Child-raising On Mars

: A Princess Of Mars

After a breakfast, which was an exact replica of the meal of the

preceding day and an index of practically every meal which followed

while I was with the green men of Mars, Sola escorted me to the plaza,

where I found the entire community engaged in watching or helping at

the harnessing of huge mastodonian animals to great three-wheeled

chariots. There were about two hundred and fifty of these vehicles,

each drawn by
single animal, any one of which, from their appearance,

might easily have drawn the entire wagon train when fully loaded.



The chariots themselves were large, commodious, and gorgeously

decorated. In each was seated a female Martian loaded with ornaments

of metal, with jewels and silks and furs, and upon the back of each of

the beasts which drew the chariots was perched a young Martian driver.

Like the animals upon which the warriors were mounted, the heavier

draft animals wore neither bit nor bridle, but were guided entirely by

telepathic means.



This power is wonderfully developed in all Martians, and accounts

largely for the simplicity of their language and the relatively few

spoken words exchanged even in long conversations. It is the universal

language of Mars, through the medium of which the higher and lower

animals of this world of paradoxes are able to communicate to a greater

or less extent, depending upon the intellectual sphere of the species

and the development of the individual.



As the cavalcade took up the line of march in single file, Sola dragged

me into an empty chariot and we proceeded with the procession toward

the point by which I had entered the city the day before. At the head

of the caravan rode some two hundred warriors, five abreast, and a like

number brought up the rear, while twenty-five or thirty outriders

flanked us on either side.



Every one but myself--men, women, and children--were heavily armed, and

at the tail of each chariot trotted a Martian hound, my own beast

following closely behind ours; in fact, the faithful creature never

left me voluntarily during the entire ten years I spent on Mars. Our

way led out across the little valley before the city, through the

hills, and down into the dead sea bottom which I had traversed on my

journey from the incubator to the plaza. The incubator, as it proved,

was the terminal point of our journey this day, and, as the entire

cavalcade broke into a mad gallop as soon as we reached the level

expanse of sea bottom, we were soon within sight of our goal.



On reaching it the chariots were parked with military precision on the

four sides of the enclosure, and half a score of warriors, headed by

the enormous chieftain, and including Tars Tarkas and several other

lesser chiefs, dismounted and advanced toward it. I could see Tars

Tarkas explaining something to the principal chieftain, whose name, by

the way, was, as nearly as I can translate it into English, Lorquas

Ptomel, Jed; jed being his title.



I was soon appraised of the subject of their conversation, as, calling

to Sola, Tars Tarkas signed for her to send me to him. I had by this

time mastered the intricacies of walking under Martian conditions, and

quickly responding to his command I advanced to the side of the

incubator where the warriors stood.



As I reached their side a glance showed me that all but a very few eggs

had hatched, the incubator being fairly alive with the hideous little

devils. They ranged in height from three to four feet, and were moving

restlessly about the enclosure as though searching for food.



As I came to a halt before him, Tars Tarkas pointed over the incubator

and said, "Sak." I saw that he wanted me to repeat my performance of

yesterday for the edification of Lorquas Ptomel, and, as I must confess

that my prowess gave me no little satisfaction, I responded quickly,

leaping entirely over the parked chariots on the far side of the

incubator. As I returned, Lorquas Ptomel grunted something at me, and

turning to his warriors gave a few words of command relative to the

incubator. They paid no further attention to me and I was thus

permitted to remain close and watch their operations, which consisted

in breaking an opening in the wall of the incubator large enough to

permit of the exit of the young Martians.



On either side of this opening the women and the younger Martians, both

male and female, formed two solid walls leading out through the

chariots and quite away into the plain beyond. Between these walls the

little Martians scampered, wild as deer; being permitted to run the

full length of the aisle, where they were captured one at a time by the

women and older children; the last in the line capturing the first

little one to reach the end of the gauntlet, her opposite in the line

capturing the second, and so on until all the little fellows had left

the enclosure and been appropriated by some youth or female. As the

women caught the young they fell out of line and returned to their

respective chariots, while those who fell into the hands of the young

men were later turned over to some of the women.



I saw that the ceremony, if it could be dignified by such a name, was

over, and seeking out Sola I found her in our chariot with a hideous

little creature held tightly in her arms.



