A Princess of Mars

There are other and natural causes tending toward a diminution of

population, but nothing contributes so greatly to this end as the fact

that no male or female Martian is ever voluntarily without a weapon of

destruction.

As we neared the plaza and my presence was discovered we were

immediately surrounded by hundreds of the creatures who seemed anxious

to pluck me from my seat behind my guard. A word from the leader of

the party stilled their clamor, and we proceeded at a trot across the

plaza to the entrance of as magnificent an edifice as mortal eye has

rested upon.

The building was low, but covered an enormous area. It was constructed

of gleaming white marble inlaid with gold and brilliant stones which

sparkled and scintillated in the sunlight. The main entrance was some

hundred feet in width and projected from the building proper to form a

huge canopy above the entrance hall. There was no stairway, but a

gentle incline to the first floor of the building opened into an

enormous chamber encircled by galleries.

On the floor of this chamber, which was dotted with highly carved

wooden desks and chairs, were assembled about forty or fifty male

Martians around the steps of a rostrum. On the platform proper

squatted an enormous warrior heavily loaded with metal ornaments,

gay-colored feathers and beautifully wrought leather trappings

ingeniously set with precious stones. From his shoulders depended a

short cape of white fur lined with brilliant scarlet silk.

What struck me as most remarkable about this assemblage and the hall in

which they were congregated was the fact that the creatures were

entirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs, and other furnishings;

these being of a size adapted to human beings such as I, whereas the

great bulks of the Martians could scarcely have squeezed into the

chairs, nor was there room beneath the desks for their long legs.

Evidently, then, there were other denizens on Mars than the wild and

grotesque creatures into whose hands I had fallen, but the evidences of

extreme antiquity which showed all around me indicated that these

buildings might have belonged to some long-extinct and forgotten race

in the dim antiquity of Mars.

Our party had halted at the entrance to the building, and at a sign

from the leader I had been lowered to the ground. Again locking his

arm in mine, we had proceeded into the audience chamber. There were

few formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain. My

captor merely strode up to the rostrum, the others making way for him

as he advanced. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name of

my escort who, in turn, halted and repeated the name of the ruler

followed by his title.

At the time, this ceremony and the words they uttered meant nothing to

me, but later I came to know that this was the customary greeting

between green Martians. Had the men been strangers, and therefore

unable to exchange names, they would have silently exchanged ornaments,

had their missions been peaceful--otherwise they would have exchanged

shots, or have fought out their introduction with some other of their

various weapons.