A Princess of Mars

The roof of the enclosure was of solid glass about four or five inches

in thickness, and beneath this were several hundred large eggs,

perfectly round and snowy white. The eggs were nearly uniform in size

being about two and one-half feet in diameter.

Five or six had already hatched and the grotesque caricatures which sat

blinking in the sunlight were enough to cause me to doubt my sanity.

They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six

legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an

intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms

or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a

trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could

be directed either forward or back and also independently of each

other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or

in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.

The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were

small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these

young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center

of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears.

There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light

yellowish-green color. In the adults, as I was to learn quite soon,

this color deepens to an olive green and is darker in the male than in

the female. Further, the heads of the adults are not so out of

proportion to their bodies as in the case of the young.

The iris of the eyes is blood red, as in Albinos, while the pupil is

dark. The eyeball itself is very white, as are the teeth. These

latter add a most ferocious appearance to an otherwise fearsome and

terrible countenance, as the lower tusks curve upward to sharp points

which end about where the eyes of earthly human beings are located.

The whiteness of the teeth is not that of ivory, but of the snowiest

and most gleaming of china. Against the dark background of their olive

skins their tusks stand out in a most striking manner, making these

weapons present a singularly formidable appearance.

Most of these details I noted later, for I was given but little time to

speculate on the wonders of my new discovery. I had seen that the eggs

were in the process of hatching, and as I stood watching the hideous

little monsters break from their shells I failed to note the approach

of a score of full-grown Martians from behind me.

Coming, as they did, over the soft and soundless moss, which covers

practically the entire surface of Mars with the exception of the frozen

areas at the poles and the scattered cultivated districts, they might

have captured me easily, but their intentions were far more sinister.

It was the rattling of the accouterments of the foremost warrior which

warned me.