The Gods of Mars | Page 5

round where
it joined the body, but tapering to a flat, thin blade toward the end,
which trailed at right angles to the ground.
By far the most remarkable feature of this most remarkable creature,
however, were the two tiny replicas of it, each about six inches in
length, which dangled, one on either side, from its armpits. They were
suspended by a small stem which seemed to grow from the exact tops
of their heads to where it connected them with the body of the adult.
Whether they were the young, or merely portions of a composite
creature, I did not know.
As I had been scrutinizing this weird monstrosity the balance of the
herd had fed quite close to me and I now saw that while many had the
smaller specimens 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 unopened buds an inch in diameter through various stages
of development to the full-fledged and perfectly formed creature of ten
to twelve inches in length.
Feeding with the herd were many of the little fellows not much larger
than those which remained attached to their parents, and from the
young of that size the herd graded up to the immense adults.
Fearsome-looking as they were, I did not know whether to fear them or
not, for they did not seem to be particularly well equipped for fighting,
and 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 resolve was, fortunately for me, nipped in the bud by a strange
shrieking wail, which seemed to come from the direction of the bluffs
at my right.
Naked and unarmed, as I was, my end would have been both speedy
and horrible at the hands of these cruel creatures had I had time to put
my resolve into execution, but at the moment of the shriek each
member of the herd turned in the direction from 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 indeed the latter proved to be the truth, for this strange
growth upon the craniums of the plant men of Barsoom represents the
thousand ears of these hideous creatures, the last remnant of the strange
race which sprang from the original Tree of Life.
Instantly every eye turned toward one member of the herd, a large
fellow who evidently was the leader. A strange purring sound issued
from the mouth in the palm of one of his hands, and at the same time he
started rapidly toward the bluff, followed by the entire herd.
Their speed and method of locomotion were both remarkable, springing
as they did in great leaps of twenty or thirty feet, much after the manner
of a kangaroo.
They were rapidly disappearing when it occurred to me to follow them,
and so, hurling caution to the winds, I sprang across the meadow in
their wake with leaps and bounds even more prodigious than their own,
for the muscles of an athletic Earth man produce remarkable results
when pitted against the lesser gravity and air pressure of Mars.
Their way led directly towards the apparent source of the river at the
base of the cliffs, and as I neared this point I found the meadow dotted
with huge boulders that the ravages of time had evidently dislodged
from the towering crags above.
For this reason I came quite close to the cause of the disturbance before
the scene broke upon my horrified gaze. As I topped a great boulder I
saw the herd of plant men surrounding a little group of perhaps five or
six green men and women of Barsoom.
That I was indeed upon Mars I now had no doubt, for here were
members of the wild hordes that people the dead sea bottoms and
deserted cities of that dying planet.
Here were the great males towering in all the majesty of their imposing
height; here were the gleaming white tusks protruding from their

massive lower jaws to a point 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, here the strange
antennae-like ears rising from the tops of their foreheads; and the
additional pair of arms extending from midway between the shoulders
and the hips.
Even without the glossy green hide and the metal ornaments which
denoted the tribes to which they belonged, I