Princess of Mars / Принцесса Марса. Уровень 2. Эдгар Райс Берроуз

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and steel which they learned to temper to a great hardness.

      After conversing for a short time, the Martians turned and rode away. One of them stayed alone by the enclosure. He definitely was the leader of the band. He threw down his spear and small arms and came around the end of the incubator toward me. He was entirely unarmed and naked except for the ornaments strapped upon his head, limbs and breast.

      When he was within about fifty feet of me, he unclasped an enormous metal armlet and put it in the open palm of his hand. He tried to tell me something but I did not understand the language. I guessed that he was making overtures of peace[15].

      Placing my hand over my heart I bowed low to the Martian. He understood the action right. I took the armlet from his open palm, clasped it about my arm above the elbow; smiled at him and stood waiting. His wide mouth spread into an answering smile. Then we turned and walked back toward his mount. At the same time he motioned his followers to advance. They started toward us on a wild run, but were checked by a signal from him.

      He exchanged a few words with his men, motioned to me[16] that I would ride behind one of them, and then mounted his own animal. The fellow designated reached down two or three hands and lifted me up behind him on the glossy back of his mount.

      The entire cavalcade then turned and galloped away toward the range of hills in the distance.

      IV. A Prisoner

      Ten miles after, we were nearing the edge of one of Mars' long-dead seas. In a short time, we gained the foot of the mountains. After traversing a narrow gorge, we came to an open valley. At the far extremity of it was a low tableland upon which I saw an enormous city. We entered the city by a ruined roadway that led out from the city but only to the edge of the tableland. Then it ended abruptly in a flight of broad steps.

      As we came closer to the buildings, I saw that they were abandoned. They seemed uninhabited for years or even ages. Toward the center of the city was a large plaza. Some nine or ten hundred creatures of the same breed as my captors camped upon this and in the buildings immediately surrounding it.

      All were naked with the exception of their ornaments. The women looked much like the men. But their tusks were much larger in proportion to their height and curving nearly to their high-set ears. Their bodies were smaller and lighter in color. Their fingers and toes had the rudiments of nails, which were entirely lacking among the males. The adult females ranged in height from ten to twelve feet.

      The children were light in color, even lighter than the women. They all looked precisely alike to me, except that some were taller than others; older, I presumed.

      I saw no signs of extreme age[17] among them and no difference in their appearance from the age of maturity. All looked about forty.

      Only about one Martian in a thousand dies of sickness or disease. Possibly about twenty take the voluntary pilgrimage down the river Iss[18]. No living Martian knows where leads the river and no Martian ever returned from there. The other nine hundred and seventy-nine die violent deaths in duels, in hunting, in aviation and in war. But perhaps by far the greatest death loss comes during the age of childhood. Vast numbers of the little Martians fall victims to the great white apes of Mars.

      The average life expectancy[19] of a Martian after the age of maturity, about forty, is about three hundred years. It would be nearer the one-thousand mark if it were not for the waning resources of the planet[20] and the almost continual warfare between the various communities.

      As we neared the plaza, hundreds of the creatures immediately surrounded us. They seemed anxious to pluck me from my seat behind my guard. A word from the leader of the party stilled their clamor. We proceeded across the plaza to the entrance of a magnificent building.

      The building was low, but covered an enormous area. It was made of gleaming white marble with gold and brilliant stones. The stones sparkled and scintillated in the sunlight. The main entrance was some hundred feet in width and projected from the building forming 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.

      About forty or fifty male Martians assembled around the steps of a rostrum on the floor of this chamber. On the platform, there was an enormous warrior. He was loaded with metal ornaments, gay-colored feathers and leather trappings set with precious stones. From his shoulders depended a short cape of white fur lined with brilliant scarlet silk.

      What struck me most[21] is that the creatures were entirely out of proportion to the desks, chairs and other furnishings. Those were of a size adapted to human beings such as I. Evidently, there were other denizens on Mars. But the evidences of extreme antiquity of these buildings demonstrated they could belong to some long-extinct and forgotten race of Mars.

      The leader and I proceeded into the audience chamber. There were few formalities observed in approaching the Martian chieftain. The chieftain rose to his feet and uttered the name of my escort. In turn, he halted and repeated the name of the ruler followed by his title.

      My captor, whose name was Tars Tarkas, was virtually the vice-chieftain of the community, and a man of great ability as a statesman and warrior. He explained briefly the incidents connected with his expedition, including my capture. When he concluded, the chieftain addressed me at length.

      I replied in our good old English tongue merely to convince him that neither of us could understand the other. But I noticed that when I smiled slightly on concluding, he smiled back. It convinced me that we had at least something in common – the ability to smile, therefore to laugh. But I was to learn that the Martian smile is merely perfunctory, and that the Martian laugh may cause strong men to blanch in horror[22].

      The ideas of humor among the green men of Mars are widely at variance with our conceptions. The death agonies of a fellow being are provocative of the wildest hilarity. Their chief form of commonest amusement is to inflict death on their prisoners of war in various ingenious and horrible ways.

      The assembled warriors and chieftains examined me closely, feeling my muscles and the texture of my skin. The principal chieftain then signified a desire to see me perform. He started with Tars Tarkas for the open plaza and motioned me to follow.

      On the way here, Tars Tarkas was holding my arm and I could walk properly. Now, I was not attempting to walk, but went skipping and flitting about among desks and chairs like some monstrous grasshopper. After bruising myself[23] severely, I tried to creep, but this did not suit the Martians and a towering fellow roughly jerked me to my feet.

      As he banged me down upon my feet, his face was bent close to mine and I did the only thing a gentleman might do under such circumstances. I swung my fist squarely to his jaw and he went down like a felled ox[24]. I expected the Martians to fight for him but suddenly they broke into wild peals of laughter and applause. None of them approached their fallen fellow.

      Tars Tarkas came to me and gave me his hand. Thus, we proceeded to the plaza without further mishap.

      They first repeated the word “sak”

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