A Princess of Mars Rethroned by Edna Rice Burroughs Page B

services or my protection.
    Adjoining my
sleeping apartment were baths, dressing rooms, and other sleeping
and living apartments, in all some ten rooms on this floor. The
windows of the back rooms overlooked an enormous court, which
formed the center of the square made by the buildings which faced
the four contiguous streets, and which was now given over to the
quartering of the various animals belonging to the warriors
occupying the adjoining buildings.
    While the court
was entirely overgrown with the yellow, moss-like vegetation which
blankets practically the entire surface of Mars, yet numerous
fountains, statuary, benches, and pergola-like contraptions bore
witness to the beauty which the court must have presented in bygone
times, when graced by the fair-haired, laughing people whom stern
and unalterable cosmic laws had driven not only from their homes,
but from all except the vague legends of their
descendants.
    One could easily
picture the gorgeous foliage of the luxuriant Martian vegetation
which once filled this scene with life and color; the graceful
figures of the beautiful men, the straight and handsome women; the
happy frolicking children--all sunlight, happiness and peace. It
was difficult to realize that they had gone; down through ages of
darkness, cruelty, and ignorance, until their hereditary instincts
of culture and humanitarianism had risen ascendant once more in the
final composite race which now is dominant upon Mars.
    My thoughts were
cut short by the advent of several young females bearing loads of
weapons, silks, furs, jewels, cooking utensils, and casks of food
and drink, including considerable loot from the air craft. All
this, it seemed, had been the property of the two chieftains I had
slain, and now, by the customs of the Tharks, it had become mine.
At my direction they placed the stuff in one of the back rooms, and
then departed, only to return with a second load, which they
advised me constituted the balance of my goods. On the second trip
they were accompanied by ten or fifteen other men and youths, who,
it seemed, formed the retinues of the two chieftains.
    They were not
their families, nor their husbands, nor their servants; the
relationship was peculiar, and so unlike anything known to us that
it is most difficult to describe. All property among the green
Martians is owned in common by the community, except the personal
weapons, ornaments and sleeping silks and furs of the individuals.
These alone can one claim undisputed right to, nor may she
accumulate more of these than are required for her actual needs.
The surplus she holds merely as custodian, and it is passed on to
the younger members of the community as necessity
demands.
    The men and
children of a woman's retinue may be likened to a military unit for
which she is responsible in various ways, as in matters of
instruction, discipline, sustenance, and the exigencies of their
continual roamings and their unending strife with other communities
and with the red Martians. Her men are in no sense husbands. The
green Martians use no word corresponding in meaning with this
earthly word. Their mating is a matter of community interest
solely, and is directed without reference to natural selection. The
council of chieftains of each community control the matter as
surely as the owner of a Kentucky racing stud directs the
scientific breeding of her stock for the improvement of the
whole.
    In theory it may
sound well, as is often the case with theories, but the results of
ages of this unnatural practice, coupled with the community
interest in the offspring being held paramount to that of the
mother, is shown in the cold, cruel creatures, and their gloomy,
loveless, mirthless existence.
    It is true that
the green Martians are absolutely virtuous, both women and men,
with the exception of such degenerates as Tala Hajus; but better
far a finer balance of human characteristics even at the expense of
a slight and occasional loss of chastity.
    Finding