is quite far enough to imbue me with great respect for the Martian firearm, and
13:32some telepathic force must have warned me against an attempt to escape in broad daylight
13:38from under the muzzles of twenty of these death-dealing machines.
13:42The Martians, after conversing for a short time, turned and rode away in the direction
13:48from which they had come, leaving one of their number alone by the enclosure.
13:54When they had covered perhaps two hundred yards, they halted, and turning their mounts
13:59toward us, sat watching the warrior by the enclosure.
14:03He was the one whose spear had so nearly transfixed me, and was evidently the leader of the band,
14:11as had noted that they seemed to have moved to their present position at his direction.
14:16When his force had come to a halt, he dismounted, threw down his spear and small arms, and came
14:23around the end of the incubator toward me, entirely unarmed and as naked as El, except
14:30for the ornaments strapped upon his head, limbs, and breast.
14:35When he was within about fifty feet of me, he unclasped an enormous metal armlet, and
14:41holding it toward me in the open palm of his hand, addressed me in a clear, resonant voice,
14:48but in a language it is needless to say, could not understand.
14:54He then stopped, as though waiting for my reply, pricking up his antennae-like ears
14:59and cocking his strange-looking eyes still further toward me.
15:04As the silence became painful, I concluded to hazard a little conversation on my own
15:09part, as I had guessed that he was making overtures of peace.
15:14The throwing down of his weapons and the withdrawing of his troop before his advance toward me
15:19would have signified a peaceful mission anywhere on earth.
15:23So why not, then, on Mars?
15:28Stretching my hand over my heart, I bowed low to the Martian and explained to him that
15:34while I did not understand his language, his actions spoke for the peace and friendship
15:40that at the present moment were most dear to my heart.
15:44Of course I might have been a babbling brook for all the intelligence my speech carried
15:48to him, but he understood the action with which I immediately followed my words.
15:55Stretching my hand toward him, I advanced and took the armlet from his open palm, clasping
16:00it about my arm above the elbow, smiled at him, and stood waiting.
16:06His wide mouth spread into an answering smile, and locking one of his intermediary arms in
16:13mine, we turned and walked back toward his mount.
16:17At the same time he motioned his followers to advance.
16:21They started toward us on a wild run, but were checked by a signal from him.
16:26Evidently he feared that were I to be really frightened again, I might jump entirely out
16:31of the landscape.
16:33He exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to me that I would ride behind one of them,
16:39and then mounted his own animal.
16:41The fellow designated reached down two or three hands and lifted me up behind him on
16:47the glossy back of his mount, where I hung on as best I could by the belts and straps
16:53which held the Martian's weapons and ornaments.
16:57The entire cavalcade then turned and galloped away toward the range of hills in the distance.
17:05Chapter 4 A Prisoner
17:09We had gone perhaps ten miles when the ground began to rise very rapidly.
17:14We were, as I was later to learn, nearing the edge of one of Mars' long-dead seas, in
17:20the bottom of which my encounter with the Martians had taken place.
17:24In a short time we gained the foot of the mountains, and after traversing a narrow gorge
17:29came to an open valley, at the far extremity of which was a low table land, upon which
17:35I beheld an enormous city.
17:38Toward this we galloped, entering it by what appeared to be a ruined roadway leading out
17:44from the city, but only to the edge of the table land, where it ended abruptly in a flight
17:49of broad steps.
17:51Upon closer observation I saw as we passed them that the buildings were deserted, and,
17:57while not greatly decayed, had the appearance of not having been tenanted for years, possibly
18:02for ages.
18:04Toward the center of the city was a large plaza, and upon this and in the buildings
18:10immediately surrounding it were camped some nine or ten hundred creatures, of the same
18:15breed as my captors, for such I now considered them, despite the suave manner in which I
18:21had been trapped.
18:23With the exception of their ornaments, all were naked.
18:26The women varied in appearance, but little from the men, except that their tusks were
18:31much larger in proportion to their height, in some instances curving nearly to their
18:37high-set ears.
18:39Their bodies were smaller and lighter in color, and their fingers and toes bore the
18:44rudiments of nails, which were entirely lacking among the males.
18:49The adult females ranged in height from ten to twelve feet.
18:52The children were light in color, even lighter than the women, and all looked precisely alike
18:58to me, except that some were taller than others.
19:02Older, I presumed.
