A Princess of Mars

As I came back to myself I glanced at Sola, who had witnessed this

encounter and I was surprised to note a strange expression upon her

usually expressionless countenance. What her thoughts were I did not

know, for as yet I had learned but little of the Martian tongue; enough

only to suffice for my daily needs.

As I reached the doorway of our building a strange surprise awaited me.

A warrior approached bearing the arms, ornaments, and full

accouterments of his kind. These he presented to me with a few

unintelligible words, and a bearing at once respectful and menacing.

Later, Sola, with the aid of several of the other women, remodeled the

trappings to fit my lesser proportions, and after they completed the

work I went about garbed in all the panoply of war.

From then on Sola instructed me in the mysteries of the various

weapons, and with the Martian young I spent several hours each day

practicing upon the plaza. I was not yet proficient with all the

weapons, but my great familiarity with similar earthly weapons made me

an unusually apt pupil, and I progressed in a very satisfactory manner.

The training of myself and the young Martians was conducted solely by

the women, who not only attend to the education of the young in the

arts of individual defense and offense, but are also the artisans who

produce every manufactured article wrought by the green Martians. They

make the powder, the cartridges, the firearms; in fact everything of

value is produced by the females. In time of actual warfare they form

a part of the reserves, and when the necessity arises fight with even

greater intelligence and ferocity than the men.

The men are trained in the higher branches of the art of war; in

strategy and the maneuvering of large bodies of troops. They make the

laws as they are needed; a new law for each emergency. They are

unfettered by precedent in the administration of justice. Customs have

been handed down by ages of repetition, but the punishment for ignoring

a custom is a matter for individual treatment by a jury of the

culprit's peers, and I may say that justice seldom misses fire, but

seems rather to rule in inverse ratio to the ascendency of law. In one

respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers.

I did not see the prisoner again for several days subsequent to our

first encounter, and then only to catch a fleeting glimpse of her as

she was being conducted to the great audience chamber where I had had

my first meeting with Lorquas Ptomel. I could not but note the

unnecessary harshness and brutality with which her guards treated her;

so different from the almost maternal kindliness which Sola manifested

toward me, and the respectful attitude of the few green Martians who

took the trouble to notice me at all.