The Aberdeen weekly. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1878-1933, 1921-03-11
cHAPTER ~.
Embarrassing on Mars.

chiId-Raising on Mars.
After a breakfast, which was an ex-
act replica of the meal of the preced-
ing day and an index of practically
every meal which followed while ]
was with the. green men of Mars,
Sofa escorted me to the plaza, where
I found the entire community engaged
In watching or helping at the harness
Ing of huge mastodonian animals to
| great three-wheeled chariotS.
The chariOts were large. commo-
dious and gorgeously decorated In
each was seated female Marian
loaded with ornaments of metal, with
jewels and silks and furs. and upon
the back of each of the beasts which
drew the chariot was perched a young
Marian driver Like the animals up
on which the warriors were mounted,
the heavier draft animals wore neither
bit nor bride. but were guided entire
! ly by telepathic means. This power
is wonderfully developed in all Mar
tians and accounts largely for the
/ simplicity of their language and the
/ relatively few spoken words exchanged
\ even in long conversations.
As the cavalcade took up the line
| of march in single file Sofa dragged
me into an empty chariot and we pro-
| ceeded with the procession toward the
! point by which I had entered the city
the day before.
! Every one but myself-men, women
and children-were heavily armed,
and at the tail of each chariot trotted
Marian hound, my own beast fol-
lowing closely behind ours; in fact. the
faithful creature never left me volun-
tarily during the entire ten years I
spent on Mars.
The incubator, as it proved, was the
terminal point of our journey this day
and, as the entire cavalcade broke in
to mad gallOp as soon as we reached
the level expanse of sea bottom. we
were soon within sight of our goal.
On reaching it, half score of war
riors, headed by the enormous chief
tain and including Tars Tarkas and
several other lesser chiefs, dfsmounted
and advanced toward it. / could see
Tars Tarkas explaining something to
the principal chieftain. whose name
was, by the way, as nearly as | can
translate it into English, Lorquas Pto-
mel Jed; jed being his title.
was soon appraised of the subject
of their conversation, as, calling to
Sofa, Tars Tarkas signed for her to
send me to him. l had by this time
mastered the intricacies of walking
under Marian conditions and quickly
responding to his command l advanced
to the side of the incubator where the
warriors stood.
As l reached their side a glance
showed me that all but very few
eggs had Matched 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
I was permitted TO remain close and |
watch their operations, which consist /
ed in breaking an opening in the wall |
of the incubator large enough to per-
init 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 lit
tie Martians scampered, wild as deer:
being permitted 70 run the full length
Of the aisle, where they were cap
tured one at 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 appro-
priated by some youth or female As
he women caught the young they fell
out of line and returned to their re-
spective chariots, while those who fell
nto the hands of the Young men were
alter eurned over to sorle of the
women. +.
l saw thai the cere1nony, if it could | /
,e dignified by such a name. was over.
lad seeking out Sofa / found her in
,ur cnarioJ with hideous little crea- {
ure held tightly in her arms.
The work of rearing young. green {
tIartians consists colely in teaching :
hem to talk, and to use the weapons {
# warfare, with which they are load 7
d down from the very first year of /
heir lives. Coming from eggs in which Z
hey have lain for five years. the /
eriod Of incubation. they step forth c
nto the werld perfectly developed ex- t
ept in size Entirely unknown TO c
heir own mothers. who, in turn, would b
ave difficulty in pointing out the IA y
hers with any degree of accuracy, {
hey are the common children of the r
and their education de-