19:04I saw no signs of extreme age among them, nor is there any appreciable difference in
19:09their appearance from the age of maturity, about forty, until, at about the age of one
19:15thousand years, they go voluntarily upon their last strange pilgrimage down the River East,
19:22which leads no living Martian knows whither, and from whose bosom no Martian has ever returned,
19:30nor would be allowed to live did he return after once embarking upon its cold, dark waters.
19:38Only about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease, and possibly about
19:44twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage.
19:47The other nine hundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths in duels, in hunting, in aviation,
19:54and in war.
19:55But perhaps by far the greatest death loss comes during the age of childhood, when vast
20:01numbers of the little Martians fall victims to the great white apes of Mars.
20:08The average life expectancy of a Martian after the age of maturity is about three hundred
20:13years, but would be nearer the one thousand mark, were it not for the various means leading
20:19to violent death.
20:21According to the waning resources of the planet, it evidently became necessary to counteract
20:26the increasing longevity which their remarkable skill in therapeutics and surgery produced,
20:32and so human life has come to be considered but lightly on Mars, as is evidenced by their
20:38dangerous sports and the almost continual warfare between the various communities.
20:44There are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution of population, but nothing
20:50contributes so greatly to this end as the fact that no male or female Martian is ever
20:56voluntarily without a weapon of destruction.
21:00As we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered, we were immediately surrounded
21:05by hundreds of the creatures who seemed anxious to pluck me from my seat behind my guard.
21:11A word from the leader of the party stilled their clamor, and we proceeded at a trot across
21:17the plaza to the entrance of as magnificent an edifice as mortal eye has rested upon.
21:23The building was low, but covered an enormous area.
21:27It was constructed of gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and brilliant stones which
21:33sparkled and scintillated in the sunlight.
21:36The main entrance was some hundred feet in width and projected from the building proper
21:42to form a huge canopy above the entrance hall.
21:46There was no stairway, but a gentle incline to the first floor of the building opened
21:51into an enormous chamber encircled by galleries.
21:55On the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly carved wooden desks and chairs,
22:01were assembled about forty or fifty male Martians around the steps of a rostrum.
22:06On the platform proper squatted an enormous warrior heavily loaded with metal ornaments,
22:13gay-colored feathers, and beautifully wrought leather trappings ingeniously set with precious
22:19stones.
22:20From his shoulders depended a short cape of white fur lined with brilliant scarlet silk.
22:27What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage, and the hall in which they were
22:32congregated, was the fact that the creatures were entirely out of proportion to the desks,
22:38chairs, and other furnishings.
22:41These being of a size adapted to human beings such as I, whereas the great bulks of the
22:47Martians could scarcely have squeezed into the chairs, nor was there room beneath the
22:51desks for their long legs.
22:54Evidently then, there were other denizens on Mars than the wild and grotesque creatures
22:59into whose hands had fallen, but the evidences of extreme antiquity which showed all around
23:06me indicated that these buildings might have belonged to some long-extinct and forgotten
23:11race in the dim antiquity of Mars.
23:15Our party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at a sign from the leader I
23:20had been lowered to the ground.
23:22Again, locking his arm in mine, we had proceeded into the audience chamber.
23:27There were few formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain.
23:32My captor merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for him as he advanced.
23:38The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name of my escort, who in turn halted
23:45and repeated the name of the ruler, followed by his title.
23:49At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing to me, but later I came
23:56to know that this was the customary greeting between green Martians.
24:01Had the men been strangers, and therefore unable to exchange names, they would have
24:06silently exchanged ornaments, had their missions been peaceful.
24:11Otherwise they would have exchanged shots, or have fought out their introduction with
24:15some other of their various weapons.
24:18My captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the vice chieftain of the community,
24:25and a man of great ability as a statesman and warrior.
24:30He evidently explained briefly the incidents connected with his expedition, including my
24:36capture, and when he had concluded, the chieftain addressed me at some length.
24:41I replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him that neither of us could understand
24:47the other, but I noticed that when I smiled slightly on concluding, he did likewise.
24:54This fact and the similar occurrence during my first talk with Tars Tarkas convinced me
25:00that we had at least something in common.
25:03The ability to smile, therefore to laugh, denoting a sense of humor.
25:08But I was to learn that the Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian
25:14laugh is a thing to cause strong men to blanch in horror.
25:19The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at variance with our conceptions
25:24of incidents to merriment.