The work of rearing young, green Martians consists solely in teaching

them to talk, and to use the weapons of warfare with which they are

loaded down from the very first year of their lives. Coming from eggs

in which they have lain for five years, the period of incubation, they

step forth into the world perfectly developed except in size. Entirely

unknown to their mothers, who, in turn, would have difficulty in

pointing out the fathers with any degree of accuracy, they are the

common children of the community, and their education devolves upon the

females who chance to capture them as they leave the incubator.



Their foster mothers may not even have had an egg in the incubator, as

was the case with Sola, who had not commenced to lay, until less than a

year before she became the mother of another woman's offspring. But

this counts for little among the green Martians, as parental and filial

love is as unknown to them as it is common among us. I believe this

horrible system which has been carried on for ages is the direct cause

of the loss of all the finer feelings and higher humanitarian instincts

among these poor creatures. From birth they know no father or mother

love, they know not the meaning of the word home; they are taught that

they are only suffered to live until they can demonstrate by their

physique and ferocity that they are fit to live. Should they prove

deformed or defective in any way they are promptly shot; nor do they

see a tear shed for a single one of the many cruel hardships they pass

through from earliest infancy.



I do not mean that the adult Martians are unnecessarily or

intentionally cruel to the young, but theirs is a hard and pitiless

struggle for existence upon a dying planet, the natural resources of

which have dwindled to a point where the support of each additional

life means an added tax upon the community into which it is thrown.



By careful selection they rear only the hardiest specimens of each

species, and with almost supernatural foresight they regulate the birth

rate to merely offset the loss by death.



Each adult Martian female brings forth about thirteen eggs each year,

and those which meet the size, weight, and specific gravity tests are

hidden in the recesses of some subterranean vault where the temperature

is too low for incubation. Every year these eggs are carefully

examined by a council of twenty chieftains, and all but about one

hundred of the most perfect are destroyed out of each yearly supply.

At the end of five years about five hundred almost perfect eggs have

been chosen from the thousands brought forth. These are then placed in

the almost air-tight incubators to be hatched by the sun's rays after a

period of another five years. The hatching which we had witnessed

today was a fairly representative event of its kind, all but about one

per cent of the eggs hatching in two days. If the remaining eggs ever

hatched we knew nothing of the fate of the little Martians. They were

not wanted, as their offspring might inherit and transmit the tendency

to prolonged incubation, and thus upset the system which has maintained

for ages and which permits the adult Martians to figure the proper time

for return to the incubators, almost to an hour.



The incubators are built in remote fastnesses, where there is little or

no likelihood of their being discovered by other tribes. The result of

such a catastrophe would mean no children in the community for another

five years. I was later to witness the results of the discovery of an

alien incubator.



The community of which the green Martians with whom my lot was cast

formed a part was composed of some thirty thousand souls. They roamed

an enormous tract of arid and semi-arid land between forty and eighty

degrees south latitude, and bounded on the east and west by two large

fertile tracts. Their headquarters lay in the southwest corner of this

district, near the crossing of two of the so-called Martian canals.



As the incubator had been placed far north of their own territory in a

supposedly uninhabited and unfrequented area, we had before us a

tremendous journey, concerning which I, of course, knew nothing.



After our return to the dead city I passed several days in comparative

idleness. On the day following our return all the warriors had ridden

forth early in the morning and had not returned until just before

darkness fell. As I later learned, they had been to the subterranean

vaults in which the eggs were kept and had transported them to the

incubator, which they had then walled up for another five years, and

which, in all probability, would not be visited again during that

period.



The vaults which hid the eggs until they were ready for the incubator

were located many miles south of the incubator, and would be visited

yearly by the council of twenty chieftains. Why they did not arrange

to build their vaults and incubators nearer home has always been a

mystery to me, and, like many other Martian mysteries, unsolved and

unsolvable by earthly reasoning and customs.



Sola's duties were now doubled, as she was compelled to care for the

young Martian as well as for me, but neither one of us required much

attention, and as we were both about equally advanced in Martian

education, Sola took it upon herself to train us together.



Her prize consisted in a male about four feet tall, very strong and

physically perfect; also, he learned quickly, and we had considerable

amusement, at least I did, over the keen rivalry we displayed. The

Martian language, as I have said, is extremely simple, and in a week I

could make all my wants known and understand nearly everything that was

said to me. Likewise, under Sola's tutelage, I developed my telepathic

powers so that I shortly could sense practically everything that went

on around me.



What surprised Sola most in me was that while I could catch telepathic

messages easily from others, and often when they were not intended for

me, no one could read a jot from my mind under any circumstances. At

first this vexed me, but later I was very glad of it, as it gave me an

undoubted advantage over the Martians.



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