I Learn The Language

: 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 be ring 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.



I had observed on the two occasions when I had seen her that the

prisoner exchanged words with her guards, and this convinced me that

they spoke, or at least could make themselves understood by a common

language. With this added incentive I nearly drove Sola distracted by

my importunities to hasten on my education and within a few more days I

had mastered the Martian tongue sufficiently well to enable me to carry

on a passable conversation and to fully understand practically all that

I heard.



At this time our sleeping quarters were occupied by three or four

females and a couple of the recently hatched young, beside Sola and her

youthful ward, myself, and Woola the hound. After they had retired for

the night it was customary for the adults to carry on a desultory

conversation for a short time before lapsing into sleep, and now that I

could understand their language I was always a keen listener, although

I never proffered any remarks myself.



On the night following the prisoner's visit to the audience chamber the

conversation finally fell upon this subject, and I was all ears on the

instant. I had feared to question Sola relative to the beautiful

captive, as I could not but recall the strange expression I had noted

upon her face after my first encounter with the prisoner. That it

denoted jealousy I could not say, and yet, judging all things by

mundane standards as I still did, I felt it safer to affect

indifference in the matter until I learned more surely Sola's attitude

toward the object of my solicitude.



Sarkoja, one of the older women who shared our domicile, had been

present at the audience as one of the captive's guards, and it was

toward her the question turned.



"When," asked one of the women, "will we enjoy the death throes of the

red one? or does Lorquas Ptomel, Jed, intend holding her for ransom?"



"They have decided to carry her with us back to Thark, and exhibit her

last agonies at the great games before Tal Hajus," replied Sarkoja.



"What will be the manner of her going out?" inquired Sola. "She is

very small and very beautiful; I had hoped that they would hold her for

ransom."



Sarkoja and the other women grunted angrily at this evidence of

weakness on the part of Sola.



"It is sad, Sola, that you were not born a million years ago," snapped

Sarkoja, "when all the hollows of the land were filled with water, and

the peoples were as soft as the stuff they sailed upon. In our day we

have progressed to a point where such sentiments mark weakness and

atavism. It will not be well for you to permit Tars Tarkas to learn

that you hold such degenerate sentiments, as I doubt that he would care

to entrust such as you with the grave responsibilities of maternity."



"I see nothing wrong with my expression of interest in this red woman,"

retorted Sola. "She has never harmed us, nor would she should we have

fallen into her hands. It is only the men of her kind who war upon us,

and I have ever thought that their attitude toward us is but the

reflection of ours toward them. They live at peace with all their

fellows, except when duty calls upon them to make war, while we are at

peace with none; forever warring among our own kind as well as upon the

red men, and even in our own communities the individuals fight amongst

themselves. Oh, it is one continual, awful period of bloodshed from

the time we break the shell until we gladly embrace the bosom of the

river of mystery, the dark and ancient Iss which carries us to an

unknown, but at least no more frightful and terrible existence!

Fortunate indeed is he who meets his end in an early death. Say what

you please to Tars Tarkas, he can mete out no worse fate to me than a

continuation of the horrible existence we are forced to lead in this

life."



This wild outbreak on the part of Sola so greatly surprised and shocked

the other women, that, after a few words of general reprimand, they all

lapsed into silence and were soon asleep. One thing the episode had

accomplished was to assure me of Sola's friendliness toward the poor

girl, and also to convince me that I had been extremely fortunate in

falling into her hands rather than those of some of the other females.

I knew that she was fond of me, and now that I had discovered that she

hated cruelty and barbarity I was confident that I could depend upon

her to aid me and the girl captive to escape, provided of course that

such a thing was within the range of possibilities.



I did not even know that there were any better conditions to escape to,

but I was more than willing to take my chances among people fashioned

after my own mold rather than to remain longer among the hideous and

bloodthirsty green men of Mars. But where to go, and how, was as much

of a puzzle to me as the age-old search for the spring of eternal life

has been to earthly men since the beginning of time.



I decided that at the first opportunity I would take Sola into my

confidence and openly ask her to aid me, and with this resolution

strong upon me I turned among my silks and furs and slept the dreamless

and refreshing sleep of Mars.