25:27The death agonies of a fellow being are, to these strange creatures, provocative of the
25:33wildest hilarity, while their chief form of communist amusement is to inflict death on
25:39their prisoners of war in various ingenious and horrible ways.
25:45The assembled warriors and chieftains examined me closely, feeling my muscles and the texture
25:50of my skin.
25:52The principal chieftain then evidently signified a desire to see me perform, and, motioning
25:59me to follow, he started with Tars Tarkas for the open plaza.
26:05Now I had made no attempt to walk since my first signal failure except while tightly
26:12grasping Tars Tarkas's arm, and so now I went skipping and flitting about among the desks
26:18and chairs like some monstrous grasshopper.
26:23After bruising myself severely, much to the amusement of the Martians, I again had recourse
26:28to creeping, but this did not suit them and was roughly jerked to my feet by a towering
26:35fellow who had laughed most heartily at my misfortunes.
26:39As he banged me down upon my feet, his face was bent close to mine, and I did the only
26:44thing a gentleman might do under the circumstances of brutality, boorishness, and lack of consideration
26:51for a stranger's rights.
26:53I swung my fist squarely to his jaw, and he went down like a felled ox.
27:00As he sunk to the floor, I wheeled around with my back toward the nearest desk, expecting
27:05to be overwhelmed by the vengeance of his fellows, but determined to give them as good
27:10a battle as the unequal odds would permit before I gave up my life.
27:15My fears were groundless, however, as the other Martians, at first struck dumb with
27:21wonderment, finally broke into wild peals of laughter and applause.
27:26I did not recognize the applause as such, but later, when I had become acquainted with
27:32their customs, I learned that I had won what they seldom accord, a manifestation of approbation.
27:39The fellow whom I had struck lay where he had fallen, nor did any of his mates approach
27:45him.
27:46Tars Tarkas advanced toward me, holding out one of his arms, and we thus proceeded to
27:52the plaza without further mishap.
27:55I did not, of course, know the reason for which we had come to the open, but I was not
28:00long in being enlightened.
28:03They first repeated the word, Sack, a number of times, and then Tars Tarkas made several
28:09jumps, repeating the same word before each leap.
28:13Then turning to me, he said, Sack!
28:17I saw what they were after, and gathering myself together, I sacked with such marvelous
28:23success that I cleared a good hundred and fifty feet.
28:28Nor did I, this time, lose my equilibrium, but landed squarely upon my feet without falling.
28:35I then returned by easy jumps of twenty-five or thirty feet to the little group of warriors.
28:41My exhibition had been witnessed by several hundred lesser Martians, and they immediately
28:47broke into demands for a repetition, which the chieftain then ordered me to make, but
28:52I was both hungry and thirsty, and determined on the spot that my only method of salvation
28:59was to demand the consideration from these creatures, which they evidently would not
29:04voluntarily accord.
29:06I therefore ignored the repeated commands to Sack, and each time they were made, I motioned
29:13to my mouth and rubbed my stomach.
29:16Mrs. Tarkas and the chief exchanged a few words, and the former, calling to a young
29:22female among the throng, gave her some instructions and motioned me to accompany her.
29:28I grasped her proffered arm, and together we crossed the plaza toward a large building
29:32on the far side.
29:34My fair companion was about eight feet tall, having just arrived at maturity, but not yet
29:40to her full height.
29:42She was of a light olive-green color, with a smooth, glossy hide.
29:47Her name, as I afterward learned, was Sola, and she belonged to the retinue of Tars Tarkas.
29:55She conducted me to a spacious chamber in one of the buildings fronting on the plaza,
30:00and which, from the litter of silks and furs upon the floor, I took to be the sleeping
30:06quarters of several of the natives.
30:09The room was well lighted by a number of large windows, and was beautifully decorated
30:14with mural paintings and mosaics, but upon all there seemed to rest that indefinable
30:19touch of the finger of antiquity which convinced me that the architects and builders of these
30:25wondrous creations had nothing in common with the crude half-brutes which now occupied them.
30:31Sola motioned me to be seated upon a pile of silks near the center of the room, and,
30:37as I was listening, made a peculiar hissing sound, as though signaling to someone in an
30:42adjoining room.
30:44In response to her call, I obtained my first sight of a new Martian wonder.
30:50It waddled in on its ten short legs and squatted down before the girl like an obedient puppy.
30:56The thing was about the size of a Shetland pony, but its head bore a slight resemblance
31:01to that of a frog, except that the jaws were equipped with three rows of long, sharp tusks.